Hello Everyone,
After Updating my Ubuntu Mate OS (RPi) , i noticed the software center is gone, is there a reason for this?
Yeah, they use the Mate Welcome screen instead as the Ubuntu software center was deemed too slow.
So that you get a choice! There are multiple ways to install s/w, Software Center and Synaptic PM being 2. But having both does nothing for you. And using 2 interchangeably may not be wise. So it is left for you to choose after install.
But no install bootstrap tricks required, just go to Welcome and you can pick the method you’re most comfortable with.
This may provide some background.
1 Like
just FYI
even canonical have plans to get rid of the sw center. Reason is that the packages that are there are not properly maintained and canonical want to have a nice clean repositories (or at least this is what i understood).
For Mate i like the idea to have its own sw installer. @Wimpy did a pretty god job with mate welcome.
and as was said before you can install the ubuntu sw center if you need it.
In a terminal, type:
sudo apt-get install software-center
Thanks everyone. i was just curious as to why they got ride of it… i am using Mate on a raspberry pi 2, so i thought maybe they got rid of it because the software was slow and laggy. is there a list of software compatible with RPi Mate???
I’m guessing, but I would have thought that if UM runs on the Pi2, then any software that ordinarily runs in UM should, in principle, run in UM on the Pi2. However, in practice, quite a lot of it may not due to relative resource constraints on the Pi2.
UM for RPi is compiled to run on an ARMhf processor and is different than the standard UM image.
Does that, mean, then, that a significant amount of standard software will not run on the Pi2 in principle as opposed to merely in practice?
Just when you think you find a Distro you can live with someone has to mess it up. If you guys didn’t want Software Center why couldn’t you just uninstall it? Back to Windows 10 for me.
Its not just mate. Ubuntu has plans to replace it. Also if you want it, just install it; it hasn't gone anywhere yet.
…sudo apt-get install software-center…
A couple of seconds to type the above into a terminal and about 30 more seconds for it to install.
If you want software center why can’t you just install it?
Additionally, you can still install synaptic package manager or gdebi or just use the good old terminal as described above.
Actually, the Software Center is installable from the current welcome screen, along with AppGrid and Synaptic.
I have never figured out why Synaptic isn’t installed by default. Young whippersnappers may not remember, but 8.04 had it installed, because it was the only graphical package manager available. It’s still the best, IMHO, and, now that Ubuntu MATE comes on a DVD, why omit this essential program?
2 Likes
@greenmeanie Yeah, because that’s the reason 
Because if you put Synaptic in front of an inexperienced Linux user they have no idea whay to with it. Power users no about Synaptic and how to install it already, so it is in Welcome for that reason 
In April 2008, I was a complete newb, and it didn’t take me long at all to learn how to use Synaptic,
Just sayin’.
Has the Ubuntu Team announced they are replacing it? I googled with only a few hits and couldn’t find an announcement from UBUNTU about it.
And I went back and looked at the Welcome screen and just seen the Option for installing software center there lol. Didn’t even notice it before reading this thread.
I was never a fan of synaptic the reason I like Software center. I still don’t get how the users of freebsd enjoy typing Shell commands all the time.
Has the Ubuntu Team announced they are replacing it?
Yes.
1 Like
So long as the Ubuntu Software Center, or some similar open source alternative, remains available to download in a matter of seconds for those who want it, I really don’t see what the fuss is with some people objecting to it not being installed by default. It would be a different story if not only was it not installed by default, but it was also unavailable to download. But, as far as I am aware, that is not the case.
I am not fussing that its gone, i can type out the Apt-Get or use the welcome center. I was just double checking as to why it was gone…if there was a reason that i should not install it. I thought maybe they removed it from the RPi version only, because it was incompatible or something…At the time, i had no idea they removed it from the Desktop version as well…I just started using mate on my main machine 