The default layout is being considered to change in 17.10 to the Pantheon layout featuring the Plank dock.
Rest assured, only the default will change. Other layouts (including the current Ubuntu MATE layout) will continue to be available in MATE Tweak.
I think it would be good to get the community's early thoughts on this.
0 voters
I voted yes, but my suggestion would be a layout like Pantheon except with the dock applet in the panel where the Firefox launcher is instead of Plank.
Don’t like Pantheon and can’t stand Plank and so voted “No”.
But, don’t particularly care just so long as the current menu continues to be included as an easy to use option and is fully maintained as such. But, I would be singularly hacked off if, following the change in default menu, the original menu option was left to wither and die from lack of maintenance
I voted yes because I lean toward the Cupertino layout,but really, I am ok with anything as long as the option to change is there.
Unity as default!!!
I mean Mutiny… just kidding. 
Haven’t used plank. Have used cairo-dock, but on debian-jessie, and it was causing spurious logouts in response to some window resizing operations on this xps13. The bottom “panel” looks like cairo-dock, so i’m being a leery old fogie.
One of the best things about Ubuntu-MATE is that it uses the sameold look and feel as the gnome-2 panel manager, which is the one that was on the first Ubuntu version i tried, just before Unity… arrived. I find it to be a kind of haven-of-safety thing to know there’s a distro that works like Ubuntu used to work before they… fixed it. It’s the customization. I tried XFCE and LXDE on Debian and could never get them set up as nicely as the ol’ standby setup. The cairo-dock has an interesting customization interface, and maybe plank is different, but i like the simplicity of the existing default.
It’s not that i’m against change (any more than the next guy) but knowing that if push comes to shove i can install Ubuntu-MATE on whatever hardware is available and not have to dig around through unfamiliar stuff to find out how to get the “old default” back is comforting… maybe i have trauma issues from having to unhook Unity from 11.10 long ago.
I’m all for adding new coolness for folks to choose from, but when i enter a room i expect the floor to be underfoot each time i walk through the door. 
Thinking back to when I first installed linux, the first thing I did was change the layout, coming from Windows I pretty much set up linux like windows 7.
1 panel at the bottom with the mate advanced menu to the far bottom left was how I set it up, looked great and worked fine, anything else just felt uncomfortable and unnatural, plus the learning curve of linux added to the confusion for a new linux user.
It felt natural to me coming from windows and I didn't have to think to much about getting around in UbuntuMate so I could focus more on learning linux.
Once I became more of an advance user I could then explore the look and feel of how I wanted ubuntumate to look, but to be honest after trying out all the different layouts I have gone back to the layout I originally set up.
Just my 2cents !
Voted yes, although I probably won’t use (prefer small as possible, so typically modify Redmond), but with the assumption layout change is available/obvious in Welcome.
I don’t like Plank so voted no. I came to this distro because I favored MATE and still do.
I like Mate as it is in various flavours, Ubuntu or Mint and for example in PClinuxOS.
To the developers, If it should be possible to keep it in a 32bit version also, for older CPU’s.
Hallo
One question. Why do the devs want to change this (they must have at least one reason, if not more)?
I like mate, I knew someone who used to drink it, gourd and all!
No Plank, use Docky instead. 
(And yes, I DO know Plank is a later version of Docky)!
Many of us chose Ubuntu-Mate because we missed the timeless goodness of Gnome 2 running on Ubuntu. Please keep the current layout as the default. The new layout will make a nice option for those who choose to use it.
While it’s great to see new styles, please don’t forget what Mate originally set out to be, - a continuation of the Gnome2 desktop environment. As long as that vision remains true, the default should adhere to that aim.
I voted yes because I like the single panel better and the Whisker, er Brisk, menu; but the dock is one element too many.
While the votes are useful it is the comments that are most interesting to me. So thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts.
The rationale for this proposed change is to create the most compelling “out of the box” experience we can to compete with the other Ubuntu flavours, especially considering that people will be trying out the other flavours with 17.10, given then changes happening in Ubuntu proper.
Existing Ubuntu MATE users know about MATE Tweak and many customise their setup and stray from the defaults. This tells me our defaults are not satisfactory and could be causing people to not invest more time in Ubuntu MATE and ultimately go elsewhere. That said, I do agree the defaults are intuitive but I also believe the Pantheon layout to be equally intuitive yet more attractive.
But some good ideas have surfaced in these discussions (in the various Ubuntu MATE online communities) so this is not finalised and I continue to listen to what everyone has to say ️
Thank you for that. I am actually an “Ubuntu proper” user shifting here. I never used unity correctly anyways as I would immediately install Docky, classic menu indicator, and auto hide the left hand launcher. All apps were in quick easy reach and out of the way as they are with the current Mate DE. Nobody likes change. I can think of no better OS for a laptop than Ubuntu Mate. Now time to move my desktop over. Keep up the good work.
Hallo Wimpy, hallo all
Thanks for the reasoning behind the proposal. That allows us all to contribute at another level.
Now then…
I am a great believer in “one-size-does-not-fit-all”, simply because people are different. That being said, I believe you and the devs have already solved the “challenge”.
WELCOME
Surely this is the place to offer a choice of default desktop experiences. You could add a new entry (Getting started > Post-Installation > new Choose a desktop style). You could give two or three (or four or five or whatever) options (with screenshots). While you’re at it why not add “Redmond” and “Cupertino” here too, for those taking their first GNU/Linux steps?
I’ve no idea how difficult this would be to program, but for a “changeling” it would be very useful. And very linuxy (choice & control). Of course the existing options under “Preferences” should remain.
So what do you think? 
Yes, this is one idea I’ve been thinking about based on various comments I’ve read.
