I've upgraded to the latest LTS version of Ubuntu mate from the previous LTS.
But I cannot find the App centre. That the replacement for the software boutique.
How do I install the Ubuntu mate app centre as it is missing from my installation?
I liked using the old software boutique it was one easy way to install a load software at once.
Thank you
Me too. And there is a 'Software' link which still appears in my main Menu. DO you see that ?
W
Yes I see that but that isn't I think the app center.
I was frustrated with this change also. I am quickly becoming less enchanted with MATE do to a number of changes. Having said that, my guess is that the following replaced the Software Boutique:
System>Admin>App Center
If I go to system/administration this is what I see from the menu.
These Dead links to welcome and software boutique. No App centre.
Think I might have to do a fresh install of Ubuntu mate 24.04. Which I didn't really want to do.
Hi, @CyberMaxpower (Matt) 
(Usual disclaimer: please note that I'm just another Forum user here. I'm NOT a Ubuntu or Ubuntu MATE developer).
You wrote:
Right. It is true that the "Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS Release Notes | Ubuntu MATE" - https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-noble-numbat-release-notes/ - do mention the following:
" (...) Upgrading to Ubuntu MATE 24.04
The upgrade process to Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS from either Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS or 23.10 is the same as Ubuntu.
- Ubuntu 24.04 Upgrade Process (...)"
And it is also true that the "Ubuntu 24.04 Upgrade Process (...)" web page - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NobleUpgrades - has the following text:
" (...)
Before You Start
- You can directly upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS ("Noble Numbat") from either Ubuntu 22.04 LTS ("Jammy Jellyfish") or Ubuntu 23.10 ("Mantic Minotaur").
- Be sure that you have all updates applied to your current version of Ubuntu before you upgrade.
- Before upgrading it is recommended that you read the release notes for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS [ http://wiki.ubuntu.com/NobleNumbat/ReleaseNotes ], which document caveats and workarounds for known issues in this version.
If you have a version of Ubuntu other than 22.04 LTS or 23.10, please see UpgradeNotes for information on how to upgrade.
Upgrade from 22.04 LTS or 23.10 to 24.04 LTS
Upgrading Ubuntu Desktops to 24.04 LTS
You can easily upgrade over the network with the following procedure.
1. Run the update-manager application.
2. In Update Manager, click the Settings... button, and enter your password to start the Software Sources application.
3. Select the sub menu Updates from the Software Sources application.
4. Confirm the "Notify me of a new Ubuntu version:" option is set to "For any new version", and change it if otherwise.
5. Close the Software Sources application and return to Update Manager.
6. In Update Manager, click the Check button to check for new updates.
7. If there are any updates to install, use the Install Updates button to install them.
8. Run update-manager -d.
9. A message will appear informing you of the availability of the new release.
10. Click Upgrade.
11. Follow the on-screen instructions. (...)"
HOWEVER, I see that the "NobleNumbat/ReleaseNotes - Ubuntu Wiki" - http://wiki.ubuntu.com/NobleNumbat/ReleaseNotes - currently (28th April 2024) redirects to "Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) Release Notes - Release - Ubuntu Community Hub" - https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/noble-numbat-release-notes/39890 - which is a wiki discussion forum post (that is frequently edited) and that it now has the following warning in the beginning of the "Ubuntu Desktop" subsection of the "Known Issues" section:
"(...)
Known Issues
(...)
Ubuntu Desktop
- Upgrades from previous Ubuntu releases are not supported yet. Critical bug fixes for upgrades are expected in the coming days (LP: #2063221 is one example of a critical bug that is difficult to recover from. Please be patient here or make a backup and do a clean install instead.) (...)"
You (@CyberMaxpower) also wrote:
You're right that "App Center" is the replacement for the "Software Boutique", as mentioned in the "Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS Release Notes" - https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-noble-numbat-release-notes/ :
"(...)
What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 23.10?(...)
- Added App Center [ https://snapcraft.io/snap-store ], that replaces Software Boutique. (...)"
In a VirtualBox VM where I did a fresh install of Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS ("Noble Numbat") - by using the "ubuntu-mate-22.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso" ISO file available at https://ubuntu-mate.org/download/amd64/jammy/ to install it - I can find the "App Center" by clicking on the Ubuntu MATE Menu (at least that's what I call that menu), and then hovering the mouse over "Administration" to show its options, which reveals that "App Center" is the first option, as I show in the following screenshot:
You've also asked:
According to the Ubuntu MATE 24.04 Release Notes, "App Center" is apparently the same thing as the Snap Store ("snap-store"). And, indeed, if I open a "MATE Terminal" window in that Ubuntu MATE 24.04 VM and I then run the following command in that window:
snap info snap-store
... I then get the following result (note the "App Center" reference in the "summary:" field):
$ snap info snap-store
name: snap-store
summary: App Center
publisher: Canonicalâś“
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/snap-store
license: unset
description: |
App Center
commands:
- snap-store
snap-id: gjf3IPXoRiipCu9K0kVu52f0H56fIksg
tracking: latest/stable/ubuntu-24.04
refresh-date: 4 days ago, at 13:51 WEST
channels:
latest/stable: 41.3-77-g7dc86c8 2024-03-06 (1113) 13MB -
latest/candidate: 41.3-77-g7dc86c8 2024-03-05 (1113) 13MB -
latest/beta: ↑
latest/edge: 0+git.97116aa 2024-04-24 (1134) 10MB -
preview/stable: –
preview/candidate: 0.2.7-alpha 2023-02-02 (864) 10MB -
preview/beta: ↑
preview/edge: 0.3.0-alpha 2023-08-14 (1017) 11MB -
installed: 0+git.1419621 (1124) 10MB -
So, @CyberMaxpower, I'm guessing that you can first run the same snap info snap-store command to see if snap-store is already installed and, if it is not already installed, you can then try to run the following command to install it:
sudo snap install snap-store
Related note: you can see the list of installed snaps in your system, by running the following command:
snap list
I hope this helps. Please, report again later in this discussion topic, as the development of this topic can also help other users
Hi Ricardo,
Thank you for the help and the information.
When I did snap info and it just showed.
description: |
snap-store.
i gave up because i had so many other problems with the upgrade and with stuff not work right. In the end i diced to do a fresh install of Ubuntu mate 24.04.
again thank you
Was Synaptic there or did you try to install Synaptic?
Synaptic was a part of my Ubuntu mate 22.04 LTS setup. After the upgrade it's was still there. Yes I could have used it but I liked how the software boutique had most of the software I use and the bulk install option was a plus.
The new app center wasn't installed for some reason when I upgraded to 24.04 was hoping for that to have a bulk install option too.
Anyway I had other problems with the upgrade so I have did a fresh install of Ubuntu mate 24.04 LTS. Now have the app center but isn't that good, no bulk install option.
When Thunderbird was moved to be a snap, a deb remained that installed it for people upgrading.
Although the Boutique is abandoned for something not as good, no similar automatic update mechanism was put in place.
What other ones have been affected by this: what snaps does a fresh Ubuntu MATE 24.04 have installed?
Hi, @lovingboth (Ian)
You've asked:
In a fresh install of Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS ("Noble Numbat") in a (VirtualBox) VM, these are the "snaps" that got automatically installed:
$ snap list
Name Version Rev Tracking Publisher Notes
bare 1.0 5 latest/stable canonicalâś“ base
core22 20240408 1380 latest/stable canonicalâś“ base
firefox 125.0.2-1 4173 latest/stable/… mozilla✓ -
firmware-updater 0+git.5007558 127 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
gnome-42-2204 0+git.510a601 176 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
gtk-common-themes 0.1-81-g442e511 1535 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
snap-store 0+git.1419621 1124 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
snapd 2.62 21465 latest/stable canonicalâś“ snapd
snapd-desktop-integration 0.9 157 latest/stable/… canonical✓ -
This is the first time I actually don't really care about upgrading. If everything goes perfectly I'm going to retain the same experience, deprived of the Software Boutique and the Welcome Center. There are however many risks that my perfectly tuned configuration (compiz, thundebird with birdtray) won't work anymore because of this snap obsession. I've nothing against snaps per se but I'm a thunderbird power user and I fear snaps won't help. At this rate, maybe an "upgrade" towards MINT could be a better option...
Season's greetings to everyone. I have used the opportunity to perform an upgrade from 22.04.5 LTS to 24.04.1 LTS as I got a pop-up message inviting me to do so.
As I have the time today, I confirmed the upgrade which seemed to have been running fine, and after further updates of the 24.04.1 LTS version, I noticed that I cannot open the " Software Boutique" application under the " Control Centre/ Administration" panel.
Simply clicking several times on the "Software Boutique" labelled does not launch the application 
I have double-checked the Release Notes, and have been able to add the "Snap Store" following the instructions given with the Install Snap Store on Ubuntu article and have fired the following command on the terminal:
sudo snap install snap-store
I have followed the instructions given in another post, and have been able to remove the "Software Boutique" and the "Welcome" icons by firing the following commands on the terminal:
sudo snap remove software-boutique
sudo snap remove ubuntu-mate-welcome
Everything is good for now 
Will check the new upgrade further...
Hi, just wanted to say thanks for the advice in this thread, I now have a working App Centre!
Hi, @Ian_315 and welcome to the Ubuntu MATE Community!
Isn't Linux Mint also based on Ubuntu? I would guess that any drift towards snaps will eventually hit Mint, too, if that's the case.
Yes Mint is Debian/Ubuntu based. I used it for about two or three years. Clem is not fan of snaps, and Mint leans more towards flatpaks. Mint also offers a pure Debian flavor.
A self-installing Snap Store that overwrites part of our APT package base is a complete NO NO. It's something we have to stop and it could spell the end of Chromium updates and access to the Snap Store in Linux Mint.
I'm still on ubuntu mate 22.04, and still wondering why I should upgrade if everything still works perfectly. I enjoy updated apps thanks to snaps and flatpaks which I use regularly. As an LTS, 22.04 is going to be supported until 2027, so I still have two more years of free beer so to speak. I still hope the ubuntu MATE team regains some of its past enthousiasm and do something meaningful for the future. If it's not the case, Mint is still an option to explore. The default Mint MATE desktop doesn't use ayatana indicators and the venerable mate-tweak, which are exclusive homegrown ubuntu-mate tools . However, because mint is based on ubuntu it is going to be possible to install selected ubuntu-mate components and have a nice and well supported distro, made from people that still care about the MATE desktop. Mint btw offers Xapps, forked GTK3 apps that work perfectly in traditional desktops like MATE. My only wishes for the future are wayland support (with wayfire), touchpad support and (maybe) autotiling... but I'm dreaming too much I guess...
I believe you still have time to sign up for an Ubuntu Pro license until 2025-04 and that would give you years more of support for 22.04. That would give you into early 2032 - 2034 depending on how much support you want.
jammy 22.04 Release Date 2022-04-21 End Of Life 2025-04 distrowatch
I did that for my brother and his wife (that live 2.5 hours away) and wanted off of Windoze but have no clue about anything technical. Every time I would go to visit them they would have 3 to 7 addon toolbars that are all ad supported. They had no idea where they came from. Since I put them on Ubuntu Mate not one!
Ubuntu Mate and upstream core Ubuntu are not equal. Having longer core vs flavour support unfortunately does not mean that flavour would remain healthy. I had learned that with UM 20.04. My system caught unexplainable glitches approximately after year of being unsupported as the flavour but still receiving core updates. Everything was cured by itself after upgrade to next UM LTS.
