4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran Posted June 11, 2014 Veteran Share Posted June 11, 2014 Anyone here use MATE? I've started using it (Linux Mint MATE 17) on my laptop and set it up like my old GNOME 2 desktop. It's fast and I got to realise how much control was taken away with GNOME 3 and Unity (though not KDE or others). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlang Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 gnome 2 was and still is an amazing desktop now via mate. it was the first desktop interface i used when i started using ubuntu 10.04 years ago. i loved that it gave you so many ways to customize and coming from win 7 beta, i found it rather easy. since then i have tried out most if not all of the big desk interfaces, prefering kde on my desktop because the hardware is good ennough to run it. the thing for me not going with mate is: if i want it lightweight and easy, i now would chose xfce, probably with xubuntu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted June 11, 2014 Moderator Share Posted June 11, 2014 Orangekiller used MATE. It is based off Gnome 2. And all its bells and whistles. I'm more of an XFCE guy, but everyone to their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Account no longer active) Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 LXDE user here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_K Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I used it for a bit but slowly moved to gnome 3.4 fallback, when they removed that I switched over to fluxbox although my eeprom programming machine has KDE. I did like MATE but progress seemed slow and programs running using gnome 3.4 interfaces didn't look good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlang Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 about mate: there is this rumor out that canonical might release a mate edition of ubuntu soon! http://thevarguy.com/ubuntu/061014/canonical-considering-mate-remix-ubuntu-linux Do you love Ubuntu Linux but hate Canonical's Unity interface? If so, there may be good news on the horizon regarding an official version of Ubuntu using the open source MATE desktop environment, if the rumor mill has things right. MATE?apparently pronounced mat-ay, in the same fashion as the herbal beverage?is a fork of the GNOME 2 desktop environment. GNOME 2 was the interface that millions of Linux users knew and loved until the GNOME developers retired it in favor of GNOME 3 circa 2011, around the same time that Canonical introduced its homegrown Unity environment as the default graphical interface for Ubuntu. It's eminently possible to run MATE on Ubuntu today by adding it to an existing Ubuntu system or using a third-party "remix," such as Mubuntu. But rumor has it Canonical may be considering the release of an official Ubuntu "flavor" with MATE installed by default. That would mean Ubuntu users who prefer the GNOME 2/MATE approach to interacting with one's computer would enjoy a way of doing so on Ubuntu with official support. It also could help Ubuntu to appeal to users who are new to the Linux world and unfamiliar with the "shell"-type interfaces that have become popular within the open source community in recent years, but which are much less similar than MATE to the interfaces of Windows and OS X. Meanwhile, such a move would be a huge boon to the MATE project, which originated as the humble initiative of a single open source developer back in 2011. Since then, MATE has matured to become an official (though not default) option in a few major Linux distributions, including Linux Mint and Fedora, but an endorsement by Canonical for integrating MATE into Ubuntu would elevate the desktop environment to the top of the desktop Linux hierarchy. For now, though, the prospect of a MATE-based Ubuntu build remains mostly speculative. And until something concrete materializes, I'll be running gnome-panel and compiz to keep living in the pre-Ubuntu 11.04 past. i say: the more, the better. i know its a bit of a discussion here on neowin, but for me, the freedom of choice is THE strong point in the linux world. some like the modern unity or gnome 3 interfaces, others like as many options as only kde can give, others prefer mate, lxde, etc.... back in the time when i used win95 i would have KILLED for that much choice. the closest one could get was to pirate buy ms plus package, to get a bit of a different desktop. :) edit: i have to add, there is even a kde 3.x fork called trinity. https://www.trinitydesktop.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran Posted June 11, 2014 Author Veteran Share Posted June 11, 2014 Yes, I agree with you 101% about the whole choice thing. Now that I've got MATE on my laptop, I feel a bit retro, but I like it. The truth is, there was something about my laptop that wouldn't work in December on any distro I could find. I think it was that the video graphics weren't yet supported. Then Ubuntu 14.04 worked, but was very slow. Then all the other Ubuntus, even Xubuntu, were similarly slow, so I think they've got something going on there. So I tried Linux Mint 17 with the MATE desktop. It works fine. I'm not running it with any visual enhancements, and it's just fine. That distro comes looking a bit more like Linux Mint in general, but, with a few tweaks, I got it working like my old GNOME 2 desktop. I've even got Wanda the Fish telling me fortunes, pure excitement! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlang Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 your desktop looks good. professional, with a bit of understatement especially if you consider the heavy customizations on gnome 2 / mate ... (desklets/applets) what i remember of gnome 2 was, that, despite i have tried it under windows and other linux desktops, i never could get familiar with the applications/startmenu launcher on top of the screen. i dont know why. but with gnome 2 it felt intuitive and i enjoyed it very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_K Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 your desktop looks good. professional, with a bit of understatement especially if you consider the heavy customizations on gnome 2 / mate ... (desklets/applets) what i remember of gnome 2 was, that, despite i have tried it under windows and other linux desktops, i never could get familiar with the applications/startmenu launcher on top of the screen. i dont know why. but with gnome 2 it felt intuitive and i enjoyed it very much. You can move the menu to the bottom. Gnome 2/mate is much more configurable then gnome 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Norris Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I kind of miss the old dual panel Gnome 2 layout, even had my XP desktop set up similarly back in the day. Haven't tried Mate in quite some time, may have to give it another go and see how it's matured, was always leery about stability/incompatibility issues with newer programs expecting Gnome 3, that sort of stuff. Don't think I could use it full time anymore (the menu was nice 10 years ago, now, not so much) but still... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aergan Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 I try it semi-regularly but it doesn't offer me anything over XFCE at present. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran Posted June 12, 2014 Author Veteran Share Posted June 12, 2014 your desktop looks good. professional, with a bit of understatement especially if you consider the heavy customizations on gnome 2 / mate ... (desklets/applets) what i remember of gnome 2 was, that, despite i have tried it under windows and other linux desktops, i never could get familiar with the applications/startmenu launcher on top of the screen. i dont know why. but with gnome 2 it felt intuitive and i enjoyed it very much. Thanks! It's just as I used to have GNOME 2. The Mint icons are a bit smarter. Actually Linux Mint Mate 17 comes with a single panel on the bottom and a "start menu" that is more in the spirit of KDE4 and WinXP/7. I think it's called the Mint Menu. Anyway it took me a couple of minutes of work to get it looking like my old GNOME. You can move the menu to the bottom. Gnome 2/mate is much more configurable then gnome 3 Yes, just like KDE and XFCE. You can make them into almost anything you want. It seems to me that GNOME 3 and Unity are more limited in terms of customising the layout of the desktop. I kind of miss the old dual panel Gnome 2 layout, even had my XP desktop set up similarly back in the day. Haven't tried Mate in quite some time, may have to give it another go and see how it's matured, was always leery about stability/incompatibility issues with newer programs expecting Gnome 3, that sort of stuff. Don't think I could use it full time anymore (the menu was nice 10 years ago, now, not so much) but still... It seems to have matured a bit and seems quite stable to me. I've been using it for about ten days. I've played about with GNOME 3 hoping it would sort itself out and be more customisable. I would have one version of it, get tweaks off the website, then a new version would break some of those. It seems to me that GNOME 3 and Unity are just too uncustomisable for my needs. KDE, XFCE, and MATE are great for customising. I haven't tried others, but perhaps I should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiranui Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Mmmm, Cinnamon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwx Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 I prefer the Trinity Desktop Environment over any other DE at the moment of posting this comment. 4CxbqFxVnstmA 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Account no longer active) Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 edit: i have to add, there is even a kde 3.x fork called trinity. https://www.trinitydesktop.org/ I didn't know this existed! Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nashy Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 This makes me want to throw a distro on my laptop to play with. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwx Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 I didn't know this existed! Thanks. Check out the live CDs: http://trinitydesktop.org/wiki/bin/view/Documentation/LiveCD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Norris Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 https://www.trinitydesktop.org/Interesting, missed that one, guess people having troubles letting go is more common than I first though heh. /s Personally no interest to try it myself though.. missing out on a lot of the new toys KDE 4 brought, although it's nice to see somebody kept it going. Mate I totally get as Gnome took a hard right into WTFville with version 3. KDE 4 is more evolutionary than revolutionary.. although I could see wanting it if I were stuck with old hardware that couldn't handle the newer builds though. +Majesticmerc 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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