MATE seems somehow less exceptional

Thoughts & Feedback
#1

Just installed the newest version.

Then: "Favorites" was a generous area with large icons arranged into lines, then sections. Click on the menu button, go instantly to one of the icons.

Now: it's just a traditional vertical list which disappears instantly when moving the mouse straight from the menu button to one of the icons, because the cursor bumps along the way into one of the categories.

And it's only the tip of an iceberg. A modern, visually pleasant and ergonomic design replaced with a mixture of clunky and unconfigurable. That said, all those tiny one-pixel-wide black line icons spiced up with a red terminal tab close icon which looks exactly like a canonical symbol of an error have their style.

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#2

i believe what you were thinking of is the advanced mate menu it is still available it just has to be installed by sudo apt install mate-menu or it would show up under synaptic under the same name if you had that installed

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#3

Welcome @d01010101 to the community!

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#4

Thanks a lot ! While I understand that my doubts about the new version may stem also from habit, I'd say that maybe the new UI needs some improvement (for example, a list which disappears when the user decides to use it).

I'll check the traditional interface when I have access to my machine, hopefully it is not gone.

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#5

Mate has been hiding some previous features. I had to install mate themes myself too as I do not like Yaru. I won't complain as long as the features are there, but could move on if they disappear. Let's hope it doesn't come that. A lot of this is coming from Ubuntu not the Mate developers and they do a great job tempering us from some of the more intrusive upstream features, but it may get to the point where they just have to accept some upstream trends people don't want on Ubuntu Mate. After all that is why most of us are here to begin with, loved gnome2 but not gnome 3.

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#6

I had to install mate themes myself too as I do not like Yaru. I won't complain as long as the features are there, but could move on if they disappear.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong but I'm starting to see some signs on the horizon that we may be headed that direction. It's one thing to need to install additional packages. It's a pain but that can be done without issue. It's an entirely different issue when things start breaking as a result of being removed from the base system.

For instance: I used to simply use the Ubuntu-Mono-Dark icons. They were basic, classic and worked well. If you were to install Ubuntu-Mate 20.04, or even 18.04 and earlier, you could use that as the default icons without issue. Ever since 22.04 suddenly using that as default theme causes some icons to no longer have an icon. I'm talking about base packages like Mate-Tweak. The removal seems deliberate since these icons were present without issue in prior releases. It makes no sense for them to be removed now. But if I want system consistency I need to use a Yaru version of the icons. Or be willing to manually edit icons for multiple applications.

It's kind of neglect that made me so anxious when Traditional Desktop was demoted for Familiar back several releases ago. Either people would start missing things or they'd start creating papercuts like these in effort to boost their preferred settings by making the traditional settings look poorer or more of a hassle by default.

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#7

sudo apt install mate-menu

Thanks Bernie, but it did not change anything for me, despite changing the panel layout several times and restarting the server. Should I do something else? I'd need something for now.

By the way, are all these text-like icons what you call Yaru? Are they descendants from the current Ubuntu?
a

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#8

you would have to add the advanced menu from the add to panel dialog that can be gotten by right clicking on the panel

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#9

It does not fully work: causes occasional "internal ubuntu error" messages and reordering of items in Favorities is no more possible.

Thus, looks a bit abandonware but better than nothing.

#10

It turns out, Google Chrome uses the system look&feel, and after I installed the new Mate, it is hardly visible which tab is selected. The only difference is a lack of a one pixel wide light gray line (on a light gray background) under the active Chrome tab. Any method of fixing it?

#11

As it turns out, I asked someone to give me "the latest Mint iso" but I got in reality what is called UbuntuMATE :slight_smile:

Thank you guys and I am sorry for all this confusion. I go grab LM :slight_smile:

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