[Incubator] motion: qfield recommendation for osgeo community project initiative
Nick Bearman
nick at nickbearman.com
Thu Mar 26 08:50:45 PDT 2026
So far we have 1 votes. Probably because I put a lot of preamble before
the voting, sorry!
We need 7 to pass, so please vote before the deadline, Thurs 2nd April.
Or ask questions if you have any!
Thanks,
Nick.
Therefore I propose to make a motion to accept QField as an OSGeo
Community Project
The motion is held open for two weeks until Thursday 2 April and
requires at least 50% quorum from the following Committee Members:
- Angelos Tzotsos
- Arnulf Christl
- Bob (CI-StPaul) Basques
- Brian M Hamlin
- Daniel Morissette
- Dimitris Kotzinos
- Frank Warmerdam
- Jo Cook
- Jody Garnett
- Michael Smith +1
- Nick Bearman +1
- Regina Obe
- Steve Lime +1
- Tom Kralidis +1
On 19/03/2026 16:02, Nick Bearman via Incubator wrote:
>
> All of the links and details are still valid.
>
> From 9th May 2023
> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/incubator/2023-May/004656.html
>
> This motion did not pass in the allocated time. I would like to ask
> another volunteer to review.
>
> We had one question come up during voting on license compatibility
> that is
> interesting but may not be suitable for public discussion.
>
> Jody
>
> The licensing question was:
> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/incubator/2023-April/004648.html
>
> I don't get to vote, but I have had a question about qfield for a long
> time that I have never seen an answer for. I am 99% sure I have asked
> about it on one of the qgis lists in the past.
>
> The license for qgis is GPL2, and qfield has the same license. qfield
> appears to contain qgis code. That's all fine.
>
> The android app is distributed under GPL2 presumably, but I don't see
> that mentioned in the google play store. That's a minor issue and
> easily fixed, assuming that there aren't proprietary android libraries
> (e.g. Google Play services) bundled in.
>
> The iOS app is presumably also GPL2, but as I understand it,
> that's not
> allowed in the apple app store, and the Apple app store's terms
> prohibit
> redistribution of the app one obtains, which is incompatible with
> GPL2.
> Often software that was Free before it goes into the Apple app
> store has
> a special license from the copyright holders to be able to be
> distributed under the non-Free license required by Apple. But with
> code
> from qgis -- since it has no such exception -- I don't understand how
> this is working.
>
> Thus, I don't understand the licensing situation. My specific
> questions:
>
> Is the license for qfield straight GPL2, as the repo indicates, or
> something else?
>
> Does qfield contain qgis code, such that it's a derived work?
>
> If so, is qgis straight GPL2?
>
> Is the Android binary under GPL2, with only Free software as sources?
>
> Is the iOS binary on gitub under GPL2, with only Free software as
> sources?
>
> How is the iOS binary being distributed in the Apple app store?
>
> Thanks,
> Greg
>
> I don't know the details of the licensing question, or whether this is
> still valid.
>
> Therefore I propose to make a motion to accept QField as an OSGeo
> Community Project
>
> The motion is held open for two weeks until Thursday 2 April and
> requires at least 50% quorum from the following Committee Members:
>
> |- Angelos Tzotsos - Arnulf Christl - Bob (CI-StPaul) Basques - Brian
> M Hamlin - Daniel Morissette - Dimitris Kotzinos - Frank Warmerdam -
> Jo Cook - Jody Garnett - Michael Smith - Nick Bearman +1 - Regina Obe
> - Steve Lime - Tom Kralidis |
>
> I am happy with this, and am starting with a +1
>
> Thanks
> Nick.
>
>
> On 27/01/2026 17:46, Angelos Tzotsos via Incubator wrote:
>> https://gitea.osgeo.org/osgeo/projects-support/issues/9
>>
>> On 4/21/23 20:34, Jody Garnett wrote:
>>> I would like to make a motion:
>>> Recommending QField for the osgeo community project program.
>>>
>>> The motion is held open for two weeks, until May 5th 2023.
>>>
>>> - Bob (CI-StPaul) Basques
>>> - Arnulf Christl
>>> - Jo Cook
>>> - Jody Garnett +1 (initial motion)
>>> - Dimitris Kotzinos
>>> - Tom Kralidis
>>> - Michael Smith
>>> - Steve Lime
>>> - Daniel Morissette
>>> - Frank Warmerdam
>>> - Angelos Tzotsos
>>>
>>>
>>> Checking the project against our requirements
>>> <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Incubation_Committee#Step_2:_Join_Community_Projects_Program>
>>>
>>> :
>>>
>>> 1. Be geospatial
>>> - Confirm by checking README or project description
>>> - project page on the osgeo website
>>> - We ask projects have some user documentation, for example an OSGeo
>>> Live
>>> quickstart
>>>
>>> Most of this was checked for website requirements. There is nice user
>>> documentation (https://docs.qfield.org/get-started/).
>>>
>>>
>>> 2. Have a free license or an open source license.
>>> - The license must be OSI approved
>>> - We ask that the project team check the file headers and double
>>> check the
>>> license has been appropriately applied
>>>
>>> GPL2 is provided in docs
>>> (https://docs.qfield.org/get-started/license/) and
>>> source code (https://github.com/opengisch/QField/blob/master/LICENSE).
>>>
>>> The team has automated check that license is applied (
>>> https://github.com/opengisch/QField/blob/master/scripts/licensecheck.pl)
>>>
>>> which is really cool.
>>>
>>> 3. Welcome participation and new contributors.
>>> - We look for a clear contribution policy
>>> - We ask that the project demonstrate collaboration, perhaps with a
>>> history
>>> of bug report or pull requests
>>> - Projects are required to have a code of conduct
>>>
>>> Contribution policy (
>>> https://github.com/opengisch/QField/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md),
>>> collaboration (https://github.com/opengisch/QField/pulls?q=is%3Apr),
>>> and
>>> code of conduct (
>>> https://github.com/opengisch/QField/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) all
>>> seem in order.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jody Garnett
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Incubator mailing list
>>> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
>>
>>
> --
> Nick Bearman
> +44 (0) 7717745715
> nick at nickbearman.com
>
> Please let me know if I can make any adjustments related to disability or neurodivergence to improve how we interact.
>
> Due to my own life/work balance, you may get emails from me outside of normal working hours. Please do not feel any pressure to respond outside of your own working pattern.
>
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> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
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--
Nick Bearman
+44 (0) 7717745715
nick at nickbearman.com
Please let me know if I can make any adjustments related to disability or neurodivergence to improve how we interact.
Due to my own life/work balance, you may get emails from me outside of normal working hours. Please do not feel any pressure to respond outside of your own working pattern.
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