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MATE Desktop Environment

mate-desktop.org

41–50 of 74 posts

Re: MATE Desktop Environment

#41

I'm curious now what stops people from using Linux on the desktop. There were significant issues a few years ago, but they now appear to be addressed. What are the problems with Linux on the desktop?

In software terms, nothing (though personally i feel it is slowly crapifying in recent years). What is needed, and has always been the problem, is physical products on physical store shelves, backed by support on par, or better, than current MS based products.

Re: MATE Desktop Environment

#42
post #16

The last time I tried it, with Ubuntu Mate, I percieved it had more bugs than Xubuntu. Xubuntu comes with xfce. I find that xfce looks very similar to mate but runs more smoothly and it feels more polished. At least I don't remember seeing errors related to the UI with xfce, unlike the experience with mate.

IMO, MATE on Linux Mint has been wonderful for the last year or so. Would recommend for desktop.

I am also a big fan of mint, have been using 3-4 years (and before that Debian > Ubuntu > Gentoo > red hat > slackware). Mint with cinnamon is also interesting.

I'm thinking of trying Ubuntu mate in a new build though, there's a new version out that's supposedly very usable (previous versions have been strongly beta apparently). Clearly, distros rise and fall.

Re: MATE Desktop Environment

#43
post #4

hmmh without trying to talk negatively about it, why is this on front page? am I missing something here? What happened: people who were dissatisfied with gnome 3.x forked gnome 2 (a long time ago), created the Mate Desktop Environment, and that's pretty much it. somewhat ancient history and the site has nothing of particular interest to offer... (no revolutionary milestone or anything of that sort)

That just means you weren't one of the ten thousand[0] today. But rest assured, there were thousands of readers who weren't aware of Mate before and are now.

[0] https://xkcd.com/1053/

Re: MATE Desktop Environment

#44

"The name “MATE”, pronounced Ma-Tay, comes from yerba maté, a species of holly native to subtropical South America. Its leaves contain caffeine and are used to make infusions and a beverage called mate." Neat! And here I've been pronouncing it like the English word "mate".

Furthermore, there's a mistake there. The plant name is not written "maté", which would be pronounced mah-TEH, but "mate", and it's pronounced MAH-teh.

Re: MATE Desktop Environment

#45
post #12
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gnome changed some things with Gnome 3.x (which was not recently) and some people were dissatisfied with it, so they forked Gnome 2.x, created the Mate Desktop Environment and that's it. Nothing happened to Gnome, it's alive and kicking.

If I'm not mistaken, MATE is far away from being the only fork of the 2.x version.

I think you are mistaken...

Re: MATE Desktop Environment

#46
post #3

Since switching to GNOME 3 I can't use any other DE because none of them can emulate the workspace management of GNOME 3.

Has gnome 3 changed the way it does workspace management or something? The only difference I remember from Gnome 3's workspace management and virtually every other implementation was that it adjusted the number of virtual desktops dynamically. As opposed to the common case of a fixed number.

Is there something else it's doing?

Re: MATE Desktop Environment

#47

"The name “MATE”, pronounced Ma-Tay, comes from yerba maté, a species of holly native to subtropical South America. Its leaves contain caffeine and are used to make infusions and a beverage called mate." Neat! And here I've been pronouncing it like the English word "mate".

The beverage, when consumed hot, is also classified as a probable carcinogen: http://www.inchem.org/documents/iarc/vol51/03-mate.html

Which is possibly more to do with drinking scoldingly hot liquid than the chemical composition.

My late father had oesophageal cancer from drinking up to a dozen cups of tea a day, with reflux.

Re: MATE Desktop Environment

#48
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These Linux desktops are still not nearly as clean, pretty and smooth an experience as Mac/Windows.

Sorry, but at best, this is just your personal experience. At worst, this is a damned lie. I don't mean to attack you, but I do mean to vehemently attack this sentiment. I feel I have to because this perspective is pushed so often with little push back from the other side...and believing it lead to my own personal detriment. I recently bought a macbook after being a gnome 3 user for a few years. I had heard the aneco…

I don't believe that regular user will care about any problems you mentioned at all.

Re: MATE Desktop Environment

#49
post #19

I can't use anything but MATE + Compiz and mostly because of Compiz'es fantastic functionality and customizability. I'm talking about color filters, grid plugin, and endless others that have no equivalent elsewhere.

Has Compiz improved in the last couple years? 0.8.4 was great, 0.9.8 was garbage. I wrote it off as garbage hijacked by Canonical exclusively to support Unity. (Gnome 3 is pretty much now a fine replacement for Compiz 0.8.4 imo)

Re: MATE Desktop Environment

#50
post #3

Since switching to GNOME 3 I can't use any other DE because none of them can emulate the workspace management of GNOME 3.

Has gnome 3 changed the way it does workspace management or something? The only difference I remember from Gnome 3's workspace management and virtually every other implementation was that it adjusted the number of virtual desktops dynamically. As opposed to the common case of a fixed number. Is there something else it's doing?

I like it because the basic tiling is good enough, the spotlight is pleasing, and it's mainstream and reliable (try it with Debian Jessie!). The workspace management is as good as Compiz 0.8.4 was, wouldn't say it's any better (now I'm curious!).
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