My experience with Ubuntu MATE 22.04 so far

Thoughts & Feedback
#1

I use Ubuntu MATE since 16.04. I loved it so much, I have started to install this flavour everywhere - on all of my computers, my parents computers etc.

Recently, I had to reinstall MATE on my main PC (from reasons unrelated to MATE iself). I have downloaded and installed the 22.04. I have been in constant struggle to configure it ever since.

The first and most controversial was (of course) the nVidia driver. It caused me a lot of trouble. The mistake I have made was, that I have checked install drivers during installation. Somehow, the Ubuntu installer did install incomplete set of packages. It installed the ko but not nvidia-settings. This created a lot of confusion between me - MATE and GPU. The system thought, that there are drives installed manually, and did not allow me to install them via the System Settings window. At the same time, since nvidia-settings was not installed, the automatically generated nvidia-settings "after startup" call went nowhere.
Initially I thought, that there is problem with Window manager so I tried re-installing compton etc. But after all of my Open-GL applications refused to work properly I have gave the drivers second look and solved the issue.
This issue alone took me several hours to solve. I would have been much happier, if the installer DID NOT install broken version of drivers and made me install them after first startup.

My other complaints are strictly personal opinion, but still something that bothers me.

I REALLY LOVE <3 the new colors introduced with Ubuntu 21.04. I have also REALLY LOVED the "change colors" option in the MATE Welcome. I prefer Ambient MATE to Yaru theme. I have already presented my opinion in Ubuntu 21.04 themes .
I understand that you don't want to ship "legacy" theme with the disc, but I would prefer the return of "change colors" option that would allow me to install the legacy theme without the need to "google the package I need to install".

I agree that "netbooks" are a thing of the past. But when I was reading this, I did not realize, that dropping the support for netbooks also ment, that mate-maximus was removed from the system. All of the options in MATE Tweak were "grayed out" without any explenation. I had to open the python script and find for myself what application was responsible for removing window decoration on fullscreen etc. and google how to install it.
Netbooks may be "thing of the past" but there are a lot of 13inch notebooks being sold. And even on 15 inch notebook (or even my 27inch main screen) want to save as much space as possible "cuppertino" style - by moving window panel to the top MATE panel and removing the window decoration on fullscreen.

In the end all of the issues I've had were resolved by installing 3 apt packages. I just had to spend several hours learning what are those packages I need to install/reinstall. Not something I was used to with Ubuntu MATE. Previously almost all of my configuration was done via the Installer and MATE Welcome.

And after one friday night and sunday morning of getting the MATE in order, I can finally start solving the issues that made me reinstall my PC in the first place.

I still love the MATE desktop, however this was a really cold shower for me.

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#2

Yes 22 04 had these design like changes.
Ist always better to test it before installing. Upgraded from 18.04 yesterday.

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#3

I have been caught off guard, since I have already been using 22.04 - upgraded from 18.04 -> 20.04 -> 21.04 -> 21.10 -> 22.04.
I did not realize at that point how many packages were not installed in the stock installation.
I have read about it in the blogposts (as stated above) but there is a difference between stating “we no longer ship support for netbooks” and “if you want ‘so an so feature like mate-maximus’ you need to install ‘so and so package like mate-netbook’”.
Regarding the “mate-maximus” - I don’t see why should it be dropped since it benefits all of notebooks imo, not only sub 11’’ machines.

#4

I am using this system and really really happy with it. It has some cons apart from your experiences which you have faced.

Some like being slow when transferring a large amount of GIGS to USB or External HDD. Firefox hanging sometimes even I have enough ram 12 GB and SSD, Some times the sound disappears whenever I connect to my TV using HDMI via Sound Switcher application which I do not know why sometimes works and sometimes not.

Other issues also occur but not big deal.

I hope Ubuntu Mate developers solve these problems which transferring from one version to another like generation to generation.

#5

Overall good
Tried In-Line upgrade from 20.04 MATE to 22.04 MATE with no real issues. Have spreadsheet with all installed apps, configurations and backups of certain apps. For instance did upgrade, removed snapd and from back up dropped in Vivaldi deb to do research.
Do realize not at a point release.
Can't pin it down but on occasion not able to determine trigger but last time selected 3 folders on Desktop and dragged to another folder on Desktop and on release the screen blinks, all icons on Desktop are gone and immediately return. May try different manager. (on Marco (built-in: Xpresent) Has happened multiple times. Another example: Have two 1/4 screens of backup drives on left and same on right of new data. Drag to backup drives and once in awhile the screen goes blank, comes back and have to relaunch the 4 screens. Not a big deal.

+1

Although don't think it is MATE issue as an Ubuntu issue from things I have read on the issue. It also seems to vary as learned to just step aside an let it sit until after clicking on remove safely until the drive light turns off. Does happen even if not doing anything else.

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#6

When I try to transfer more 140 GB first thing it runs smooth and after that it sleeps like it is taking a slow motion to send those files to External HDD.

Even in Ubuntu they have the same issue. Hope they can fix it cause in Windows and Mac never faced this kind of issues. Only in Linux.. Strange

#7

Yep +1 @Salah same thing here. Bought new drives, same issue. Found have to safely disconnect drive and let it sit because I think it is not done writing at extremely slow speeds (1 bit a minute :grinning: ). Eventually after a long time it finishes and light goes out. I now just move small groups and even then sometimes very slow. Used to grab my backup folder (200 gb.) and drag to removable drive. Even formatted two as ext4, no difference here.

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#8

Hi, @Mikolas_Stuchlik

You wrote:

You've mentioned above that you've read "the blogposts" but I'm not sure if you've also found the part of the "Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS Release Notes" where I found the following related explanation for having removed the mate-netbook and the mate-maximus packages in "Ubuntu MATE 22.04":

"(...) We’ve removed mate-netbook from the default installation of Ubuntu MATE and as a result the Netbook layout is no longer available. We did this because mate-maximus , a component of mate-netbook , is the cause of some compatibility issues with client side decorated (CSD) windows. There are still several panel layouts that offer efficient resolution use :triangular_ruler: for those who need it. (...)"

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#9

It means ghat mate-maximus is conflicting with csd window decorations. Reason is that csd window decorations and the min, max, close buttons are rendered with gtk3 and not with the window manager.

If you install Gtk3-classic patch with ppa it won't hide these buttons. They are drawn differently in each csd apllication. So its only logical that maximus is not working well on these newer buttons.

#10

I've copied ~4TB of media files to an external USB3 hard drive using my new 22.04 system without noticing any issues, not that I sat there and watched it, but it seemed to complete in a very reasonable amount of time.

Some more details will be required in order to have any reasonable chance for a fix

I format my external drives as ext4, if you are using pre-formated NTFS drives, then perhaps the Linux NTFS drivers need more work? I've had no issues with USB3 sticks formatted MSDOS or NTFS but none of these have been larger than 256GB and most are 128GB or less.

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#11

I have used ubuntu mate several years and until version 20.04 I have been very comfortable. I think that I do not need much to be happy wirh linux. But I do not like that some great themes have been removed. That is disgusting.
Also I do not like that ubuntu mate 22.04 takes more resources. I want a quick system. For example, the other desktop that I like is XFCE.
For those reasons I have installed ubuntu 20.04 again and I am very happy with it. It is better without any doubt.

#12

Thank you for your honest feedback, for me, it's the complete opposite. Ubuntu Mate is like a breath of fresh air for distro seekers who just want to end the search. A lot of distributions have the look and feel, but lack the stability as a daily driver. This is common, especially if you focus on the terminal being your number 1 source for updates. Mate is quite different and I like it. Also, it feels like you own your own computer and not a slave to what the distro wants you to go through today.

I solidly recommend this for All.

After making this post I was hit with a DDoS while browsing Reddit, seemed like the site was using buttons in strange places either way, had to do a reinstallation. I just would love to know how to switch off guest accounts, please.

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#13

Hi, I've managed to get the Raspberry Pi desktop version to run on my old Acer netbook.....probably about 15 years old.....and it works rather well.

I have a MacBook Air, M1...which I love.....BUT. Now that I'm retired, I don't think I'll ever feel able to replace it. To that end, I'm experimenting with Raspberry Pi / Ubuntu Mate to discover just how much I can do.
Phil

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