About the author of Ubuntu Kung Fu

About the author

Who are you?

My name is Keir Thomas. I'm a full-time author, best-known for my Linux computer books. In a previous life I was a computer magazine journalist. And I also commissioned and edited some computer books between times.

All authors like to list the crazy jobs they did before authoring, but I worked as an office temp, and not even in exciting offices. Once, when working in a government office, I signed the Official Secrets Act. But if I told you why I'd have to kill you. Seriously. It's there in the small print.

What books have you written?

It's very nice of you to ask. I like you.

I've written the following, in order of publication:

Ubuntu Kung Fu
(Pragmatic Programmers, Sept 08; 978-1-9343562-2-7)

Beginning Ubuntu Linux, Third Edition with Jaime Sicam
(Apress, July 08; 978-1-59059-991-4)

Beginning Fedora Linux with Shashank Sharma
(Apress, July 07; 978-1-59059-855-9)

Beginning SUSE Linux, Second Edition
(Apress, Nov 06; 978-1-59059-674-6)

And the various earlier editions of these books.

Why write about Linux?

Another excellent question! It's like you're reading my mind.

Why write about Linux? Because I thought I could produce something worthwhile. When I wrote my first book in 2005, Linux books were stuffy and academic. I once read a book that explained how to use a mouse in one chapter, and in the next moved onto explain how to code simple C+ programs. I'm not joking. Linux books had (and still have, to a certain extent) a kind of folklore. I call it Unix Folklore—a perspective on computing totally alien to 99% of the world's computer users. Yet these people are entirely oblivious to this. What's worse is that others come along and emulate people like this. Thus we get hideously complicated tutorials that do things the hard way on purpose, yet are written by somebody who came to Linux a few months eariler.

Don't get me wrong. The Unix Folklore Club is a nice place to be. But the cost of membership is pretty high and a lot depends on birth: the kind of person you are.

My background was in Windows journalism (although I've also edited a Linux magazine in my time), so I had a reasonably unique but realistic perspective on what it was like to approach Linux. And I was able to reverse engineer Unix Folklore. I consider myself the liaison officer for the Unix Folklore Club.

I just wanted to write a Linux book that would have helped me back when I picked up Linux. It seems to have worked. My books have proved best-sellers in their field for the publishers. I even won a Linux Journal award.

I guess you really like Ubuntu, huh?

Pretty much. It's the best hope yet for an open source future (and you do know that proprietary software is just a historical blip, don't you?). Ubuntu 8.04 really is ready for the mainstream audience. I can't fault it. Download and install it now. I speak as somebody who switches between Ubuntu and Mac OS X at home, so it's not as if I'm some crazy fanatic.

I just hope the Ubuntu head honchos hold it all together in future releases. They've done pretty well so far.

I need some stuff writing. Are you available?

Sure, I can write on most computing topics, and not just Linux (I edited Windows magazines and am also a Mac OS X whiz). Email me on workforme@ubuntukungfu.com.

You've got a strange name. What's its origins? Are you Scottish?

No, I'm not Scottish. But my name is taken from James Keir Hardy, a pioneering Scottish politician. There are many Keirs around the world, although it tends to be a surname, rather than christian name.

Are you the same Keir Thomas who's mentioned on various sites, such as "I Blame the Cannabis"?

No, that's another Keir Thomas. We've chatted. He's a cool guy. The particular Keir Thomas you're reading about right now (the original Keir Thomas) doesn't touch drugs. He's very clean-living. He doesn't manage band websites either. That's the other KT (I think).

Thanks to the power of the Internet I've found many other Keir Thomases but haven't made contact. The appeal wore off after I found the first few. Back in 1995, when the Internet was young, I conspired with several other Keirs I found around the world to form the "Keir Club". Then the Internet got big, and showed that virtually everybody is called Keir. There are 1.3 billion people in China, so if you're a "one in a million" guy then there are 1,300 others like you. The Internet is good at pointing out humbling facts like that.

I wasn't even the first Keir to write for Apress, publisher of several of my books.

Are you the same Thomas Keir who murdered somebody in New Zealand?

Yeah, that's me. I decided to quit the murdering business and, inexplicably, move to the UK to write computer books. To get some anonymity I cunningly twisted my forename and surname around. Mwah ha ha! They'll never find me! Never! (Note for the ironically deficient: I am not the same Thomas Keir who murdered somebody in New Zealand. Geez.)

Are you the same Keir Thomas who used to edit PC Utilities (or LinuxUser & Developer, or PC Tools, or PC Extreme)?

Yeah, that really was me. Those were fun times, weren't they? £5 magazines produced with a £5 editorial budget. Did it show?

Dude, your website sucks. I mean, ever heard of CSS?

I know. I learned HTML back in 2000. I had l33t skills back then. Seriously, it's more of a time thing. I just ain't got time to do it better. I knock this stuff up in Seamonkey's Composer. It's like a 19th century Dreamweaver but I like it.

How do you feel about book piracy?

I used to be cool about all kinds of piracy. What's the fuss? Record/movie companies can afford it! Then books that I'd spent years slaving over started to be offered for free in exactly the same kind of way. My attitude changed overnight.

I won't even copy proprietary software nowadays. Not that I ever did in the past, of course.

I'm just trying to make a living.

I wanna write a computer book! Got any advice?

Sure, I'm able to offer sage advice to young paduans. Email me at iwannawriteabook@ubuntukungfu.com.

Fan of Star Wars, are you?

No. I don't think I've seen any of the films all the way through. Really. They're boring.

I was a Battlestar Galatica and Space 1999 kid. And then Star Trek: The Next Generation, and finally Voyager. I like my sci-fi with strong story telling and morals. A.K.A. The Gene Roddenberry Principle.

What's with the kitten thing?

She's called Kung Fu Kitty. Seriously. She was photographed by Michael Chen and is licensed through iStockphoto.com. You can buy her yourself for just a couple of dollars/quid/euros.

She's doing kung fu. Can you see? I know it looks like she's just batting away a tinkle ball, but she's actually doing kung fu stuff. Or at least Tai Chi. (She's a very stressed kitty.)

Do you know how some O'Reilly books are referred to by the animals on their covers? The TCP/IP book is called "the crab book", for example. Well, you can call my book "the Kitty book". I am the kitty author. Hear me roar.

<— Back to where you came from.



	About the author

	Who are you? My name is Keir Thomas. I'm a full-time author, best-known for my Linux computer books. In a previous life I was a computer magazine journalist. And I also commissioned and edited some computer books between times. All authors like to list the crazy jobs they did before authoring, but I worked as an office temp, and not even in exciting offices. Once, when working in a government office, I signed the Official Secrets Act. But if I told you why I'd have to kill you. Seriously. It's there in the small print. What books have you written? It's very nice of you to ask. I like you. I've written the following, in order of publication: Ubuntu Kung Fu (Pragmatic Programmers, Sept 08; 978-1-9343562-2-7) Beginning Ubuntu Linux, Third Edition with Jaime Sicam (Apress, July 08; 978-1-59059-991-4) Beginning Fedora Linux with Shashank Sharma (Apress, July 07; 978-1-59059-855-9) Beginning SUSE Linux, Second Edition (Apress, Nov 06; 978-1-59059-674-6) And the various earlier editions of these books. Why write about Linux? Another excellent question! It's like you're reading my mind. Why write about Linux? Because I thought I could produce something worthwhile. When I wrote my first book in 2005, Linux books were stuffy and academic. I once read a book that explained how to use a mouse in one chapter, and in the next moved onto explain how to code simple C+ programs. I'm not joking. Linux books had (and still have, to a certain extent) a kind of folklore. I call it Unix Folklore—a perspective on computing totally alien to 99% of the world's computer users. Yet these people are entirely oblivious to this. What's worse is that others come along and emulate people like this. Thus we get hideously complicated tutorials that do things the hard way on purpose, yet are written by somebody who came to Linux a few months eariler. Don't get me wrong. The Unix Folklore Club is a nice place to be. But the cost of membership is pretty high and a lot depends on birth: the kind of person you are. My background was in Windows journalism (although I've also edited a Linux magazine in my time), so I had a reasonably unique but realistic perspective on what it was like to approach Linux. And I was able to reverse engineer Unix Folklore. I consider myself the liaison officer for the Unix Folklore Club. I just wanted to write a Linux book that would have helped me back when I picked up Linux. It seems to have worked. My books have proved best-sellers in their field for the publishers. I even won a Linux Journal award. I guess you really like Ubuntu, huh? Pretty much. It's the best hope yet for an open source future (and you do know that proprietary software is just a historical blip, don't you?). Ubuntu 8.04 really is ready for the mainstream audience. I can't fault it. Download and install it now. I speak as somebody who switches between Ubuntu and Mac OS X at home, so it's not as if I'm some crazy fanatic. I just hope the Ubuntu head honchos hold it all together in future releases. They've done pretty well so far. I need some stuff writing. Are you available? Sure, I can write on most computing topics, and not just Linux (I edited Windows magazines and am also a Mac OS X whiz). Email me on workforme@ubuntukungfu.com. You've got a strange name. What's its origins? Are you Scottish? No, I'm not Scottish. But my name is taken from James Keir Hardy, a pioneering Scottish politician. There are many Keirs around the world, although it tends to be a surname, rather than christian name. Are you the same Keir Thomas who's mentioned on various sites, such as "I Blame the Cannabis"? No, that's another Keir Thomas. We've chatted. He's a cool guy. The particular Keir Thomas you're reading about right now (the original Keir Thomas) doesn't touch drugs. He's very clean-living. He doesn't manage band websites either. That's the other KT (I think). Thanks to the power of the Internet I've found many other Keir Thomases but haven't made contact. The appeal wore off after I found the first few. Back in 1995, when the Internet was young, I conspired with several other Keirs I found around the world to form the "Keir Club". Then the Internet got big, and showed that virtually everybody is called Keir. There are 1.3 billion people in China, so if you're a "one in a million" guy then there are 1,300 others like you. The Internet is good at pointing out humbling facts like that. I wasn't even the first Keir to write for Apress, publisher of several of my books. Are you the same Thomas Keir who murdered somebody in New Zealand? Yeah, that's me. I decided to quit the murdering business and, inexplicably, move to the UK to write computer books. To get some anonymity I cunningly twisted my forename and surname around. Mwah ha ha! They'll never find me! Never! (Note for the ironically deficient: I am not the same Thomas Keir who murdered somebody in New Zealand. Geez.) Are you the same Keir Thomas who used to edit PC Utilities (or LinuxUser & Developer, or PC Tools, or PC Extreme)? Yeah, that really was me. Those were fun times, weren't they? £5 magazines produced with a £5 editorial budget. Did it show? Dude, your website sucks. I mean, ever heard of CSS? I know. I learned HTML back in 2000. I had l33t skills back then. Seriously, it's more of a time thing. I just ain't got time to do it better. I knock this stuff up in Seamonkey's Composer. It's like a 19th century Dreamweaver but I like it. How do you feel about book piracy? I used to be cool about all kinds of piracy. What's the fuss? Record/movie companies can afford it! Then books that I'd spent years slaving over started to be offered for free in exactly the same kind of way. My attitude changed overnight. I won't even copy proprietary software nowadays. Not that I ever did in the past, of course. I'm just trying to make a living. I wanna write a computer book! Got any advice? Sure, I'm able to offer sage advice to young paduans. Email me at iwannawriteabook@ubuntukungfu.com. Fan of Star Wars, are you? No. I don't think I've seen any of the films all the way through. Really. They're boring. I was a Battlestar Galatica and Space 1999 kid. And then Star Trek: The Next Generation, and finally Voyager. I like my sci-fi with strong story telling and morals. A.K.A. The Gene Roddenberry Principle. What's with the kitten thing? She's called Kung Fu Kitty. Seriously. She was photographed by Michael Chen and is licensed through iStockphoto.com. You can buy her yourself for just a couple of dollars/quid/euros. She's doing kung fu. Can you see? I know it looks like she's just batting away a tinkle ball, but she's actually doing kung fu stuff. Or at least Tai Chi. (She's a very stressed kitty.) Do you know how some O'Reilly books are referred to by the animals on their covers? The TCP/IP book is called "the crab book", for example. Well, you can call my book "the Kitty book". I am the kitty author. Hear me roar. <— Back to where you came from.
	© 2008 Keir Thomas. This is a personal site run by Keir Thomas. It is not sponsored by or affiliated to The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC, or Apress, Inc.