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  1. Blog
  2. Will Cooke

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
7 May 2019

19.04 ‘Disco Dingo’ now available as optimised desktop image for Hyper-V

Ubuntu Article

Running Ubuntu as a virtual machine continues to be a popular way to use the desktop. Back in September 2018 we announced the availability of optimised 18.04 LTS desktop images for Microsoft’s Hyper-V gallery bring a host of benefits including: Improved clipboard integration Dynamic desktop resizing Shared folders for easy host/guest file ...


Will Cooke
19 October 2018

Welcome Ubuntu Desktop 18.10

Desktop Article

The Cosmic Cuttlefish has arrived.  Ubuntu 18.10 is out and represents the first step on the road to the next LTS in April 2020.  This release of Ubuntu comes with 9 months of support and brings the latest update to the GNOME stack, improvements to the snap experience on the desktop, some new features and ...


Will Cooke
17 September 2018

Optimised Ubuntu Desktop images available in Microsoft Hyper-V gallery

Desktop Desktop

Today we’re very pleased to announce that an optimised Ubuntu Desktop image is available from the Hyper-V gallery.  This will give an optimum experience when running Ubuntu Desktop as a guest on a Windows 10 Pro desktop host. From the Ubuntu Report data we know that a lot of people are using Ubuntu as a ...


Will Cooke
30 July 2018

National Cyber Security Centre publish Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Security Guide

Desktop Article

Last week the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) in the UK issued their latest publication which gives advice on how to configure Ubuntu 18.04 LTS in accordance with their security best practices. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)is the UK government department responsible for providing guidance on Information Security to the U ...


Will Cooke
26 July 2018

First point release of 18.04 LTS available today

Desktop Desktop

Today sees the first point release of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, conveniently named 18.04.1 LTS. Point releases for an LTS include a roll-up of all bug fixes and security updates which have been pushed out since the original 18.04 LTS ISO was published in April. If you’re already running 18.04 LTS, and you have been updating ...


Will Cooke
22 June 2018

A first look at desktop metrics

Desktop Article

We first announced our intention to ask users to provide basic, not-personally-identifiable system data back in February.  Since then we have built the Ubuntu Report tool and integrated it in to the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS initial setup tool.  You can see an example of the data being collected on the Ubuntu Report Github page. At first ...


Will Cooke
20 June 2018

Report from the GNOME Software design sprint

Desktop Article

  A couple of weeks ago representatives from across Canonical met in London to talk about ideas to improve the user experience of GNOME Software.  We had people from the store team, snap advocacy, snapd, design and from the desktop team. We were also fortunate enough to be joined by Richard Hughes representing upstream GNOME ...


Will Cooke
18 May 2018

Desktop plans for 18.10

Desktop Desktop

Bionic is out the door and we’ve started the Cosmic cycle so I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about our plans for this cycle, the sorts of features we want to work on and what you can expect from 18.10 when it arrives in October. Updates to 18.04 LTS We’ve set aside ...


Will Cooke
27 April 2018

Breeze through Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver

Desktop News

The Bionic Beaver, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is here!  It’s been a busy six months for the desktop team, and indeed for everyone working on Ubuntu.  We’ve been working on making sure that your upgrade from previous releases is smooth and trouble free, tracking down bugs to make 18.04 LTS stable and reliable, and adding some ...


Will Cooke
27 April 2018

Breeze through Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver

Desktop Desktop

The Bionic Beaver, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is here!  It’s been a busy six months for the desktop team, and indeed for everyone working on Ubuntu.  We’ve been working on making sure that your upgrade from previous releases is smooth and trouble free, tracking down bugs to make 18.04 LTS stable and reliable, and adding some ...


Will Cooke
13 April 2018

Ubuntu Desktop weekly update – 13 April 2018

Desktop Article

Wow, only two weeks to go until the Beaver is born, this cycle seems have flown by.  So what’s been going on in the last couple of weeks, and what can we expect to change in the run up to release day? We’re still working on adding a new first-login experience to guide people through ...


Will Cooke
23 March 2018

Ubuntu Desktop weekly update – 23rd March 2018

Desktop News

Bid “bonjour” to our Bionic Beaver!   Along with a sneak preview of our official Bionic mascot, it’s a short update this week as we’re all heads-down in bug fixing mode.  There are a couple of links to check out if you’re interested in what sort of data we want to collect about hardware and setup, ...


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