Blog
Will Cooke

Will Cooke

40 posts

Director Of Engineering - Ubuntu Desktop

Will leads the team working on the Ubuntu desktop at Canonical. He has a diverse background originally specialising in data networks and global communications systems and has provided consultancy to clients such as BT, Verizon, Inmarsat and Schlumberger. Will has been using and contributing to Ubuntu since 2005 and in 2015 he was recognised as an Ubuntu Member. He has three kids, plays golf badly and is a member of The Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Will Cooke
9 June 2017

Ubuntu Desktop Weekly Update: June 9, 2017

Desktop Article

GNOME We’ve made the decision to switch to using GNOME Display Manager (GDM) instead of LightDM. We had planned to try LightDM, and based on our investigations it became apparent that we would need to invest a considerable amount of time making changes to get everything to work correctly, more time than we have. We ...

Will Cooke
13 October 2016

Unity 8 preview session in Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak

Desktop Article

Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak has landed and brings with it the Unity 8 technical preview desktop session. Unity 8 has been the face of the Ubuntu phone and tablet for a few years and has quickly evolved its convergence feature set to allow it to work seamlessly between form factors such as phones, tablets and ...

Will Cooke
19 September 2016

Low Graphics Mode in Unity 7

Desktop Article

Unity 7 has had a low graphics mode for a long time but recently we’ve been making it better. Improvements have been made to reduce the amount of visual effects that are seen while running in low graphics mode. At a high level this includes things like: Reducing the amount of animation in elements such as the window switcher, launcher an ...

Will Cooke
28 July 2016

Ubuntu version 16.04 point 1 is out

Desktop Article

Today we have enabled upgrade notifications from 14.04 LTS to the first point-release for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, versioned 16.04.1. The first point release for an LTS comes out 3 months after the initial release and then every 6 months until the next LTS is released. Upgrade notifications happen a short while later after some more QA testing. ...