For the hell of it, I thought I would ask Google to "compile" a response to my search query string formulated as follows:
Linux Is MATE Desktop fully Wayland compliant
I thought I would share the "insights" offered with the Community. This might be able to cast some light on where specific help is needed and raise awareness for those who do have the necessary skills, and feel generous enough to contribute, that they might be able to make specific offers of assistance to those in charge at the MATE Desktop project site itself. I will offer my own thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to step forward on behalf of the Community.
The response I got is as follows:
No, the MATE Desktop is not yet fully Wayland compliant. While significant progress has been made with recent releases adding substantial Wayland support for many components, it still relies on X.org for certain core functionalities and lacks a fully native, production-ready Wayland session.
Current Status of MATE on Wayland
Partial Support: MATE 1.26 and 1.28 releases have added Wayland support for many individual applications and components, including the control center, terminal, text editor (Pluma), and image viewer (Eye of MATE).
Missing Core Components: A complete native MATE Wayland session is not yet available. Key components, such as the power manager, still rely on X11-specific code.
Applet Limitations: Traditional panel applets that use Xembed technology are not displayed in a Wayland session, though some standard applets have been updated to work.
Development Progress: The MATE team is actively working on modernizing the codebase to support Wayland while maintaining the traditional user experience. The plan is to offer full support in an upcoming version (possibly 1.30 or later), but it is not yet stable enough for general use.
Experimental Options: Experimental Wayland sessions for MATE have been explored using alternative compositors like Mir and Wayfire.
For a fully Wayland-native experience today, desktop environments like GNOME and KDE Plasma are considered the primary options. The official MATE website provides updates on their progress via their blog.
On the MATE Desktop blog, they ONLY itemize the pieces that are fully compliant. They don't itemize, and consequently don't highlight, which pieces of the puzzle are not yet compliant and in need of attention. 