[Incubator] motion: qfield recommendation for osgeo community project initiative

Thu Mar 26 10:01:01 PDT 2026

+1

From: Incubator <incubator-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> On Behalf Of Nick Bearman via Incubator
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2026 11:51 AM
To: incubator at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Incubator] motion: qfield recommendation for osgeo community project initiative

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> <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 

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-- 
Nick Bearman
+44 (0) 7717745715
nick at nickbearman.com <mailto: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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-- 
Nick Bearman
+44 (0) 7717745715
nick at nickbearman.com <mailto: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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