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131 changes: 78 additions & 53 deletions index.html
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<meta name="description" content="The OpenTF Foundation. Supporting an impartial, open, and community-driven Terraform." />

<link rel="canonical" href="/" />
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<div class="container mx-auto">
<h1>The OpenTF Manifesto</h1>

<div>
<p>
On August 10th, 2023 a single decision was made which took the DevOps
world by surprise. A previously benevolent guardian of an open source
project called Terraform decided to relicense their project to new
vague terms which effectively put any player in the ecosystem at their
mercy.
Terraform was open sourced in 2014 under an MPL license, and over the next ~9
years, it built up a community that included thousands of users, contributors,
customers, certified practictioners, and vendors, and an ecosystem of open source
modules, plugins, libraries, and extensions. Then, on August 10th, 2023, with no
advance notice, and no chance for the community to have any input, HashiCorp
switched Terraform to a non open source BSL license. This change threatens the
entire Terraform community and ecosystem.
</p>

<p>
And with that, millions of lines of Terraform code became legacy
overnight. Tens of thousands of businesses, ranging from one-man shops
to the Fortune 500 woke up to a new reality where the underpinnings of
their cloud presence suddenly became a legal risk. Thousands of people,
often deep in love with Terraform, found themselves in a position
where their hard-earned skills are in danger of becoming irrelevant.
</p>
<p class="font-bold">
Our concern: the BSL license is a poison pill for Terraform.
</h2>

<p>
It is clear that under the new license the thriving Terraform
ecosystem will dwindle and wither. Existing codebases will turn into
liabilities, independent tooling will all but disappear, and existing
users will be forced into a monopoly with no vested interest in
quality or innovation.
Overnight, tens of thousands of businesses, ranging from one-person shops
to the Fortune 500, woke up to a new reality where the underpinnings of
their infrastructure suddenly became a potential legal risk. The legal terms in
the BSL license are vague, and now every company, every vendor, and every
developer who is using Terraform has to wonder whether what they are doing could
be construed as competitive with HashiCorp. And even if you might be in the clear now,
how can you build confidence that your usage won't violate the license terms in the future?
What if your products or HashiCorp's products change? What if HashiCorp changes how
they interpret competitive? What if they change the license again? As a result, everything
that uses Terraform is on shaky ground.
</p>

<p>
The main difference between HashiCorp products like Vault or Waypoint
that are no longer open source and Terraform is plain and simple. At
its heart, Terraform is not a product. It’s a language. Much like the
language it’s built on - Go. Imagine an alternate reality where the
corporate sponsor behind Go decides to relicense the compiler only to
allow writing software that does not negatively impact its bottom
line.
It is clear that under the new license the thriving Terraform
ecosystem will dwindle and wither. As developers consider what tools to learn, and what
ecosystems to contribute to, and as companies consider what tools to use to manage their
infrastructure, more and more, they'll pick alternatives that are truly open source, without
the licensing uncertainty. Existing Terraform codebases will turn into
liabilities, independent tooling will all but disappear, and the Terraform community
will fracture, and disappear.
</p>

<p>
Or take Kubernetes, again built on top of Go. What
would the reality look like if its original corporate backer one day
decided you could only run it in production on top of their public
cloud?
This sort of change not only fractures the Terraform community, but it
also harms all similar open source projects. Every company and every
developer now needs to think twice before adopting and investing in an open source
project in case the creator suddenly decides to change the license. Imagine if
the creators of Linux or Kubernetes suddenly switched to a non open source license that
only permitted non-competitive usages. Would you still risk running your production software
using those tools?
</p>

<p>
There is a reason why the building blocks of the modern Internet are
handed over to impartial bodies who can ensure that they become solid
and predictable underpinnings of our industry. This situation is no
different. As a community, we can take responsibility for our path.
This is why the building blocks of the modern Internet, such as Linux and Kubernetes, are
handed over to impartial bodies (the Linux Foundaiton and the Cloud Native Computing
Foundation, respectively) who can ensure that those building blocks can form solid and
predictable underpinnings for our industry.
</p>

<p class="font-bold">
Our goal: ensure Terraform is handed over to an open source foundation.
</h2>

<p>
Properly supporting one of the main building blocks of the public
cloud will take time, skill, effort, and coordination. To this end,
this is a pledge to pool our resources and build a more open, more
inclusive future on the fundament we’ve already collectively
created. As current backers we pledge to put our efforts and resources
behind building a project that is:
In particular, we want to create a foundation for Terraform that is:
</p>

<ul>
<li>
impartial - so that useful features and fixes are accepted
regardless of their impact on any particular vendor
truly open source - under a well-known and widely-accepted license that companies can trust,
that won't suddenly change in the future, and isn't subject to the whims of a single vendor
</li>
<li>
community-driven - so that the project is governed by
the community for the community, where pull requests are regularly
reviewed and accepted on their merit
</li>
<li>
impartial - so that useful features and fixes are accepted based on their value to the
community, regardless of their impact on any particular vendor
</li>
<li>
layered and modular - with a programmer-friendly project structure
to encourage building on top, enabling a new vibrant ecosystem of
tools and integrations
</li>
<li>
backwards-compatible - so that the existing code can drive value for
years to come;
years to come
</li>
</ul>

<p class="font-bold">
We ask HashiCorp to do right by the community and donate Terraform to
a reputable foundation where, together with the community and
resources that we pledge, we continue to build and maintain this
amazing ecosystem.
Our request of HashiCorp: donate Terraform to this foundation.
</p>

<p>
We ask HashiCorp to do the right thing by the community: instead of going forward with the BSL
license change, donate Terraform to this foundation, and keep it under a truly open source license.
That way, instead of fracturing the community, we end up with a single, impartial, reliable home for
Terraform where the whole community can come together to keep building this amazing ecosystem.
</p>

<p class="font-bold">
Our fallback plan: fork Terraform.
</p>

<p>
If HashiCorp is unwilling to donate Terraform to the foundation, then we propose to fork Terraform, and
to maintain the fork in the foundation. Supporting a fork will take time, skill, effort, and coordination.
To this end, this is a pledge to pool our resources and build a more open, more inclusive future for
Terraform.
</p>

<h2>LIST OF PLEDGING COMPANIES AND PLEDGED RESOURCES:</h2>
Expand All @@ -109,14 +132,9 @@ <h2>LIST OF PLEDGING COMPANIES AND PLEDGED RESOURCES:</h2>
<a href="https://github.com/opentffoundation/manifesto">creating a
PR</a> and adding yourself at the bottom of this page and optionally
let us know how you’d like to help, either as an individual or as an
organization. If you have questions or are a member of the press,
you may contact us at <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.
organization.
</p>

<h2>Press Contact

<h2>Pledges</h2>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://digger.dev">Digger</a> - Development; Open-source community efforts</li>
<li><a href="https://env0.com">env0</a> - Cover the cost of 5 FTEs for at least 5 years</li>
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<li><a href="https://terrateam.io">Terrateam</a> - Development; Open-source community efforts</li>
</ul>

<h2>Press Contact</h2>

<p>
If you have questions or are a member of the press,
you may contact us at <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.
</p>

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