How stable is Ubuntu MATE?

Thoughts & Feedback
#1

Hi gals and guys,

I started using Linux with Ubuntu 10.10, probably the last Ubuntu to use Gnome 2. Since then I’ve used various distros and various DEs, but have never tried Mate until last night. It really seems compelling, but I have just a few questions.

  • how stable is Ubuntu Mate and how probable is it to exist in the foreseeable future? Is the team large enough, is it expanding, is the user base expanding or declining?

And that’s pretty much it :slight_smile: Everything else ‘just works’ and feels good + looks nice. Am just curious as I don’t want to get used to using a system to have it die a year later.

Thanks for your answers and keep up the nice work.

#2

From personal experience, I have installations running through multiple upgrades for multiple years, on multiple machines. It’s rock solid. :slight_smile: The Lead Dev for Ubuntu Mate is an employee of Canonical, who make Ubuntu. I don’t see this version going anywhere, it’s incredibly popular and growing from strength to strength.

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#3

Welcome! I find Ubuntu-MATE to be as stable as can be. I think it’s probably more stable than standard Ubuntu in my opinion. The team is small but active and as mentioned before @Wimpy and @popey who are the two people who got it all started both work for Canonical so I think it will be around awhile. Another fact is that it’s an official Ubuntu spin which Xubuntu, Kubuntu, and Lubuntu have been around a long time now.

Cheers!

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#4

UM LTS is really stable on my 2 installations; I’ve been able to set it up to my liking - I’m running 16.04 LTS - neither install has crashed ever!

Regarding how long will it be around - my gut says a long time as it’s a small, dedicated, talented team that has reached out to users and is funded by Patreon contributions.

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#5

Hallo

Ubuntu base + MATE desktop + a team who care a lot = best of class?

It is now the only distro that I recommend to “converts”.

Stability? The only way I’ve ever been able to crash it, is by running it seriously under-resourced in a VM and giving it a heavy load of 3D graphical rendering - a task load that would crash anything. So, yes it’s rock solid.

The future? Well if everyone who downloaded and installed Ubuntu-Mate paid the recommended amount (or more) each time they downloaded/installed, the future would be even brighter. :slight_smile:

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#6

How stable is Ubuntu Mate ?
i have 2 examples :
after updating my configuration, I was thinking of reinstalling Ubuntu Mate and i forgot to boot on the CD.
I put my password to open my session and… that’s it ! it work and the new hardware has been detected.
an other example : the other day my graphic card died (gtx 970) , so i connected a screen on my motherboard (Z270 pro carbon) and Ubuntu Made uses the GPU of the CPU automatically

(sorry for my english, ty Google traduction)

#7

:blush: I’m glad we have a new ubuntu mate user!

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#8

Use the LTS version if you want stability, version 17.10 currently has a couple of bugs, the next LTS version will be out in April 2018. :smiley:

#9

My example is simple.
When my colleagues had problems getting access to their separate /home folders due to GRUB-UEFI or GRUB-BIOS dual boot issues (every so often the problem touches upon their laptops), UM installation helped every time. On any hardware. No other distribution could do the same every time. Sometimes even special rescue CDs couldn’t help. UM never failed.
For me it’s a sign of stability.

#10

Not that I have tried a lot of recent distro’s, but I have been running Linux off and on for the last 20 years, and UM is the only one that has truly taken over my sole IT needs with great reliability and versatility. I am sure experts could find holes in it (as they have been doing with MS products for years), however for a basic user I very happy to recommend it as a great workhorse. (I have had a Mac Book Pro, a Quad Core, a Raspberry Pi3 (24/7) and and an EeeBox running UM the last year and very happy with all four of them.)
Cheers, Rob

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#11

Unless you actively try to break it or keep yourself on beta versions of the system updates between versions are generally stable. As someone who had some other odds and ends installed, some libraries had “Difficulty” updating but that was nothing a little apt-fu couldn’t resolve.

However for “Normal” people, who keep themselves on stable everything and refuse to deviate from normality outside of live sessions and VMs their systems remain as solid as the Earth’s crust and doesn’t offer many issues aside from occasional restarts post-update.

#12

I am surprise how even intermediate version such as 17.10 is stable. On 16.04 it was mostly a solid rock. On 17.10 i run compiz and nvidia drivers and the only had “troubles” with the Munity layout on compiz - but this is like a preview version of the future LTS. Anyway apart this, 17.10 rocks solid too !

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