Hi @grimtwin,
if you still want the Mate DE, you can try installing the stock Ubuntu version and install the Mate packages on top of that, you can select the Mate DE at the login screen by clicking the cogwheel icon!.
Install the base Ubuntu system, update it and then reboot, open a terminal with Ctrl + Alt + t and paste the following command, log out and change the DE as described above and select Mate, log back in!:
sudo apt install mate-desktop-environment-core mate-desktop-environment-extras ubuntu-mate-welcome
I would go for the 17.10 version myself!:
