In my opinion (and probably many of yours too), Ubuntu-MATE is the gold standard for what the MATE desktop experience should/could be like. I believe a lot of the tools and polish that went into making this such a great experience are specific to Ubuntu, but I'm wondering if any components can either be pushed upstream (hence included in vanilla MATE) or re-created on other distros?
Per the title, I'm specifically trying to figure out how to re-create or enable to Ubuntu-MATE indicator-applet-complete functionality outside of Ubuntu. System indicators (sound, date/time, session, network etc) look and function so much better on Ubuntu-MATE vs other versions of MATE. From my understanding this has to do with ayatana-application indicators designed by Canonical. Is there anyway to get these outside of the Debian/Ubuntu world? When I add the 'indicator-applet-complete' to my panel in openSUSE TW for example, it just says 'No Indicators'.
Another small thing Ubuntu-MATE seems to do well is in the Mutiny layout, the Plank panel does not extend the entire edge of the screen (ie no over or under lapping of the MATE panel). If I add Plank to my MATE and configure it the same way, the Plank panel runs overtop the MATE panel, or underneath the MATE panel, hence cutting off the first icon in the list.
Anyway, the Ubuntu-MATE is doing an amazing job with this distro and really taking that MATE experience to another level. Hopefully upstream can implement some of these components into the vanilla DE.