Is it Ubuntu or Windows 11?

Thoughts & Feedback
1

I used a dual boot Windows 10/Ubuntu Mate for about 4 years. My Ubuntu also had a windows Bible program that was installed through Wine. Maybe I just forgot how to do everything but now I have a Windows 11 laptop and cannot get Mate to play nice. I recently attempted to install the Bible program, which was so confusing and in the midst of that I corrupted the MBR on Windows. I was able to get that working. I wanted to use Nemo File manager and installed it. After a reboot, all of my folder under me (User) were showing as broken links. Had to reinstall Ubuntu again which I have done three times now because of wacky things happening. Really wanted to use Mate more than Windows but not doing well. My earlier version of Mate was the 21.04. Things just seem so much more difficult than they were 4 years ago.

2

That is a highly unusual result; installing ordinary software should never alter the master boot record.

I haven't tried installing MATE on Windows 11 laptop; but on my Windows 10 laptop, I had no issues installing either 22.04 or 24.04.

The simplest approach is probably the most-brutal approach: make a recovery drive for your laptop; backup all your personal files, and start again with a clean Windows 11 system.

Then, you could try UM again or, seeing as you prefer Nemo file manager, perhaps the Cinnamon desktop is more your style - you could try Linux Mint. Mint is Debian-based, like Ubuntu, so much of how it works is the same.

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3

I installed the cinnamon desktop to see if I liked it, and I do. So can I use as is or do I need to download ubuntu cinnamon iso, delete mate and start fresh?

4

You can:

  1. Install Ubuntu and install the Cinnamon desktop.
  2. Install Ubuntu Cinnamon flavour.
  3. Install Ubuntu MATE and install the Cinnamon desktop.
  4. Install Linux Mint Cinnamon.
  5. Remove all your Linux distributions and instead run Ubuntu (or other Linux distributions) using WSL and Hyper-V on Windows.

You mentioned that you had to re-install Ubuntu multiple times because of 'wacky' things. If you want to continue using Ubuntu, sure. If you want to try a different distribution because you are having problems with Ubuntu, go for it. Unless you are more specific about what a 'wacky' thing is; I can't really make a recommendation as to what will solve the problem.

You can keep installing more and more operating systems on your machine, but you need to be careful that you only allow one of them to update grub (see boot - How to handle GRUB configuration on a multi booted system? - Ask Ubuntu).

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