LinuxWelt 2016-01 with Ubuntu MATE 15.10

Media Coverage
#1

It's time to get <a href=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2861424/?ref_=nv_sr_1>schwifty: LinuxWelt 2016-01 hit the news stands in Austria, Germany
and Switzerland a couple of days ago. This bimonthly german magazine
now stands at 112 pages with the last issue and has a print volume of
50.000 copies. The cover DVD (8,5 GB Dual Layer) features no less
than 10 Linux distributions and live-systems, with Ubuntu MATE 15.10
32-Bit among others. Why Ubuntu MATE? Because it is too awesome to ignore. My parents run it. So , yeah, it's... still awesome.

There's a well crafted, meticulously written page on Ubuntu MATE 15.10 in
the magazine and yours truly attached it to this post.

LinuxWelt issue 2016-01 also has a new publisher and a story of war, violence, drugs, love and redemption. But you don't really see that in the magazine, which of course, we took care of. Let's say, sometimes some pieces were written under unusual circustances.

LW_2016-02_Mate.jpg826Ă—1169 173 KB

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#2

Hi David,

That’s great, although I probably shouldn’t ask about the circumstances the articles were written under…

For those of us who don’t speak German, could you give us a rough idea of what it says about Ubuntu MATE? Was it a positive, or negative review? Was anything in particular highlighted?

Kind regards,
Nathan Russell

#3

Hi Nathan,

it sings its praises slighting really only the lack of a graphical software package manager!.

They only have it in 32 Bit format on their DVD (I assume due to the fact that they had a total of 10 ISO’s on it!).

They also said that the pre-installed software choice was a good one that considered most if not all the various apps a new user would need.

In general a very good review and something the Ubuntu Mate devs can be proud of!. :smiley:

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#4

Thanks Wolf!

Ah wow, that’s excellent!

I know a lot of work has been put into the Welcome application in this release, and there’s a really clean system of installing quite a wide range of software from there, but I don’t think that problem is going away. If mainstream Ubuntu makes the switch from the Ubuntu Software Centre to GNOME Software (which I believe they’re planning to) a MATE project obviously can’t take their lead…

Anyway, I’m glad there’s some decent coverage for Ubuntu MATE!

Kind regards,
Nathan Russell

#5

This might interest you Nathan:

#6

And providing GNOME Software doesn’t introduce any compatibility issues for Ubuntu MATE, it will be included in Ubuntu MATE 16.04.

#7

@david
@Wimpy
Hallo. I’ve taken out a subscription to this most worthy conveyor of good linux-y news. :thumbsup:
Which means I’ve access to 2016-1. Would you both be happy if I provided an English translation - or might that involve problems David?
Waiting for your answers…

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#8

Hi John,

David’s already uploaded the full article to the site, so I doubt he’d mind you translating it! If you wouldn’t mind, from my perspective at least, it would be a good thing to have on here.

I can’t imagine it would be a quick job though, are you sure you’d be alright with that?

Regards,
Nathan

1 Like
#9

@alpinejohn,
no problems at all.

2 Likes
#10

Thanks for getting back to me David. I’ll get on with it. Could take a day or two though. I’m REALLY enjoying the magazine - very nice indeed.

#11

Hi David

Thank you from Switzerland! I buy the magazine anytime again!

#12

Original text by David Wolski, this translation by alpinejohn (December 2015)

TITLE
Ubuntu Mate 15.10
The successful newcomer amongst the official varieties of Ubuntu continues to use the desktop environment that Ubuntu used on its way to greatness: Mate is a fork of the classic Gnome 2 desktop. Ubuntu-Mate (32-bit version) is included on the magazine DVD.

Why continually reinvent the wheel? Ubuntu-Mate restores some of the virtues that belonged to pre-Unity versions of Ubuntu. Furthermore, the youngest entrant to the official Ubuntu family dazzles with a well considered selection of software which is particularly useful for helping beginners reduce the work required to set up a Linux desktop which has all the important software. Ubuntu-Mate is also a good distribution for older hardware, e.g. computers that were running Windows XP. Although the Mate-Desktop is undemanding it is quite charming in appearance and the version 1.10 included here has been developed to the point that the new Gnome apps that use GTK3 work well. The Mate code has been reworked and obsolete features such as the compatibility with Gnome 1 have been removed.

WELCOME AND SETUP
Ubuntu-Mate comes with a typical selection of Gnome-Desktop software – Firefox 41, LibreOffice 5.0.2, Thunderbird 38.3 (including the calendar application Lightning) and the music player Rhythmbox 3.2.1. VLC 2.2 is also included, in fulfilment of the wishes of the respectably large community that the still young distribution has attracted. Numerous former Gnome applications including a text editor, PDF viewer and a file manager are also present as reworked versions, forked for Mate. There’s no longer a pre-installed, GUI-based, software packet manager (this is used to install further software packages) as there has been increasing criticism of the persistently slow and somewhat neglected “Ubuntu Software Centre”. Instead there’s a Linux-Mint-like “Welcome” screen (currently only available in English) that one shouldn’t close at once; initial modifications to a newly installed system can be performed there. You can choose a packet manager under “Software>More Apps”. Besides the usual “Ubuntu Software Centre” both “Synaptic” and the alternative software catalogue “App Grid” are available and can be installed with a click.

NOT JUST FOR OLD COMPUTERS
As Mate does not require a 3D-capable graphic card, even an older computer feels fast enough to work with. When using a modern computer there’s an easy way to exploit the full potential of the hardware: via the menu “System > Preferences > Look and Feel > Mate Tweak”, and then under the the settings for “Windows” the “Window manager” can be changed to Compiz. Compiz works with Open GL and requires a supported graphic chip and drivers; it provides elaborate desktop effects. Generally speaking, Ubuntu-Mate works well with modest hardware: 512 MB is a realistic minimum RAM requirement. Installation requires around 6.7 GB of free space on the hard drive. The distribution is included (ISO file) on the magazine DVD.

TEXT FOR IMAGE 1
Besides the classic desktop, Ubuntu-Mate provides a well considered selection of software which can be supplemented via the Welcome screen.

TEXT FOR IMAGE 2
Modify the desktop and switch on Compiz: the configuration tool Mate-Tweak originally comes from Linux Mint; new features have been added for Ubuntu-Mate 15.10.

Website: https://ubuntu-mate.org
Documentation: https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-wily-final-release

END

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#13

@alpinejohn Thank you for translating this article :grinning:

1 Like