Trying Mate for the first time

[yawanathanisrael]

Hello,

I have after many years have decided to give Mate a try, I have followed Wimpy on Jupiter Broadcasting and rest of the gang for years. though I also use Manjaro, I am just looking for the simple computing experience, with little issues and a whole lot of fun.

So far I'm liking the community, I can't tell you how tired I am with the infighting and philosophical differences. I want a distro that just wants to allow everyone to enjoy Linux and use whatever technology that will help get our computing on!

Yawanathan

[alpinejohn]

Hello yawanathanisrael

You may find this useful to get the most out of Caja, the Mate desktop file manager:

Caja file manager - some tutorials for beginners

If you’ve not used the Caja file manager before you may find the six video tutorial series by “the frugal computer guy” to be just what you need to get you using this very nice file manager to its full extent. If you’ve just come from windows you really should have a look at what Caja can do, you’ll be surprised… By the way, the videos demonstrate Caja running on linux mint, but as far as I can see Caja works just the same when running with ubuntu-mate. LINK (the frugal computer guy - Caja tut…

If the website proves a little difficult to navigate, this link:

[https://thefrugalcomputerguy.com/linux/grouppg.php?ser=10001&grp=8]

should take you to the video tutorials for Caja (many thanks to thefrugalcomputerguy).
I hope you enjoy Ubuntu-Mate

[vkareh]

Welcome to Ubuntu MATE! Hope you have fun using it. Like any community forum, there's some of infighting and complaining, but overall this is a very civil group

We have plenty of people that don't even use Ubuntu MATE, and yet stick around because of this website, so make yourself at home and feel free to ask any questions

[tiox]

At the very least, if.you find Ubuntu / Debian unsatisfactory, you can use Manjaro's MATE variant if.you like the DE, but not the OS.

[Frederick_Wrigley]

I've been using Manjaro MATE, for software long since disappeared from the Debian and/or Ubuntu repos. The AUR contains practically every Linux program ever written, and the Pamac package manager, once you enable the AUR, will download the source code and compile it automagically.

I'm still running Ubuntu MATE development branch, to help with testing, but Manjaro is what I use as my daily driver.

It's like falling in love with Linux all over again.

[Inundated]

I have a USB HD I have been using to take Ubuntu 20.04 for a spin...and decided to replace it with Ubuntu MATE 20.04. I'm impressed!

It is fast and well-designed. I love Software Boutique...best designed software center I've seen.

I run Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon on my main HD...I'm not at all dissatisfied with it, so I'm not distro hopping just now. (I haven't tried the MATE version of Linux Mint.) But I like MATE better than vanilla Ubuntu, and would definitely use this as a daily driver if it came to that.

[tiox]

The best part about your instance is that Linux Mint also comes in a MATE variety, so you don't have to go away from Linux Mint if you want to retain some of its... erm, mintiness.

Even still, you can install the Mint themes in Ubuntu MATE and be just as well-off with the only "downside" being that you may have to learn how to manage a traditional Ubuntu system versus using Linux Mint's tools, but the upside is you get to use some newer software compared to Linux Mint, which may resolve some security vulnerabilities introduced with using older libraries if you care about that.

Most don't, which is why I would recommend just sticking with Linux Mint if its base software is what you are most familiar with and only switch to using Linux Mint MATE if you don't want to deal with uninstalling the Cinnamon stuff to keep the system free of bloat you won't use anymore. I am sure if you look around hard enough you'll find a conversion guide from Linux Mint Cinnamon to MATE (including switching from GDM to LightDM) which would be perfect for your needs.

[Inundated]

I actually just added the MATE DE in Linux Mint by using this terminal command:

mint-meta-mate

So far, so good, though I am now noticing text moving oddly when I scroll up and down in Chrome. Is this "screen tearing"? It is a little annoying, but not awful.

[Inundated]

I was able to fix the screen tearing in Linux Mint MATE an odd way...

Yes, that's the Xfce window manager. Yes, it works. (I also have the Xfce DE installed. I forgot I even had it.)

Any other option here does not work to stop the tearing. Numerous net searches said I should change it to Marco + Compton, but that isn't an option on the menu. It defaults to Marco + Compositing.

So, here I land for now. And that external USB HD - I will stick with Ubuntu MATE for whenever I finally am able to go somewhere where I need it to avoid Windows 10 at another location I used to visit every other week...

[Inundated]

It turns out that at least in Linux Mint MATE, compton is only an option if you install MATE Tweak. Which I did. (I love that the search brings up an option to install!)

And that fixes the screen tearing.

[tiox]

I always tended to like Compiz myself but then again I'm a freak 'round these parts.

If you want Exposé-like window management, you could install Brightside for hot corners and Skippy XD for something a bit more friendly to look at than Marco's default window picker. My guide here should still work on most Ubuntu-based systems.

If it doesn't, message me and I'll check it out.