For instance, take into account GitHub stars. Sure, Terraform nonetheless leads comfortably (round 45,000 to OpenTofu’s 23,000), however that hole hides the true motion: neighborhood engagement. Since its steady launch in January 2024, OpenTofu almost tripled its contributor base to greater than 160. Every launch attracts a vibrant crowd. Model 1.9 noticed 49 contributors submit over 200 pull requests (PRs). Terraform, against this, entered 2024 with an enormous historic contributor base (greater than 1,800 complete) however far much less new blood. After HashiCorp’s shift to the Enterprise Supply License (BSL), neighborhood contributions to Terraform plummeted: solely ~9% of pull requests got here from the neighborhood within the month of the license change, down from 21% prior. A yr later, Terraform’s GitHub exercise stays strong in sheer quantity (over 34,000 commits complete versus OpenTofu’s ~32,500), however these commits are largely from HashiCorp’s personal engineers fairly than a dedicated, buzzing neighborhood that builds OpenTofu.
OpenTofu’s situation tracker exemplifies open supply at its collaborative finest. In a single four-month interval in late 2024, customers opened over 150 points and submitted greater than 200 pull requests. Nor have points lingered—the neighborhood has shortly rallied with options. Terraform, in the meantime, nonetheless sees loads of points opened, however the dialogue is muted, largely managed internally by HashiCorp workers (and shortly, those self same workers inside IBM). The colourful collaboration that when marked Terraform now thrives inside OpenTofu.
Vibrant neighborhood engagement
Stars on GitHub point out reputation, however actual neighborhood energy exhibits up in day-to-day interactions. OpenTofu’s Slack workspace and GitHub Discussions have grow to be hubs of enthusiastic dialogue and speedy suggestions. It’s harking back to basic open supply tasks: inclusive, vigorous, and genuinely responsive. Terraform’s boards, in distinction, really feel quiet because the fork.