If HashiCorp is unwilling to switch Terraform back to an open source license, we propose to fork the legacy MPL-licensed Terraform and maintain the fork in the foundation. This is similar to how Linux and Kubernetes are managed by foundations (the Linux Foundation and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, respectively), which are run by multiple companies, ensuring the tool stays truly open source and neutral and not at the whim of any one company.
Since the other replies weren’t that detailed, I’ll chime in.
Terraform is a way to write a file (or a bunch of files) on your machine, and then it will set up things in a cloud service based on what’s in those files. So if I wanted a web server, a load balancer, and these security rules I could just put it in Terraform instead of clicking around a web interface.
The way I use it, it’s the equivalent of building a PC, and then I use other tools like scripts or something called Ansible to install the software and get it configured.
It is pretty magical to be able to get an entire application stack deployed with a single command.
Appreciate it!