Feature request: add OpenTofu

[maazghani]

I’ve created an issue in the devcontainer/features repository for adding support for OpenTofu, the open source alternative to Terraform and created a Draft PR in anticipation of the first release of OpenTofu.

Questions:

• What does Terraform’s change from MPL to BUSL license mean for cases like the devcontainers/features which uses an MIT license that allows commercial-use, while BUSL does not?

• Should the PR go as far as removing the terraform feature?

• Have we ever removed a feature? How would it work?

[samruddhikhandale]

Hi 👋

Thanks for starting this discussion, really appreciate it.

What does Terraform’s change from MPL to BUSL license mean for cases like the devcontainers/features which uses an MIT license that allows commercial-use, while BUSL does not?

Should the PR go as far as removing the terraform feature?

I am currently discussing it with the devcontainers team on what approach should be taken for the Terraform Feature, would appreciate your patience. Thank you!

Have we ever removed a feature? How would it work?

We have added support for marking a Feature as deprecated, see deprecated property in https://containers.dev/implementors/features/. However, I don't think we have used this before. We are still not sure if we want to deprecate it, we'll post more details soon.

deprecated	boolean	Indicates that the Feature is deprecated, and will not receive any further updates/support. This property is intended to be used by the supporting tools for highlighting Feature deprecation.

[samruddhikhandale]

Updates: The dev containers spec or the Features doesn't says that a dev container Feature(s) has to only install OSS components. The MIT license is for the Feature which is just an installer, and we install from an official source. What a user installs is governed by its own license and we are not redistributing by persisting it ourself. Hence, there are no changes/deprecations to be made to the Terraform Feature as it's still a legit option, thus, we have devcontainers/features#697 opened to note the licensing changes in the README file.

Should the PR go as far as removing the terraform feature?

We shouldn't be deprecating the Terraform Feature, and for adding support for the OpenTofu as it's new its a bit unclear if the community will embrace it or not. Hence, we can keep devcontainers/features#695 open and reiterate on our decision based on community interest/feedbacks.

Let us know if you any followup questions/concerns. Thank you!

[maazghani]

Thank you for the comprehensive response. I appreciate the time taken to discuss the implications of the licensing as I’m sure this won’t be the last time it comes up.

Thanks again and I look forward to further updates and discussions on this topic.