[Incubator] motion: qfield recommendation for osgeo community project initiative
Daniel Morissette
dmorissette at mapgears.com
Sat Mar 28 11:50:44 PDT 2026
+1
Daniel
On 2026-03-26 11:50, Nick Bearman via Incubator wrote:
>
> 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.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Incubator mailing list
> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
--
Daniel Morissette
Mapgears Inc
T: +1 418-696-5056 #201
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