Matthew Garrett is an Irish technologist, programmer, and free software activist who is a major contributor to a series of free software projects including Linux, GNOME, Debian, Ubuntu, and Red Hat.

[10] While at Red Hat, Garrett also worked on issues relating to Secure Boot and UEFI and the Linux kernel to preserve users' ability to run the operating system of their choosing on hardware supporting Secure Boot.

[2] Garrett has been a strong advocate for software freedom and compliance with the GNU General Public License (GPL) in the Linux kernel.

For example, Garrett filed a complaint with US Customs against Fusion Garage due to violations of the GPL.

[16][17] In March 2021, Garrett, who had served on the Free Software Foundation's board of directors, signed an open letter to the FSF calling for the removal of its entire board and for Richard Stallman to be removed from all leadership positions.