Keith has been developing free software since 1986, working on the X Window System, Linux, amateur rocketry and educational robotics. He is currently a Principle Engineer at SiFive.

He has taught computer programming to students from ages 10-17 using LEGO robotics for over fifteen years and started the Snek Language project to use in that work. He received a Usenix Lifetime Achievement award in 1999, an O’Reilly Open Source award in 2011 and sits on the X.org foundation board.