For those interested, new threads regarding the recent controversy have appeared on r/Linux and r/UbuntuMATE. The former seems to be most active.
2 Likes
I am unsure about brisk menu, tried it and found it buggy.
It always crashes on me, i do hope the bugs are fixed
No problem if the default layout is changed, beacuse i can still change to what ever layout i want with mate-tweak afterwards so no hurdle at all, and i think new users will welcome the briskmenu with search option, it does make ubuntu mate have a bit more modern look and feel 
1 Like
Brisk menu is very much in line with a traditional desktop metaphor. Itās not like they replaced the applications menu with a gnome-shell like overview. Itās a simple, traditional menu that just includes some additional features like search and meta key activation. Iām 100% in agreement with wimpy that both of these are features many users will expect by default.
And there is no reason to believe the classic applications menu will ābreakā. Itās a simple nested menu, itās part of upstream mate and itās not going to break just because wimpy decided to default to a different menu for ubuntu mate.
If youāre already running the classic menu, nothing will change. Nothing.
For new installs, if youāre someone that prefers the classic menu itās a simple toggle in Mate tweak.
Thereās a little too much āChicken Littleā going on here methinks.
2 Likes
Thanks @vkareh. That worked after installing Dconf, but itās to much clicks to get to that state.
@Alif_Dal_Mim and @stevecook172001 as you can see on my screenshoot above those settings are grey out and canāt be chosen in Familiar layout, but that got me thinking that it would be easier to do the opposite and chose Traditional and add Brisk menu and untick Applications and System and rearrange stuff to have menu first and places next, if I ever decide to use that when 18.04 comes out.
Itās great we have all those options and things that can easily be changed with few clicks, here and there to make it custom to each user preferences 
3 Likes
Yes, that is certainly one solution over and above the layouts available in Mate Tweak
Well iām only a nubie hereā¦ but Iāll throw my oar inā¦
I did try a nightly release of mate 18.04, and when it fired up i was met with the new menuā¦
I thought the world had come to an endā¦
But a few mins of jiggling and I had those 3 familiar words in the top left corner againā¦
Meant with the greatest respect for Mr Wā¦
Iām one of those that took to mate because of the old Gnome 2 style menuā¦
Itās still going strong in distros like fedoraā¦ red hatā¦ Solaris unix and linuxā¦ and Ghost BSD uses mate
Look how fast Mate became a āproperā ubuntu on the main websiteā¦ It wasnāt because they liked the colour schemeā¦
Mr W hit the nail bigtime when he decided to resurrect the G2 style panelā¦ and i dont think it can be inproved onā¦
BUT it is Mr Wās project and he has the right to take it where he seeās fitā¦ but I look at so many distros now and they all want to be āelementaryā or like microsloth windozeā¦
I get that attracting new users is a good thing, but all the windoze users ive ever tried with linux dont seem to mind about the menu, it just annoys them that they cant click a file twice to rename itā¦ and worst of all is the linux way of 1 icon does all movies and other multimedia.
I tried solus but thought that menu was worse than a pron site pop upā¦ not for meā¦
So Mr Wā¦ i respect your want to take mate a certain wayā¦ but please dont loose what made Mate what it isā¦
Lol, i did try elementary for a few months, and spent all that time trying to find out how to get the wingpannel out of it and replace it with the Mate panelā¦ Because that wingpanel launcher was just horribleā¦
4 Likes
Another possible idea:
In the first boot, a window shows up with all the themes(with screenshots), explaining each one, and the user select what they like more.
And somewhere saying:
āIf you want to change the theme later use MATE Tweak.ā
3 Likes
Thatās a terrific idea. Though, I have a feeling it wonāt be implemented. However, I will be delighted to be proved wrong on that.
2 Likes
This would also reassure people that nothing has been removed.
There is implicit and explicit muttering about the āconservatism of the user baseā, but I found it very surprising that 40% of Firefox users have installed no extensions, including those using development and beta versions of the browser. (Intuitively, I would have expected 4% rather than 40%).
2 Likes
Anyone? What happened to the āShut Downā¦ā applet now missing from far upper right in both Familiar and Traditional? Last seen in 17.10 but I think goes back at least a decade.
I donāt miss it but others may. I use Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
Its in the āadd to panelā and also now located at the bottom of the menu.
It's that new icon to the left of the weather\clock\calendar applet.
I honestly don't mind the new menu it just shouldn't be where it is. If they need that to become a permanent part of the menu then the smart thing to do would be to change the Clock\Calendar to be an indicator and lock it to the left of the new system icon menu. (What is the name of that indicator any way?)
I went hunting for a indicator of that type and found the indicator-datetime but it seems to have a bunch of unity dependencies. Maybe future work could be to decouple it from unnecessary stuff like that and Evolution and it can be made to work as a part of the whole? If nothing else, it will provide a consistent look at least, one on par with what is expected from the Traditional look.
At this point if I get the name of the new indicator I plan on uninstalling it in favor of the old applet as soon as it's safe to do so. (No longer in Beta or RC.)
2 Likes
Excellent. It looks great, Iām looking forward to it.
I'm running a a different theme, but they are all the same. There is a invisible bar that if you right click on it will tell you the app name.
Why not just change the panel theme with MateTweak?
Because itās not that simpleā¦
Maybe this will help you understand what I mean:
The indicator-applet is a package deal for the most part.
You can remove the logout applet though.
sudo apt remove indicator-session
Conversely, I've followed the directions listed at the end of this thread in hopes of a more perfect theme.
Make Top Right Panel in Mutiny more like Unity?
Despite all appearances this thread is actually about the indicators and the issue with the icon ordering which Wimpy explains in this post is something being worked on and is much more complicated than it might seem.
lah7 gives some nice instructions on how to make it work if you're willing to work for it.
That worked out quite well. Some nice instructions for this stuff on these forums, just a pity that it usually takes using Google to find it sometimes.
3 Likes
And Iām glad you found your answer. 
1 Like
Iāll definitely not be the first to wonder about this. The thread I linked to was for 17.10 so people expect there to be things that are out of place because theyāre being worked on and tested. On LTS releases people expect that to be done and over with.
If thereās not a reasonable way to place things in the right order it might be wise to simply put the transition on hold for the final release and rejoin when the dependencies have been decoupled and there is a way to do this without needing to edit with dconf-editor. Even then youāll have those who will complain that the weather is no longer a part of the calendar\clock applet. Honestly I donāt like having to use weather report myself, I much rather have it work the old way. That said the new calendar is kind of neat and while some refinement is definitely preferred I can see it becoming a new default once the bugs and theming have been worked out.
Regardless of a way for individual users to fix things I must predict that this will be a common question coming up when 18.04 releases: āWhereās the shutdown button?ā followed by āWhy canāt I move the button to the end?ā and so on.
Actually the more I look at it the busier it looks. I may just remove the applet you mentioned and put the Mate clock\weather\calendar back inā¦LOLā¦
1 Like