Is MATE fading away?

[jymm]

Okay, now I understand you are looking for the mintMenu which is only on Mint that I know of, and I also have used the Mate editions of Sparky, Sprial, and Parrot.
Mint offers three choices just like Ubuntu Mate, but the mintMenu instead of Brisk:
The classic menu
The compact menu
and
The mintMenu

I do agree with you on an the Brisk menu, it has to many problems, and you could probably ask Ubuntu Mate developers to include the mintMenu, but I have no idea if that is possible or if they would. I have an installation of Mint myself, but with the first point release will be going back to Ubuntu Mate. There difference are so little I often forget which OS I am on as I use the classic menu on both.
The biggest difference I have found is the Ayatana Indicators don't seem to work on Mint which I really need for the battery monitor percentage and the addon applets keep crashing or not loading on start up.
They are both good Operating systems, pick the one you like the best.

[ericmarceau]

Hi @newhere,

NOTE: My installation is UM 22.04 LTS

If the "mintMenu" applet is what you want, you have to identify what you need to "transplant" into UbuntuMATE.

Using Synaptic, I identified the package name for "Brisk", as seen here:

You need to search in that same manner on your MintMATE desktop for the relevant package for mintMenu.

NEXT, you need to verify the dependencies, which other packages you will need to transplant in order to have mintMenu function properly, as I did here again for Brisk:

NEXT, after installing UbuntuMATE, you need to add the necessary repository/repositories (likely preferrable PPA in this case) that would let you import all the identified missing packages (if not already on UbuntuMATE) using your package installer of choice.

Otherwise, download the individual packages directly and install those dependency packages before you attempt the mintMenu package install.

After all that is done, hopefully (most likely), you will see the choice offered to select mintMenu when you right-click "AddApplet" on your primary panel.

The bigger issue (elephant in the room, so to speak) is that mintMenu will be attempting to open applications which might be missing, or exist under a different alias, because they might have been renamed by UbuntuMATE. I might be wrong on that, but you need to be aware of that possibility!

I think a number of people might be eager to hear how successful that transplant will be!

[ricmarques]

Hi, @Newhere , @jymm , @sgage , @ericmarceau ... and others

So, I've been searching a bit about this situation, and it looks indeed a bit confusing, because the names and descriptions appear to be a bit contradictory.

Linux Mint (LM) - as @jymm has mentioned - apparently has something available called "mintMenu" which has the description "Advanced MATE menu" (!). See https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/mintmenu and "GitHub - linuxmint/mintmenu: Advanced Mint menu for MATE" - https://github.com/linuxmint/mintmenu

Also, apparently the "Ubuntu MATE" project, by the hand of @Wimpy (Martin Wimpress) himself, has created something called the "mate-menu" - "GitHub - ubuntu-mate/mate-menu: An Advanced Menu for the MATE Desktop" - https://github.com/ubuntu-mate/mate-menu. Let me quote here what @Wimpy has written at the beginning of the README.md of the "mate-menu" GitHub repository:

"(...) This is MATE Menu, a fork of MintMenu.

• MATE Menu removes the Mint specific search options.
• MATE Menu removes package management features.

Personally I'm not the least bit interested in using the MATE Menu but I see that it is regularly requested in the Ubuntu MATE community. So consider MATE Menu a gift from me, to you (...)"

So, I'm guessing that, if someone wants to have the so-called "mintMenu" - https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/mintmenu - in "Ubuntu MATE", then he/she should install and use the "mate-menu" - https://github.com/ubuntu-mate/mate-menu

I hope this helps

[jymm]

I would be interested in that attempt but the two are enough alike I don't know why anyone would try. Crash reporting is different. No snaps by default on Mint and Mint has a cool app for using different kernels but I don't like the rest of Mints software & updates. Also the Mint forum is very inferior, hundreds of questions go unanswered every week. Still both are a good choice depending on your skill level and needs.

[sgage]

@ rickmarques,

Yes, it is all a bit confusing. In any case, I don't care much for Brisk Menu myself, and the Classic Menu is fine for me, but whatever anybody wants to do is fine with me. I think Newhere has a particular "work flow" in mind, and the Mint Menu seems to work for him/her.

Myself, I am retired. I don't HAVE a work flow

[jymm]

He was looking for the Advanced Mate menu. It was a fork of the mintMenu, removing the Mint specific parts. Here are some links. It's on github, and I think possible, but way beyond my skill level. It is still active as it is offered on my Sparky Mate installation.

How to get the Advanced Menu back?

Hello, Typically I go from LTS to LTS, so I don't care much for inbetween versions. But when I couldn't find my favorite menu in a latest test-install of U.Mate 22.04, I started looking and found this: Redmond is switching from the Advanced MATE Menu to the Brisk menu Thanks for understanding as we move forward in improving Ubuntu MATE. Sorry, I think removing a menu and replacing it by one with less functionality, is not an improvement. How can I re-install "Advanced MATE Menu"? R…

Ubuntu MATE

GitHub - ubuntu-mate/mate-menu: An Advanced Menu for the MATE Desktop

Myself, I am retired. I don't HAVE a work flow Same here

The first time I used the gnome 2 ( now classic) menu I was hooked, have used nothing else since.

[Newhere]

I think that neither of you have ever used the Redmond layout in Mate Tweak and therefore, you are not familiar with the development of its menu.

Wimpress decided in 2021 that he is no longer interested in Mate and didn't continue to work on this. That's why the MATE Menu was dropped in UM22.04 and the Redmond layout used the installed Brisk menu.
It was still possible to install the Mate menu using

sudo apt install mate-menu

In 2023, Wimpress decided to cut the connection completely and left the UM team. In UM24.04, it no longer works when you install the Mate Menu.
Obviously, the LM team has done something because the last Beta LM22 did have exactly the same behaviour as UM 24.04. : Installing the Mate Menu had no effect.

What ever they did, the official version LM22 released just 1 day later has got the Mate Menu, and that is what counts for me. Additionally, the official LM22 has also its own Software installer, which has got more in offer than the Ubuntu Gnome version.

Just a tip: What you have had in mind in the Mate Desktop.
I was from the beginning talking about the Mate Menu!

UM22.04 LTS:

jymm: The last that ordinary users like me want to do is to make changes to an operating system by adding things to it, which will probably cause issues with the next update. People like me who don't have much of a clue and just want to have a working system, look for the system that works as it comes out of the box.
In 2018, I installed Gimp 2.10 on my own with the result, that I was no longer able to update UM2018, because the UM 2018 repository had their own version of Gimp 2.08 when it was released in April 2018. I learned from this and avoided installing something that was as a different version part of UM.

Finally, I'm fully aware that my ability to help the Linux family is limited and I'm one of those who are happy to donate. I spent for the Wimpress versions of UM 2018 and 2020 more that I ever have paid for Windows systems in my life.
I will donate to the LM team because I don't take the work that is done for granted.

[sgage]

My confusion was that I thought that the Classic Menu WAS the MATE Menu. It's too bad Wimpy left MATE/UM.

[jymm]

Newhere, I agree with you on things working out of the box, though a long time Linux user I am still a GUI guy and want things to work out of the box. The terminology of mintMate menu and Advanced Mate menu also confused me. You are correct as I love on only use the Classic menu and dislike anything Windows so much I would never go near the Redmond theme, that I didn't quite understand your issues, though I eventually figured it out.

As I said Mint is a good operating system, and so much alike also seeing I use the same panel layout and wallpaper I often forget which system I am on at the time. The one thing Ubuntu Mate is clearly better on is the forum. I found many questions on Mint never get answered. I don't see that here. Good luck with MInt and stay in touch with this forum, you can still find help here for many things that are not Mint specific but about Ubuntu and Mate.

[ironfoot]

Hi, @Newhere!

@Newhere

Wimpress decided in 2021 that he is no longer interested in Mate

Why are you saying this? From UM 22.10 release notes:

---

• I’m not stepping away from Ubuntu or Ubuntu MATE. I will continue to use and develop Ubuntu MATE
• I’ve closely collaborated with the MATE packaging team for Debian for over 8 years
• Making the MATE experience in Debian and Ubuntu consistent makes maintenance easier for all involved
• Ubuntu MATE offers some modernisation of MATE via home-grown apps such as MATE Tweak and Ayatana Indicators. We want Debian users to benefit from those improvements too
• We’re hopeful the MATE spin in Debian 12 will offer the same (or extremely similar) experience Ubuntu MATE users have enjoyed for some time

---

This doesn't look like he was not interested.

@Newhere

In 2023, Wimpress decided to cut the connection completely and left the UM team.

Again, what is the source of this info? He has authored the latest release notes. He is listed as MATE Desktop core team member. He is a member of the Debian and Ubuntu MATE Packaging Team. I believe, he is still investing his time and experience into the project. The major part of the work is packaging the MATE desktop for Debian. From Debian repositories, packages are coming into Ubuntu repositories. Linux Mint is using Ubuntu repos as well.

@Newhere

That's why the MATE Menu was dropped in UM22.04 and the Redmond layout used the installed Brisk menu.

Both Brisk menu and MATE Menu are NOT part of the MATE desktop. They provide similar functionality and are offered as a more modern version of the system menu. The main difference from the classic MATE menu applets is a working search bar. Yes, MATE Menu has been removed from default installations, we have already discussed the reasons:

What do you want?

I am not implying anything. In this video, they clearly and honestly say why: the software is poorly designed and is difficult to maintain, and no team member is willing to maintain it. Now, 2 years later, it still has no maintainer. It is abandoned and remains in repositories AS IS. If you have mate-menu package installed in 20.04, it will remain installed after upgrade to 22.04. It is not installed by default in fresh installations.

The MATE Menu remains in Ubuntu repositories for 24.04. I have the UM 24.04 installation in virtual machine. I have installed the mate-menu package, and it just works.

[franksmcb]

@Newhere do not spread false information!

There were good discussions in this thread until those posts, as such this thread has finished it's usefulness.