@guiverc I came across this thread and saw that UM 22.04 is out of standard support, but I am a bit confused as, with Ubuntu Pro enabled, the "Software and Updates" application notes that I have support until 2032.
If I cannot get support/help due to being on UM 22.04, I definitely will consider upgrading to 24.04 and not stay on 22.04 until 2032.
Jaymo
Ubuntu Pro is a service offered by Canonical, a company.
Ubuntu MATE and all flavors of Ubuntu have ceased support [for 22.04]; but Canonical provide additional/optional features (Ubuntu Pro which provides additional features & security for a release still in standard support plus ESM which extends standard support for a further 5 years; and can be extended an additional two via a further legacy option too), but those services come from Canonical and are not provided on Ubuntu sites.
Canonical provide support via a number of means, including phone, email, and much more, but key is that isn't is Ubuntu or Ubuntu community (inc. Ubuntu flavor) support).
FYI: If you have a Ubuntu Pro account; ESM is included with Ubuntu Pro, but ESM can be obtained without Ubuntu Pro (for some releases).
I'll add this here also, as I'm a moderator on Ubuntu Discourse... and thus know a little of the site.
Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS questions aren't welcome on Ubuntu Discourse either due to EOL status of that release, ie. if you read Welcome To Support And Help - Support and Help - Ubuntu Community Hub you'll see
If however you were to ask a question on that site saying Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and just mention you're using the MATE desktop; I'd not personally have an issue with the question (as regards on-topic)... When Ubuntu 22.04 LTS reaches its end of standard support however (ie. 2027-April; though Canonical no doubt will extend that by one month, so it'll become 2027-May just like 20.04 this year..) all 22.04 questions will be off-topic in the 'Support and Help' area of the site. Do note that Ubuntu Discourse is a rather large site, with different areas having different [specific] rules, so I'm talking about only the 'Support and Help' area here.
What I'm writing here applies now anyway.
Hi @guiverc ,
Thanks for the information. I do have an Ubuntu Pro account (in the Terminal and in the "Software and Updates" application, it was advertising this service, and given that it said it is free for my personal use and it would give support until 2032, I thought it was a good idea at the time).
I now understand that "support" does not mean "technical support" (i.e., community support) but the service will provide support in the form of security updates until 2032.
I apologise I have strayed off the topic of this thread (which I am not sure how to deal with in this case), but I am now faced with:
I am at a bit of a loss as to the best decision. Any advice or pros/cons from the community would be much, much appreciated.
Thanks
Jaymo
I think that is the question you yourself will have to answer yourself in the end. People still use Windows 7 even if it's out of any kind of support since it works for them and they don't require anything else to change to.
Having Ubuntu Pro you are at an advantage compared to people still using Windows 7 since you do get basic security support for the packages supported via Canonical - but - if you ask for specific help in community forums what most people will do is suggest to you that you switch to the current supported LTS version since "unsupported" implies in itself that resources will not be spent on that version anymore and therefore most efficient help to any question will be a suggestion to upgrade to new version - I hope I answered a part of your question
If I may, I would like to suggest that limiting support timeframe for the LTS versions of "flavours" is a critical factor in "chasing away" users to other Distros.
Forcing Users to upgrade to more recent versions is too much a behaviour akin to Microsoft, not one that promotes "brand loyalty" or "operational" stability, nor facilitates "continuity of operations".
Just so there is no misunderstanding, I view my personal habits in using my Personal Desktop as "operations"! 
I would like to further suggest that giving more official attention, support and development resources, to each of the "flavours", would allow Canonical to convert users of those DMs from other Distros to become part of the Canonical user-base, with the consequent advantages (economies of scale and financial) that such user-base growth would entail.
I'll give my thoughts here, please take or leave them as appropriate for your installs.
Firstly, as I'm a Ubuntu Member, thus I have 50 tokens for Ubuntu Pro/ESM, so I have plenty of tokens.
I'll consider how I'll use the machine, and what Ubuntu Pro offers. Ubuntu Pro offers advantages for releases still in standard support, such as live patching and security fixes for packages in universe, but to me these benefits will mainly benefit Servers that are internet facing; my servers are not internet facing so I get less benefit from this (they're also usually running Debian anyway).
I have not thus far enabled Pro on any desktop system, I've not seen that its beneficial for how I use my systems, but here my usage will likely differ.
Do I have a machine running a 22.04 LTS here?
Yep, I've just disconnected from a Ubuntu Discourse Moderation team meeting which is a video meeting, and I don't use my main desktop for that (don't like the idea of camera on my main box), and for such meetings I grab a laptop & put that to my left & use that for the meeting (laptop camera & headset). The laptop I was using is still running a 22.04 flavor LTS, and I'm in no hurry to release-upgrade it, not yet seeing a need.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Server, Desktop & specific products) are still supported, thus the major packages on that laptop are still patched for security issues, and that is enough for me; even if I'm not using the GNOME desktop that gets the security team checks but a flavor desktop on it. That laptop isn't running Ubuntu Pro either, so I'm not getting security checks on the universe packages that I could have available; and I'm not fussed. It was turned on prior to the meeting, updated, is rebooted if I think it'll benefit from that, then I use it in the meeting, and has now been shutdown. If I needed to do some web browsing; I'd be using the machine I'm using now, though if sent a link during the meeting I may use that device to look it up as I'd not be worried about its security on it.
I currently see no risk in using a Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with a flavor desktop; and that is how I see Ubuntu MATE 22.04 systems now, ie. it's a Ubuntu 22.04 LTS system with the MATE desktop being used.
I'll use Lubuntu as an example here (rather than Ubuntu-MATE 22.04) for reasons I'll shortly explain... and I'll also write as if the Lubuntu discourse wasn't shutdown (it was earlier this year), so in this example I'm using a Lubuntu 22.04 LTS system.... If I wanted support for my Lubuntu 22.04 LTS system, I'd NOT ask questions on the Lubuntu Discourse (if it was operating) as they do NOT support that release, and I'm not forcing moderators (okay that included me) to close the topic as off-topic as they don't support the release. Other sites do support it; eg. AskUbuntu supports all releases where Ubuntu Desktop/Server is still in standard support; thus I could ask a question about Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with me using the LXQt desktop (ie. I'd not write Lubuntu 22.04 LTS), so for now questions about that system are still on-topic.
Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS is in a slightly better situation though; as you have this discourse.. You may have noted that on the prior thread I left a message about 22.04 being unsupported, but at no point did I actually close the thread, as this Ubuntu Mate Community site receives sponsorship for MATE as well as supporting Ubuntu MATE; so whilst the Ubuntu MATE release maybe unsupported and thus off-topic, the MATE component is still on-topic here (as I understand rules anyway, due to sponsorship)... thus the 22.04 question was not closed. [I believe this is accurate, but I've not checked this paragraph; but it may explain why I act differently here if contrasted to other Ubuntu sites]
I'd personally NOT ask questions about 22.04 here, but you can decide for yourself, at worst all you'll get from me is a reminder that your 22.04 isn't supported by the Ubuntu MATE team (or any flavor). But here I'm talking about seeking support only; ie. I'd use sites that do support your chosen system, not ask for support where what you're running is unsupported.
Would I run a 22.04 flavor - Yep; in fact I have today as already covered.
I don't [yet?] see the benefit for Ubuntu Pro on desktop systems, mainly for Servers, but as its a free option I have no problems with others using it.
On Desktop systems, I'd prefer to use a fully supported system rather than a release in ESM.
Do I have systems still using 20.04 LTS which is now in ESM
Yep, but currently that's only because I've not yet release-upgraded them; they're also systems I only very rarely use, thus my tardiness. Those systems tend to be very old & slow (Core 2 Duo's, 4GB of RAM or less) and they don't have ESM enabled either, but I'll eventually get around to release-upgrading them. For desktop systems where I'll likely do web browsing, I do believe newer releases tend to be safer.
Pros of running a modern and fully supported release of Ubuntu (in my opinion)
Pros of using an older release with Ubuntu Pro
We all need to decide for ourselves what works for each install or use-case we have.
Personally - and just my opinion too - I think it's OK to ask questions about older LTS releases. I also think it's OK to be informed that there is an upgrade available. I agree with @guiverc's post above of the pro's of both directions.
Most of the MATE packages didn't appear to have updates during the LTS cycle anyway. The changelogs for many of them still date 2021 or 2022. Atril got a security one in Feb 2025. Therefore, I don't see 
22.04 being declared EOL really changes much, except the opportunity window for the package maintainer to release updates is closed ("unsupported"), but many 
core/libraries packages are still supported for updates.
After all, I did cling onto 16.04 LTS (GTK 2) beyond the 3 years, until I decided it's finally time.
I really appreciate everyone's input and pros/cons. This has been something I have been thinking about for a bit and I decided (since I had some spare time and considered everything mentioned to me) to upgrade my machine to UM 24.04 LTS.
All my worries were of no concern at all. The upgrade went smoothly, and nothing seems out of place. It even kept my Ambiant MATE theme and my layout as I had it in UM 22.04 
! I was pleasantly surprised as my main holdback for updating was the time investment I thought I would need to get things back in their place.
The only thing is the Welcome application and Software Boutique no longer open/work, but I knew that from before. They were fantastic applications and really set UM on a level of its own, but started to show their age the more time went on.
I just might like UM 24.04!
Thanks again.
Jaymo
My personal observation is that unsupported Ubuntu Mate LTS flavour still receiving updates from upstream Ubuntu in a year or two becomes unstable and shows up queer behaviour.
IMHO it takes all updates disabled to use old unsupported releases for years after their expiration.
@lah7, I agree with you. Many, if not most, posts on this forum that request help with a problem on an older LTS are problems with an application rather than the underlying OS. If the application bug is even somewhat esoteric, it may still exist in updated versions of that app that ship with the latest LTS. It just hasn't been noticed before. In fact, many app bugs are first identified in a version later than the one in which they were introduced. We shouldn't discourage the identification of persistent application bugs just because the poster is not using the L&G LTS. That's just squandering valuable data points.
Of course, as you noted, it's perfectly okay to remind a poster that an upgrade is available. (Full disclosure: I'm running 22.04.5.)
Here are some things to consider. I am close to 70 years old.
Is everything working right now...no hardware issues ?
Why upgrade ?