Why is MATE being kept alive?

[mountain15]

I see no point in continuing MATE which is based on discontinued Gnome 2. Why not use XFCE which is very much alive and similar?

[Oscar799]

Moved here by moderator

[xenopeek]

Linux Mint 13 Xfce edition is up next

As you can see in the poll run by Clem, MATE is a favourite desktop for a lot of Linux Mint users: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=100787 Though Gnome 2 is indeed no longer being supported by the Gnome developers, MATE is actively being supported and developed by the MATE developers. MATE is not in danger of "dying"

[DrHu]

It was a Mint developers choice to not switch directly to Gnome3 and unity, therefor Mate was born
--as long as Linux mint intends to follow Ubuntu repositories, adhering to the Gnome desktop will be a necessity (

It is unlikely that Ubuntu would switch to anything else..

So, using xfce or lxde will not be in the cards as Linux mint's main editions..
--now I happen to use those two desktop styles (lxde and xfce (LMDE version)), and find them both more than adequate, although the default file managers have some annoying quirks (copying etc..) for me.

[xenopeek]

DrHu, Clem has shared intention to release Linux Mint 13 Xfce and KDE editions next. There will be no LXDE edition as it currently looks, but Xfce is coming AFAIK.

As for MATE, that was born from the hands of Perberos, who was joined by other developers interested in perpetuating Gnome 2. See the MATE team here: http://mate-desktop.org/team/. Linux Mint was one of the first distros to show interest in MATE, and Clem indeed has a role in MATE's development team. But MATE is being developed independent of Linux Mint.

[isaach]

FWIW, no less than Linus Torvalds called for a fork of Gnome 2. That alone is a good reason for MATE to exist.

[/dev/urandom]

Linus also uses Fedora, so that alone is a reason to quit Mint.

[MALsPa]

FWIW, no less than Linus Torvalds called for a fork of Gnome 2. That alone is a good reason for MATE to exist.

Linus also uses Fedora, so that alone is a reason to quit Mint.

[MALsPa]

I see no point in continuing MATE which is based on discontinued Gnome 2. Why not use XFCE which is very much alive and similar?

If enough people want it, I guess that's a good enough reason to continue it.

I'd rather use Xfce than MATE, though.

[Goz]

I see no point in continuing MATE which is based on discontinued Gnome 2. Why not use XFCE which is very much alive and similar?

If enough people want it, I guess that's a good enough reason to continue it.

I'd rather use Xfce than MATE, though.

yeah,I want it...Xfce is right nice as well though...

[monkeyboy]

I see no point in continuing MATE which is based on discontinued Gnome 2. Why not use XFCE which is very much alive and similar?

Because the developers have decided it is to be so, their work their choice. As to XFCE it is a nice DE and I use it.

[sdd]

According to the Mint repositories, "The MATE Desktop Environment [is] a non-intuitive and unattractive desktop for users"

Can't say I agree, though I prefer Cinnamon.

[cra1g321]

I'm really glad MATE exists, I've been using Linux as my main OS for years now and Gnome 2 is what I started off with and preferred it over KDE, XFCE at the time.

I still prefer to use MATE instead of unity, KDE, XFCE, Gnome 3.

I dont mind XFCE but I'm not a big fan of thunar of pcmanfm.

I'm currently installing LM13 MATE 32bit onto a Dell Latitude D610 ( Intel Pentium M processor 1.86Ghz, 486MB RAM)
very old laptop, no way would i think of installing Gnome 3, KDE or unity on it

[joez]

If you don't like Mate, don't use it. My friends and I prefer it to all other Desktop choices, and as of today we were finally able to get all our computers up on the same distribution with our Desktops matching and efficient as they once were under Gnome 2.xx. Cinnamon might be nice, but some of our computers don't support 3D which we have no need in our work.
I must give praise to Linux Mint and Mate developers for listening to the users and providing them with the choices they want.
Great work, and Mint 13 Maya Mate edition looks great!

[kherring7383]

For me personally I prefer Cinnamon to Mate, yet as someone posted earlier, Mate is a good choice for systems that don't support 3D or running Mint in a Virtual Box with low graphics. It's all a matter of choice. I started with Mate when I first installed Mint but soon found out there was a lack of support for the Multimedia functions of my Logitech keyboard but Cinnamon on the other hand uses these keys just fine so I've been using it since. As a side note, I've used Unity, Gnome Shell Desktop as well as Cinnamon and no matter how much a stray away from Mint time to time I always come back to Cinnamon because quite frankly the others lack the features and cleanness that Mint and Cinnamon offer.

[AAAAH!ERMAGAWD!HELP!]

XFCE: for your hobbyist
Cinnamon: for your hobbyist
KDE: For general users with lots of extra free system resources.
MATE: For general users that use Linuxmint for their non-computer science jobs.


Gnome 2 is the most compatible DE next to the KDEs. XFCE on Mint is pointless since lots of programs need Gnome 2 dependencies. Gnome 2 along side of XFCE anyway makes XFCE slower. XFCE is pointless

[joez]

If you don't like Mate, simply don't use it. I use it primarily because it works on all of our computers, and might have instead went with Cinnamon if it was able to, but since not Mate fits our wants and needs 100%. I personally have tried several other Desktop environments which were found lacking in some areas, should I then ask why they are not being eliminated? I simply don't use them, and respect others right to choose them if they wish. What if Microsoft began to ask the question "Why is Linux being kept alive?". Admittedly, I do ask that question in my mind, but not on forums.

[fraxinus_63]

I was sceptical about MATE when I first heard about it - but I am now won over, having seen it in action.

We use my PCs as workstations for a (very ...) small business. Mint 13 MATE is perfect for us as it has long-term support, it lets us keep the workflows that we had under Gnome 2, it is very fully featured and runs on ALL our computers, real or virtual.

I can well imagine that Cinnamon is the future, but as a mature productivity environment right now, MATE is spot on.

[intok]

I see no point in continuing MATE which is based on discontinued Gnome 2. Why not use XFCE which is very much alive and similar?

http://www.jwz.org/doc/cadt.html

Because XFCE, like LXDE is not feature complete and uses nearly as much ram and CPU and Gnome 3 is a steaming pile hacked together by kids on adderall because they don't have the attention span to do the boring work of maintaining a working and mature piece of kit that doesn't need replacing.

The same can be said of the Unity and KDE4 dev teams.

Everyone is chasing around smartphone UIs by Apple and Google and figure if it works on that it will work on a desktop, when all the evidence shows it doesn't. It's like playing Gameboy games on a large screen vs NES or SNES games on a large screen, the Gameboy games just don't seem to translate properly while games that should be around the same graphical complexity look just fine.

[joez]

Maybe it should be renamed Ming "Ming Is Not Gnome".
It's a matter of choice, if you don't like or don't use Mate, why would you want it to be eliminated as a choice for those who do? As long as the demand exists, and there are those willing to provide support for it, it will and should be kept alive.