Bob Thomson joins Infra

Posted on: 2025-10-07 00:00:00+00:00

The ASF Infrastructre team returned to full strength on September 22, 2025 when Bob Thomson joined the team as a systems administrator.

Where do you live?

The Dordogne, southwest France. I am a Scot, though, from Glasgow, and lived in and around the city for my first 50 years, before we took advantage of the UK’s disappearing EU membership to move to France, after a couple of referendum results that did not go our way!

Family members?

Partner of 26 years and our daughter, who also moved from the UK seven years ago and is an ED nurse in Australia: We get around! Also, our 14-year-old terrier mix, Millie, who makes sure I get a break from my desk, and some fresh air and exercise, four times day, every day.

Where were you working before here?

Many, many places, I have a long history of contract work of various lengths from days, to months, to years, in 20+ different organizations, from startups to local government and agencies, to global brands like banks. I value greatly the variety of the experience that work has given me, not just in different technologies, but working with all sorts of people, across different countries and different specialties. I am now at a life stage where I’d like to bring that experience to bear in one role, long term.

Is this your first time working as part of a remote team?

I’ve been 100% remote since the pandemic started, over four different roles, but I can recall working with others who were all remote to me, going back to working with Atos UK in 2010. In that job, I only physically met a handful of the tens of people I worked with on the various projects.

What is the attraction of The ASF for you?

Continuing to work remotely and avoid commuting from rural France for one, but mainly being able to work in a non-profit doing good in the world.

Have you been involved in the open-source world before now?

Never being much of a software developer, not as a contributor, but as a user and consumer, going back to my first Internet experiences at University, where I used to use a VAX/VMS account to read Usenet news in 1988, and I went on to use Linux on my first PC in 1994 alongside Windows 3.11. I worked through that period of the usurping of the proprietary UNIXes I mainly specialized in by Linux, and the associated OSS tooling. It’s been fascinating to watch OSS take over the world, starting from a place of being a niche hobbyist pursuit to being in everyone’s phone, TV and car, or indeed, washing machine :)

What do you bring to the work?

My favorite work value is pragmatism. I am intrigued by cool, new stuff as much as any tech person, but I always try to be primarily focused on whatever is the most suitable solution for the task at hand, regardless of whether it is new and shiny. I also like to write, and I value clear and open communication, which is another reason why the remote, asynchronous working style appeals to me. Humor and keeping it light are important to me, too. The world is grim enough as it is, and we could all do with a laugh.

Any big surprises so far?

The scale of The ASF and the services that Infrastructure support: I could name a few Apache projects before starting this job, but I never would have guessed there were quite so many projects under the ASF umbrella. It’s also amazing how such a small team keeps all the services supporting The ASF going, and it’s great to have the opportunity to contribute to that effort.