I'm running nvidia-driver-550 at version 550.144.03-0ubuntu0~gpu24.04.1. The debacle at the moment is that I'm stuck on kernel 6.11 until I get around to applying a patch that will allow it to build on both 6.11 and 6.14. Another thing I want to explore is getting 550.163.01-2 from trixie. Neither of these will happen this month for me; and at the moment 550.144.03 is working OK, as is kernel 6.11.
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Its not out of the box experience then
Actually it was until about 2 weeks ago. We can still run NVIDIA out of the box with the 580 drivers on 6.14 with an RTX 2060 like mine. However, NVIDIA have made a mess of their drivers, and it freezes in certain situations on 580. That's a regression that has nothing to do with MATE desktop.
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Other distos with 6.14 didnt have this scaling problem for me, even freezes that you mentioned never happened.
Even without nvidia my point still stands , no other distro can offer better experience than mint for new users. This might change when someone becomes more familiar with linux but at beginner level mint is ahead of everyone else
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Ah that's right, you had a scaling issue where it wouldn't keep the setting between boots, yes? That is unlucky.
The freezes are not related to kernel 6.14, btw, they're related to NVIDIA drivers after the 550 series, and have only been confirmed for the 2060. This is outlined here: Downgrade 580 on Ubuntu? Wine freezes (any D3D) - Linux - NVIDIA Developer Forums
I like Mint, too. But just last week an acquaintance of mine had an issue "out of the box" with NVIDIA and Mint 22. So I don't know if Mint is panacea for all things Linux + NVIDIA.
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I did āexploreā a few other flavor with Mate desktop. Including Mint.
Never satisfied. Always running my UM since 15 years on a day-to-day.
If ever UM were (if ever) to be discontinued, Iā probably āfall backā to Mint or main Ubuntuā¦still with mate desktop.
The lack of āvisibilityā is due to the fact that publishers are geared toward the next new thing vs what works and may seem boring or outdated, since no major changes. Also some flavors are more active at entertaining these publishers also.
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I have to say a visit to this community never disappoints ā thereās always interesting discussions to read and I found this one neat.
I agree with the points aligning with, whatever youāre used to or grew up with becomes āeasy to useā for you. For me, Iāve used Ubuntu MATE in some form or fashion for a bit now, and I find the general concept of the upper part of the screen being the āmain interaction zoneā easy. I also love the āApplications, Places, Systemā way of navigating.
Currently, my main rig is running Debian 13 with Openbox and I customised the right-click (āmain menuā) to have āApplications, Places, System) subcategories and the panel at the top of the screen. I also have come to like Traditional OK theme (Clearlooks?) so I use that too (MATE themes for the win). And a solid grey background. 
Computers should be simple and straightforward, production machines for productive work (or play), but production and flashy eye candy āmodernā stuff donāt mix. But, I digress.
I also tried Linux Mint MATE but a kernel update broke my system. I also didnāt like that I had to jump through hoops to get the āApplications, Places, Systemā navigation method. No good for me.
I also tried Ubuntu Unity (I saw Unity mentioned in this thread) and, although I love it, I got to a point where I really couldnāt customise it to my heartās content without deleting āubuntu-unity-desktopā as a dependency.
Different strokes for different folks one might say. But, Iād like to see many of those strokes be Ubuntu MATE. Agreed, great community, great distro.
Jaymo
[EDITED BY THE AUTHOR: Back on Ubuntu Unity and Ubuntu MATE on my other machine. Custom window management (e.g. openbox) isnāt what itās cracked up to be, and I only recommend it for people who have a lot of free time on their hands. I may have some free time, but I want to spend it on better things than fiddling with config files.
Ubuntu MATE ā highly recommend.]
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The question isnāt if UM went away (because of the Mate desktop going away) what OS would you use but which desktop would you use, because for most of us it would be Debian/Ubuntu based. Like someone saying I would use Mint.
Mint Cinnamon, Mint Xfce, some other Desktop like Gnome or Budgie or LMDE which is only Cinnamon?
Myself I would go Cinnamon, then Xfce and last KDE. If UM went away but the Mate desktop remained I would go to Sparky Mate semi-rolling.
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