Software Engineering Daily OpenTofu with Cory O’Daniel and Malcolm Matalka
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May 27, 2025 Cory O’Daniel, CEO of Massdriver and a founding member of OpenTofu, joins Malcolm Matalka, Co-Founder at Terrateam, to discuss the creation of OpenTofu, an open-source alternative to Terraform. They dive into its origins as a response to licensing changes and the thrill of fostering community engagement. The conversation highlights how OpenTofu aims to prevent vendor lock-in, enhance flexibility, and maintain compatibility with Terraform. They also address the challenges faced in evolving the HashiCorp Configuration Language and the cultural hurdles organizations encounter with Infrastructure as Code.
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OpenTofu's Spontaneous Origin
- The OpenTofu project started immediately after HashiCorp changed the Terraform license.
- Multiple competing companies spontaneously collaborated to create a community-driven alternative.
OpenTofu Avoids Vendor Lock-In
- OpenTofu's value lies in being community-governed and open source without company lock-in.
- It supports multi-cloud and external services, avoiding vendor lock-in common with cloud-specific tools.
Participate in OpenTofu Development
- To influence OpenTofu features, submit ideas as RFCs and participate in community voting.
- Developers prioritize work based on votes and pull requests from the community.
