Mate 1.6 released - Someone already tried?

[MartinaNeumayer]

From developers announcement:
"The team is proud to announce the release of MATE Desktop 1.6.
This release is a giant step forward from the 1.4 release.
In this release, we have replaced many deprecated packages
and libraries with new technologies available in GLib.
We have also added a lot of new features to MATE.
We would like to thank every MATE contributor and user."

More infos here:
http://mate-desktop.org/2013/04/02/mate-1-6-released/

And my question is, as in the title..
Someone already tried this version?
What experiences, any problems? etc.

[k357k9]

Thanks for the update.

Check the comments at the end of the story -- 17 at this time.

[LCJr]

I'm not very bright so yes I am. Haven't had a chance to spend much time with it yet but so far so good on Mint 13 32-bit. The negative: Mint Menu was disabled and isn't showing up in the panel add-on list. Reset everything back to stock(two panel setup) and changed the look to some bastardized Ubuntu theme, that ugly red-orange wallpaper, Ubuntu fonts, etc... Only took a few minutes to get things back to where I had them but I'm already missing Mint Menu.

[MartinaNeumayer]

I'm not very bright so yes I am. Haven't had a chance to spend much time with it yet but so far so good on Mint 13 32-bit. The negative: Mint Menu was disabled and isn't showing up in the panel add-on list. Reset everything back to stock(two panel setup) and changed the look to some bastardized Ubuntu theme, that ugly red-orange wallpaper, Ubuntu fonts, etc... Only took a few minutes to get things back to where I had them but I'm already missing Mint Menu.

I read here:
https://github.com/linuxmint/mintmenu/b ... /changelog
https://github.com/linuxmint/mintmenu/commits/master
It seems that work on adaptation of mintMenu in Mate 1.6 is in progress.
I also use Mint 13 and I look forward for some "1.6" deb's in repos

[Monsta]

Reset everything back to stock(two panel setup) and changed the look to some bastardized Ubuntu theme, that ugly red-orange wallpaper, Ubuntu fonts, etc...

Yeah, that has been mentioned in the announcement:

Unfortunately, due to migration to GSettings, you will lose your current panel layout. All other settings will be migrated if you have MateConf 1.4 installed.

[LCJr]

One annoyance appears to fixed, often when I would exit WINE with Mate 1.4 I would get the 'file manager starting' bug. Been popping in and out of WINE and so far it's working as it should.

[werkman2]

Reset everything back to stock(two panel setup) and changed the look to some bastardized Ubuntu theme, that ugly red-orange wallpaper, Ubuntu fonts, etc...

Yeah, that has been mentioned in the announcement:

Unfortunately, due to migration to GSettings, you will lose your current panel layout. All other settings will be migrated if you have MateConf 1.4 installed.

i have reinstalled mint 13 upgraded directly from mate 1.2 to 1.6 and i havend lost my layout. only had to logout login becus my windowborders went weird, after login every thing o.k

[MartinaNeumayer]

Ok..Im now after the upgrade 1.4 -> 1.6.
I lose my desktop too, (yeap, this f***n ubuntu_looking_crap) but just for 5 min, or so.
Few clicks and now my system work well, as with previous Mate.
I'm missing my mintMenu, but is nothing else to wait for an updated version.
My conclusion: Mint 1.6 = Great work!
Thnx Devs!

[lethalfang]

What are the "few clicks?"
I'm trying to get back my desktop.

Ok..Im now after the upgrade 1.4 -> 1.6.
I lose my desktop too, (yeap, this f***n ubuntu_looking_crap) but just for 5 min, or so.
Few clicks and now my system work well, as with previous Mate.
I'm missing my mintMenu, but is nothing else to wait for an updated version.
My conclusion: Mint 1.6 = Great work!
Thnx Devs!

[JSeymour]

*grumble*... I just decided to give Mint 13 Mate a try, because I wasn't liking what Canonical was doing with Ubuntu at all. Haven't had much time to work with Mate, but just today I got the desktop the way I like it. Now, if I update tomorrow, it's gonna blow it up?

If this is the way things are going to be, me and Mint are going to have a very short relationship.

The Mint menu is MIA with Mate 1.6? Excuse me for possible n00b cluelessness, but is that the menu that pops-up when you click on, well, "Menu?" Uhm... Isn't that rather a critical thing?

I'm not getting a warm, fuzzy feeling from what I'm reading here

Jim

[malligt]

YUCK!

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=130393

[lethalfang]

Goodbye, Mate. It was nice knowing ya before you blew up my desktop. Going back to Xubuntu now.

[zerozero]

JSeymour
mint 13 has mate 1.4 in the backports (that you have to enable) otherwise you get mate 1.2
but i do advise you to enable backports and update to mate 1.4: it's a substantial improvement over 1.2.
MATE 1.6 is not yet available in any default mint repo, so if you stick with the defaults you won't have any problems and the mintmenu will be fixed when 1.6 migrates to our repos.

[JSeymour]

JSeymour
mint 13 has mate 1.4 in the backports (that you have to enable) otherwise you get mate 1.2
but i do advise you to enable backports and update to mate 1.4: it's a substantial improvement over 1.2.

Ah, yes: I recall reading that, elsewhere, now. Thanks for the reminder.

MATE 1.6 is not yet available in any default mint repo, so if you stick with the defaults you won't have any problems and the mintmenu will be fixed when 1.6 migrates to our repos.

Yeah... well, from what I'm reading I'm not so sure I want 1.6.

I've been using Ubuntu, mostly LTS versions, since 8.04. For the most part things have been pleasantly consistent. While it may be true that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, this is one respect in which, in my opinion, a bit of consistency is a Good Thing. After all: You don't get into your car, each day, expecting a different user "experience" from its controls, do you?

I'm not going to condemn that which I've not even seen, much less tried, but I will say this: When I click the "Yeah, gimme the updates" button on the update manager, I do not expect radical changes to my system. That includes the desktop's behaviour.

Sounds to me like 1.6 maybe oughtta be 2.0? Sounds like more than just an "update," to me.

Jim

[lethalfang]

JSeymour
mint 13 has mate 1.4 in the backports (that you have to enable) otherwise you get mate 1.2
but i do advise you to enable backports and update to mate 1.4: it's a substantial improvement over 1.2.

Ah, yes: I recall reading that, elsewhere, now. Thanks for the reminder.

MATE 1.6 is not yet available in any default mint repo, so if you stick with the defaults you won't have any problems and the mintmenu will be fixed when 1.6 migrates to our repos.

Yeah... well, from what I'm reading I'm not so sure I want 1.6.

I've been using Ubuntu, mostly LTS versions, since 8.04. For the most part things have been pleasantly consistent. While it may be true that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, this is one respect in which, in my opinion, a bit of consistency is a Good Thing. After all: You don't get into your car, each day, expecting a different user "experience" from its controls, do you?

I'm not going to condemn that which I've not even seen, much less tried, but I will say this: When I click the "Yeah, gimme the updates" button on the update manager, I do not expect radical changes to my system. That includes the desktop's behaviour.

Sounds to me like 1.6 maybe oughtta be 2.0? Sounds like more than just an "update," to me.

Jim

Yes, there is a reason the overwhelming majority of us are still using the "asdf" layout keyboard, despite positives for the alternatives.
No one wants to pain himself for a long time to get back maybe 1% of performance improvement.

[AJ1000]

if you want to try Mate 1.6, I recommend you backup your current setup using Remastersys and then do the upgrade to Mate 1.6.

For me Mate 1.6 is working great and feels smoother than Mate 1.4 did. I use Mate with both Linux Mint and Manjaro, so cant wait to upgrade to mate 1.6 in manjaro once that has been sorted out.

The only way to decide is to try it yourself. However, do a backup first using Remastersys, otherwise you may be unhappy like LethalFang, who is being much too negative, and should have backed his Linux Mint up before upgrading.

[cecar]

I really can't understand how you can complain about Mate 1.6 when its not been mintified yet? It is fine to try it out but for gods sake dont complain because mate 1.6 is not in mints repos yet so you made a decision to install it!

[k357k9]

For me Mate 1.6 is working great and feels smoother than Mate 1.4 did.

Is it quicker/faster?

[HardyH]

I can understand completely how people can complain about that stoopid move to gsettings when this move destroys their customized desktops and turms it into this:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/download/fi ... &mode=view

Sounds like a typical Gnome3ified move (break things with an update, never happened on any Gnome 2.x update to me) , would not have expected such a move from the mate guys though. Wonder what happens to my emerald stuff, GTK2 themes and iconsets and compiz under 1.6 and how to get it back without digging through the gsettings registry for hours.
If it breaks, I'm through with MATE, cause I hate such 'progress over usability upgrades passionately.
So, let's bite it now. If someone can explain to me how to install MATE 1.6 on Mint 14 ( even if this means I will have to use inofficial repos) I'd be very thankful for this.
And no, the webupd8.org instructions how to install 1.6 under standard ubuntu do not work for me.
H.

[AJ1000]

I am using Mint 13 (as I like this LTS), and it upgraded fine. Yes, it can seem a problem when you get the default ubuntu desktop, but for me it was straightforward to change back. This is what i found:

Compiz works fine in Mate 1.6, and no settings are lost. GTK2 icons etc are put back using the right click on desktop, select 'change desktop background', select the theme and icons etc as normal. I had most my old desktop back after making these changes. Mint 14 is derived form Ubuntu 12.10 so those instructions should work for you.

I use Compiz, Conky, Cardapio and AWN with mint 13, and they are all working fine.

However always backup using remastersys or equivalent before upgrading.