In this article Solus is retiring its MATE because the MATE project is in a 'dilapidated' state.
Is this only for the Solus fork or is the mother project in a dilapidated state?
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I don't know for sure, but Solus has had a lot of trouble lately.
Trouble in Solus Linux land as their Experience Lead quits - 3 January 2022
(Trouble in Solus Linux land as their Experience Lead quits | GamingOnLinux)
Solus Linux Loses Active Status on DistroWatch - * OnApril 12, 2023
Solus Linux Goes Through Yet Another Shake Up; to be Rebased on SerpentOS
Originally created by Ikey who left it, SolusOS to rebase itself on SerpentOS, another distro by Ikey himself. Distroception? - April 23, 2023
I used the original Solus and then Ikey shut it down overnight. I stayed away from the new Solus for the same reason. Ikey is a great developer, but has not stuck with his projects. This one did well for awhile after he left, but then ran into trouble again a lead developers quit.
My guess they had to pare back somewhere, and Budgie being their main desktop they cut Mate. Their talent is very limited.
Think what you will, but the problem seems to be with Solus.
Goodbye MATE, Hello Xfce
MATE, originally forked from the classic GNOME 2 desktop environment, has been a reliable and familiar choice for many Solus users. Its traditional layout and customizable nature have made it a favorite among Linux enthusiasts seeking a traditional desktop experience.
Despite this, its development is not moving at the pace needed to adapt it to the modern technologies of the Linux field, especially to be compatible with Wayland.
This is why the Solus’ dev team decided that the 4.4 “Harmony” release would be the final to include an installation ISO image with the MATE desktop environment.
Of course, existing packages will continue to receive updates to ensure that the Solus users betting on MATE can update their existing systems.
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MATE is anything but dead it has active ongoing Wayland integration, and while yes it is not updated like kde or gnome it doesn't need to be, honestly the Solus devs do not have any idea what they are talking about, now if they want to say that MATE will not have wayland in time for them that's fine, but to call MATE on life support or dilapidated is just a lie
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It looks like the Solus people are referring to the Solus MATE. They can't keep up with the liveliness of the MATE mothership.
Maybe...
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Solus MATE and ubuntu MATE use the same desktop which is what they are referring to I think they are just trying to generate some news and maybe users, when from what I've seen solus is half dead itself
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This seems to be a Linux problem. Like System V init and systemd with the fork of Debian to Devuan. Different developers want to go different ways. This seems to be a dispute between Wayland and Xorg to me. Not surprising seeing the person the main driver behind Solus has left twice now.
One thing I know because I got burnt twice on smaller distros with pretty much a one man development team like the first Solus and then Point Linux, (which was great, it was everything Debian could and should be), is that if the main developer on these distros tires and quits, it usually pretty much over.
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Mate and xfce has always been both gtk based. xfce is much older and the current relases arw as stable as mate. So yeah i did wirte more code on my themes ro support XFCE than mate. Why? Xfce is smaller and more compact. Mate panel applets do crash more often and thunar has improved a bit, its not as good as caja tough but slowly becoming more usable than it once was.