Olivier Fourdan
Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat
Pibrac, Occitania, France
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolOlivier Fourdan is a Principal Software Engineer with 17 years of experience specializing in Linux, open source desktop and windowing systems, and low-level input/display subsystems. He founded and leads the Xfce desktop project, shepherding a globally distributed community and multi-language localization effort under the GPL. At Red Hat and in upstream projects like GNOME/gtk, gnome-shell and TurboVNC he has driven hardening and feature work in window management, Wayland backends, XKB/GLX interactions and accessibility. His contributions also span device support and tooling—adding platform compatibility to Input Leap and extending libwacom with device listing and udev rule generation. Comfortable across the full stack from embedded Linux to desktop UX, he combines deep protocol-level expertise with long-standing open source project stewardship. Based in Pibrac, France, he pairs pragmatic engineering with a talent for coordinating distributed contributors to deliver stable, interoperable desktop infrastructure.
18 years of coding experience
16 years of employment as a software developer
Maitrise, Computer Scsence, Maitrise, Computer Scsence at Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III
Github Skills (36)
accessibility10
javascript10
glx10
c-language10
vnc10
apidoc10
gnome-shell10
databases10
c-programming10
c1110
ui-design10
textinput10
inputbox10
c1710
uid10
Programming languages (8)
Github contributions (5)
linuxwacom/libwacom
Feb 2012 - Dec 2012
libwacom is a tablet description library
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer & Database Engineer
Back-end Developer & Database EngineerContributions:61 commits in 9 months
Contributions summary:Olivier primarily contributed to the `libwacom` project, a tablet description library. Their work focused on enhancing the library's functionality by adding new APIs, such as the ability to list devices from the database. They also developed tools to generate udev rules from the database. Furthermore, they added helper functions to retrieve information about status LEDs.
tabletwacomdatabase
GNOME/gtk
Jan 2013 - Mar 2021
Read-only mirror of https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:150 commits in 8 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Olivier's primary focus was on the Gtk library, particularly its windowing and display system. They addressed multiple bugs and implemented new features related to client-side decorations, including fixing issues with window positioning, resizing, and default size calculations when client-side decorations are used. Furthermore, the user improved the Wayland backend, addressing problems with subsurface management, shortcut handling, and monitor geometry. This indicates a strong understanding of low-level GUI and window management concepts.
gnomegtk
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