Robert Ancell
Senior Software Engineer at GNOME Foundation
Hawke's Bay, New Zealand
Summary
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RockstarRobert Ancell is a Senior Software Engineer with 17 years of professional experience and over 20 years of involvement in open source, based in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. At Canonical he has driven Linux desktop and system-level features—contributing to snapd, LightDM, and PackageKit—while also shaping GTK/GLib internals and accessibility in the Flutter engine. He’s a full-stack contributor across prominent projects (Flutter, GNOME, Lightspark) who blends low-level systems work with desktop UI and cross-platform plugin development. Notably, he implemented GTK-based Flutter Linux shells, windowing and accessibility improvements, and key Linux plugin support (shared_preferences, url_launcher), helping bring mobile frameworks to the desktop. A long-standing GNOME and X.Org member and Code Club Aotearoa volunteer, he pairs deep technical craftsmanship with community-driven mentorship.
17 years of coding experience
Stackoverflow
233reputation
14kreached
3answers
0questions
Github Skills (64)
accessibility10
gobject10
flutter10
c-language10
develop10
vnc10
sharedpreferences10
multiplatform10
back-end-development10
apidoc10
flutter-apps10
gui-programming10
testing10
plugin-development10
gui-application10
Programming languages (19)
Github contributions (5)
canonical/lightdm
Sep 2011 - Oct 2022
Display Manager
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer & System Architect
Back-end Developer & System ArchitectContributions:6 releases, 19 reviews, 991 commits in 11 years 2 months
Contributions summary:Robert primarily contributed to the LightDM project by adding and improving functionality related to XDMCP and VNC servers. They implemented the ability for these servers to listen on specific network addresses and load configuration options from files. The user also improved the logging of IP addresses within XDMCP request packets and added tests, indicating a focus on improving stability, maintainability, and troubleshooting capabilities. These changes suggest a strong understanding of system architecture and back-end networking principles.
linuxdisplay-manager
flutter/engine
Mar 2020 - Jan 2023
The Flutter engine
Role in this project:Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:394 reviews, 119 commits, 453 PRs in 2 years 10 months
Contributions summary:Robert made significant contributions to the Flutter engine, implementing and integrating a Linux shell that utilizes GTK for rendering, and adding support for handling pointer events. They were also responsible for refactoring the engine, refactoring its API for accessibility and implementing the settings channel to modify the background color. These changes demonstrate a strong understanding of the Flutter framework and experience in the development of Linux-based applications.
flutterflutter-enginec-plus-plus
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