After much thought I decided to follow the upgrade path from 18.04 to 19.10. Went perfectly and it does look a lot better. This computer I have is an HP laptop with an AMD 2.7ghz processor. Before I upgraded the heat level was much higher and the fan spent a lot of time on high. Ive got the fan set to off unless needed and something in the new release had reduced the overhead on the proc in this thing a lot. No other change.
However there is one minor thing that's annoyed me slightly for some time. The icon on the right side of the search bar in Brisk menu is incorrect, its dark and needs to be light. Other than that Ubuntu Mate is just the best, for me especially. I am considering wiping my 2011 Mac Mini with UM soon since it doesn't recieve OS X updates any longer.
Anyway thanks to the Devs.
Glad you had an enjoyable upgrade experience.
Could you post an image of your Brisk Menu opened?
Sure. BTW I realized the moment I posted this that the removal of Compiz may be why its running cooler.
Thanks for the picture. That's using Ambient MATE Theme, I will make a note of that.