Hello Linux Geeksters. MATE is an open-source, lightweight, desktop environment started by the Arch Linux team and used a lot on Linux Mint systems, providing an experience similar to GNOME 2. This project created as an alternative for GNOME 3, which was not very appreciated by a lot of users.
Alan Pope and Martin Wimpress have created a Mate flavor of Ubuntu 14.10 called Ubuntu MATE, which will most likely become an official Ubuntu flavor. Ubuntu MATE is more than an an Ubuntu minimal install + MATE, containing some some special optimizations for Ubuntu.
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Today, Ubuntu Mate 14.10 Beta 2 has been recently released, coming with a huge list of bug-fixes and an official upgrade path:
- Released community contributed Ubuntu MATE Identy graphics.
- Added community contributed GRUB2 theme.
- Added gnome-system-tools due to community feedback requesting user and time management facilities.
- Added indicators to Ubiquity that enable access to assistive features and basic system configuration.
- Added assistive features to LightDM.
- Added keybindings, compatible with Sonar, for toggling assistive features.
- Added a MATE panel layout that is similar in appearance to Windows XP classic mode (see below for activation instructions).
- Updated the default Ubuntu MATE panel layout to better reflect how Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 were arranged.
- Updated some icon assets in Ambiant-MATE and Radiant-MATE.
- Updated some of the Ubiquity slides used in the installer slide show.
- Updated font configuration to be consistent across applications.
- Fixed installation failures when there is no active Internet connection. Really, it is fixed this time.
- Fixed LightDM crashes that prevented the Live desktop session from working.
- Fixed EFI computers displaying a black screen rendering the system unusable.
- Fixed default application associations.
- Fixed erroneous apt configuration that prevented recommended packages being installed.
- Fixed video corruption in the Ubiquity installer.
- Fixed activation of the default sound theme.
- Fixed speaker test sounds in the Sound preferences.
- Merged Ubuntu MATE specific PolicyKit desktop priviledges upstream.
- Removed virtualbox-guest-x11 from the Live session.
- Removed wubi from the Ubuntu MATE iso image.
The final version of Ubuntu MATE 14.10 will be using MATE 1.8.1 and will be running on Kernel 3.16.
Also, Ubuntu MATE comes with an official upgrade path, so the users who are currently running the previous releases of Ubuntu Mate 14.10 can upgrade to Ubuntu MATE 14.10 Beta 2, do:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get remove grub-theme-ubuntu-mate
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
$ sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-mate-desktop-policy-priviledges
$ sudo rm /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00recommends
$ sudo apt-get purge ibus ibus-anthy ibus-gtk ibus-gtk3 ibus-qt4
$ sudo apt-get autoremove
$ sudo apt-get autoclean
Also, if you want to transform your Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu MATE, the Mate version of Ubuntu MATE can be installed via PPAs:
$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/ppa
$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/trusty-mate
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-mate-core ubuntu-mate-desktop