The author

Bruce Byfield is a journalist who specializes in writing about free and open source software. He has been a contributing editor at Linux.com, and his articles have appeared on the Datamation, LWN, Linux Developer Network, Linux Journal, Linux Pro Magazine, Open Source and Content, Bruce-Dr-Sun-Yat-Sen_15and Wazi sites. He also writes a weekly blog called “Off the Beat” about the free software community for the Linux Pro Magazine site. In addition to his online publications, he has published in such hard copy magazines as Linux Journal, Linux Pro Magazine, Maximum Linux, The New Internationalist, and Ubuntu User.

While he long ago lost the exact count, Bruce has sold over 2100 articles in his career. A sizable minority have been about OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice. Before becoming a journalist, Bruce was a technical writer and graphic designer. During that part of his working life, he had several chances to stress-test OpenOffice.org, including writing several manuals of over 700 pages.

Bruce has also been marketing and communications director at Ian Murdock’s Progeny Linux Systems, and product manager at Stormix Technologies. He is also a sometime marketing, communications, and education consultant, whose clients have included IBM and Intel.

Bruce lives in Burnaby, Canada. In addition to free and open source software, his interests include parrots, aerobic exercise, science fiction and fantasy, history, 19th Century novels, listening to punk-folk music, and collecting Northwest Coast art. He is the co-founder, along with his late partner Patricia Louise Williams, of the Mature Student Award at the Freda Diesing School for Northwest Coast Art at Northwest Community College.

An interview with Bruce is here.

Author photo by Sara Paley Photography, shot with permission in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver, Canada.