OPINION Since its founding, the Linux Foundation has been a vendor-neutral supporter of Linux and open-source software. Now, though, it's actively promoting such open-source projects as OpenTofu and Valkey.
The Linux Foundation started in 2007 when the Open Source Development Lab joined forces with the Free Standards Group to support Linux. In 2010, though, it evolved into a neutral, trusted foundation of foundations for developers and organizations to code, manage, and scale open technology projects and ecosystems. Then, in 2023, it took a firmer open-source stand by supporting OpenTofu and Valkey against their faux open-source parent companies.
To refresh you on what's what here, last August HashiCorp dumped its Terraform infrastructure-as-code tool's open-source Mozilla Public License v2.0 (MPLv2) for the semi-proprietary Business Source License (BSL) 1.1 license. Terraform users, developers, and partners were not happy. So, as open-source people are wont to do in situations like this, they forked the code into OpenTF.
So far, so much as usual. We've seen this happen time after time. For example, you might have heard of Jenkins, the Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) program. Unless you paid close attention, though, you probably didn't know that its creator forked it from an earlier program named Hudson after Oracle tried to grab control of it. And, of course, the same story is true of LibreOffice's forking from OpenOffice.
But then things took an interesting turn. Usually, these forks either make their way on their own or, as in the case of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) OpenSearch fork of Elastic, a major technology power backs the fork. This time, though, the Linux Foundation stepped in to take control of OpenTF and rename it OpenTofu.
As Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation's executive director, said at the time: "OpenTofu embodies our collective dedication to genuine open collaboration in infrastructure as code. It stands as a testament to our shared goal of delivering dependable, accessible tools for the tech world. OpenTofu's dedication to open source principles underscores our shared vision of providing accessible, reliable tools that empower the tech community."
HashiCorp was ticked off. CEO Dave McJannet snapped back: "Open source foundations are just a way for big companies to protect themselves from innovation."
He added: "What does it say for the future of open source if foundations will just take it and give it a home? That is tragic for open-source innovation. I will tell you, if that were to happen, there'd be no more open-source companies in Silicon Valley."