Keith Packard

2025-09-08T21:07:15Z

2A02:3032:64:5650:8B28:A6A1:AC38:C6B1: Undid revision 1310304712 by 2A02:3032:64:5650:8B28:A6A1:AC38:C6B1 (talk)

{{Short description|American software developer (born 1963)}}
{{BLP sources|date=June 2011}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Keith Packard
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1963|04|16}}
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| known_for = Programming
| education = [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in mathematics
| employer = [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]]
| occupation = [[Programmer]]
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| boards = [[X.Org Foundation]]
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| website = {{URL|http://keithp.com/}}
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'''Keith Packard''' (born April 16, 1963) is a [[software developer]], best known for his work on the [[X Window System]].

Packard is responsible for many X extensions and technical papers on X. He has been heavily involved in the development of X since the late 1980s as a member of the [[MIT X Consortium]], [[XFree86]] and the [[X.Org Foundation]].

In 2011, [[O'Reilly Media|O'Reilly]] awarded an [[O'Reilly Open Source Award|open source award]] to Packard, as "the person behind most of the improvements made on the open source desktop in the last ten years at least."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oscon.com/oscon2011/public/schedule/detail/21161|title=O'Reilly Open Source Awards: O'Reilly Open Source Convention: OSCON, July 25 - 29, 2011 in Portland, OR|website=www.oscon.com|access-date=2018-08-24|archive-date=2013-01-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130118065735/http://www.oscon.com/oscon2011/public/schedule/detail/21161|url-status=dead}}</ref> He is portrayed as one of the ''Faces of Open Source''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://facesofopensource.com/keith-packard/|title=Faces of Open Source: Keith Packard|access-date=2018-08-29}}</ref>

== Career ==
[[File:LCA TV- Keith Packard & Bdale Garbee.webm|thumb|An interview with Packard (center) and [[Bdale Garbee]] at [[linux.conf.au]] 2014.]]
Packard gained a BA in mathematics from [[Reed College]], [[Oregon]] in 1986. He worked at [[Tektronix, Inc.]] in [[Wilsonville, Oregon]] designing [[X terminal]]s and [[Unix]] [[computer workstation|workstation]]s from 1983 until 1988.

He then moved to [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] to work at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] X Consortium from 1988 to 1992, developing the X Window System reference implementation and [[standardization|standard]]s as the senior member of a small team. He was responsible for X releases at this time. In 1992 he returned to [[Portland, Oregon]] to work for [[Network Computing Devices]] on X terminals and computer graphics. From 1999 he worked for [[SUSE S.A.|SuSE]] from his home in [[Portland, Oregon]] on the [[XFree86]] implementation of X. He worked at the Cambridge Research Labs of [[Compaq]] (and then [[Hewlett-Packard]]) from 2001 until 2005 when the lab closed down. In 2003 he was ejected from [[XFree86]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1016-993597.html|title=Schism hits key open-source group (archived)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025130414/http://news.cnet.com/2100-1016-993597.html |archive-date=2012-10-25 }}</ref> This led to the formation of the successful [[X.Org Server]] [[fork (software)|fork]]. He is now project lead on the [[X.Org Server|X.org]] project, the official [[reference implementation (computing)|reference implementation]] of the [[X Window System]].

Packard became a [[Debian]] Developer in 2004, maintaining [[fontconfig|font-config]] (as well as being the upstream maintainer) and other packages.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=keithp%40debian.org |title=DDPO: Keith Packard -- Debian Quality Assurance |editor=[[Debian]] project |access-date=30 July 2018}}</ref> Packard began working for [[Intel]] in August 2006. Packard joined Debian's Technical committee in November 2013.<ref>{{cite mailing list|url=https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2013/11/msg00009.html |title=Technical committee appointment |mailing-list=debian-devel-announce|date=2013-11-29 |access-date=2017-07-14}}</ref> Packard started working at [[Hewlett-Packard]]'s [[HP Labs]] in January 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Keith-Packard-Leaves-Intel|title=Keith Packard Leaves Intel's Linux Graphics Work - Phoronix|website=www.phoronix.com|language=en|access-date=2018-08-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.x.org/wiki/BoardOfDirectors|title=Board of Directors|website=www.x.org|access-date=2018-08-24}}</ref> Packard started consulting for [[Valve Corporation|Valve]] in March 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Valve-Hires-Keith-Packard |title=Valve Hires X11 Veteran Keith Packard To Work On The Linux Display Stack |website=Phoronix.com |date=2017-03-14 |access-date=2017-07-14}}</ref> Packard left HP Labs to join [[SiFive]] in July 2019, working on free software for [[RISC-V]]-based processors, among other tasks.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://keithp.com/blogs/Joining-SiFive/ |title=Joining-SiFive|website=keithp.org|language=en|access-date=2019-12-07}}</ref> Packard joined [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] in May 2021.

==Other interests==
Keith is a [[amateur radio|radio ham]] with callsign K7WQ.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=4665041 | title=ULS License - Vanity License - K7WQ - Packard, Keith R }}</ref> He is on the board of directors of [[AMPRNet|Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC)]].

== Software Packard has worked on ==

* [[Cairo (graphics)|Cairo]]
* [[X Window System]] extensions: [[XRender]], [[XFixes]], XDamage, [[XComposite]], [[XRandR]]
* [[KDrive]]
* [[fontconfig|font-config]], [[Xft]]
* [[Nickle (programming language)|Nickle]]
* [[X Display Manager (implementation)|XDM]]
* [[Direct Rendering Infrastructure]]
* Snek
* [[USB]] Chaos-Key driver in the [[Linux kernel]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/MAINTAINERS?h=v4.17#n14551|title=MAINTAINERS - kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git - Linux kernel source tree|website=git.kernel.org|language=en|access-date=2018-08-24}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://keithp.com/ Personal site]
* {{github|keith-packard}}
* [https://www.ampr.org/about/who-we-are/ Director of ARDC]

{{Linux kernel}}
{{Linux people}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Packard, Keith}}
[[Category:X Window System people]]
[[Category:Reed College alumni]]
[[Category:Free software programmers]]
[[Category:People from Portland, Oregon]]
[[Category:1963 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Tektronix people]]

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Keith Packard