Upgrading Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu-MATE 16.04 for desktop comparission

Support & Help Requests
#1

I’m 99.9% sure I want Ubuntu-MATE for my desktop update as I think all the UI changes since 10.04 have been counter-productive – all pain, no gain, YMMV. My wife and I still run 10.04 but need to update as even security support has run out now.

I’m thinking she might actually like Unity since she runs every app full screen, so I want to setup an old 64-bit laptop with Ubuntu 16.04 and then install MATE as an alternate login so she can evaluate them. What is the name of the “top level” meta-package to accomplish this.

I went through this for 14.04 and had four desktops – Unity, two Gnome, variations, and MATE but I had issues with MATE launching caja in an infinite loop on startup – never found a real solution. I saw potential in MATE that seems fulfilled with 15.10 I’ve been running on my 32-bit laptop, but was not happy enough with the alternatives to leave 10.04 which has been rock solid for us.

I suspect if I just slipped in Ubuntu-MATE she’d hardly notice, but I have hopes that Ubuntu phone and/or tablet will be far enough along in a couple of years so that when we need to upgrade these (reasonably satisfied with Android 5.1). Some familiarity with Unity may make it an easier sell – the upgrade from Android 4.4 to 5.0 really made her mad – everything was different, but nothing she ever used actually worked any better, and some of the new crap that came along ate up the battery even when idle – took me a week to figure it all out and get back to where it used to be.

How to install the Desktop Mate in a system with Ubuntu 16.04 Unity
#2

For Ubuntu MATE

  • ubuntu-mate-core
  • ubuntu-mate-desktop

For just the MATE Desktop:

  • mate-desktop-environment

It should be noted that “converting” between flavours of Ubuntu is possible, but not recommended. See here:

You’d benefit from a full retrospective experience if the system from the front and back is using MATE components, which may mean backing up and performing a clean install. As opposed to a mix and match of GNOME 2, Unity, etc which may introduce some glitches along the way.

1 Like
Ubuntu 14.04 LTs vs 16.04 Mate
#3

I also like this one :slight_smile:

#4

@wally333 Not sure if you know, but Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Mate Tweek comes with Unity like Panel called Mutiny

Here are 2 photos of how it looks like...

Mutiny with open main menu.png1360×618 316 KB

MATE tweak.png1600×757 356 KB

Just a suggestion, "real" Ubuntu MATE might work better/faster as regular Ubuntu with Unity alone especially on older laptop.

I know what you mean, I was with a friend who was looking for new phone and everything looked completely different as in mine 4.1 and that might have been even before 5.0 was realised... don't think it's worth buying new phone, every 2 years or so as things don't always go in better way.

#5

Thanks. This is the information I’m looking for.

The installation will be a “throw-away” on a spare laptop, currently running Netrunner. I really want a “rolling” release in theory, but in practice, it looks like it continuous minor pain vs. major pain every 3+ years :slight_smile: .

I want my wife to get the “real” Unity experience and contrast it with the MATE desktop UI. For the real installation I’ll likely start pure.

I’m excited by the prospects of the new “snap” packaging where all the dependencies are brought in along with the application so the underlying OS version starts to have much lesser impact. At the end of the day I only really care about the underlying OS in terms of a “look and feel” I like and when it stops being able to install the new or upgraded applications I want.

#6

I did sudo apt-get install mate-desktop

It installed a couple of extra things, but when I rebooted nothing seems different. How to I "activate it?

Actually Unity is not too bad on this laptop – its an i5 with a Nvidia graphics but a small display.

#7

Back at your lightdm login screen you should have an option to pick the DE that you want.
Back in 14.04 it was on the little circular icon in the top right corner of the login box, I don’t know how it is on 16.04.
Cheers

#8

@wally333 Not sure if you know, but Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Mate Tweek comes with Unity like Panel called Mutiny

@ele
Thanks! That is very interesting, I’ll try in on my really lame laptop (Centrino cpu, 1024x768 display) which is currently been given new life with Ubuntu-MATE. Its been updated from 15.10 to 16.04.

#9

Just installing mate-desktop didn’t offer the mate option at login. I had to install mate-destop-environment.

So far I’m not seeing any real decrements, I like having both pluma and gedit but each upgrade of gedit seem to make it less appealing than it was before. Caja seems to be working fine without the infinite loop of restarts and taskbar entries on boot that I’ve had when I put MATE on top of Ubuntu-14.04 Unity Files is far inferior to Caja.

Admittedly light usage so far, but the only real annoyance I see right off are the unity style scroll-bars.

Over time I’ll compare this experience to what I get with my Mate-15.10 upgraded to 16.04 desktop and see if I’m missing anything important to me, or finding things too annoying to deal with.

#10

I installed Ubuntu 16.04 Unity, set-up a few things, then installed mate-desktop and mate-desktop-environment, and set-up some more things. Been logging into Unity and Mate to compare for routine stuff. I know I don’t like Unity, but I want to show it to my wife along with the Mate option which is so much like the Ubuntu 10.04 she’s been running she’d likely hardly noticed if I just slipped in the new system :slight_smile:

The Mate side of things has worked near perfectly, only repeatable glitch is when i boot or log into Mate the network app crashes, but then seems fine if I hit the relaunch button. WiFi works perfectly as far as I can tell.

The Unity side of this is not so great Chrome has hard locked the system on start up multiple times, System Settings has locked it up hard too. No such issues when logged into Mate.

While I may not be getting the “full Mate” experience, the Unity experience is unacceptable so far! I’ll give it a few more upgrade cycles, but it this continues I won’t even bother showing Unity to my wife.

I though she might like it because its more “smart phone-like” and she tends to run every application full screen and most of what she uses would fit on the dock making this very simple. But these lock-ups that so far have never happened when logged into Mate are a show-stopper!

I just discovered a weirdness with Mate. I can’t run Chrome if Chromium is open or vice-versa the display is distorted blockey pieces of the background and the page its trying to display and the controls and tabs don’t appear. But at least Mate doesn’t crash or lock-up.

I can run Chrome and FIrefox or Chromium and Firefox.

Chrome and Chromium run together fine on my Mate 15.10 desktop that was upgraded to 16.04 and my 32-bit notebook running 16.04 upgraded from 15.10.

#11

I just discovered a weirdness with Mate. I can't run Chrome if Chromium is open or vice-versa the display is distorted blockey pieces of the background and the page its trying to display and the controls and tabs don't appear. But at least Mate doesn't crash or lock-up.

Looks like this issue a Nouveau vs. Nvidia driver issue on my Thinkpad T410. Switching to the Nvidia proprietary driver seems to have cured the issue on both Unity and Mate.

I’m enjoying the the comparison and now that his is solved not seeing any serious issues on the Mate side other than the annoying pop-up scrollbar tab Unity brings in.

#12

In case anyone is interested in this, I’ve been very happy with this “dual desktop” testing setup. I do see some virtues in Unity when stuck with a small screen.

Installing the Unity Tweak took let me get rid of by largest annoyance – namely Unity’s “pop-up” scrollbars. Set them to “legacy” with the tweak tool and mate is very normal and this annoyance in Unity also goes away.

One thing I do like in Unity that seems missing in Mate with a touchpad (on my T410 Thinkpad) is “two finger” scrolling. Surprisingly handy feature.

I’d be interested in hearing the experience of anyone who has done it the other way around – install Mate first and then the Unity desktop as the alternate.

Despite the “warnings” I’ve yet to find any significant downsides compared to the “pure” Mate experience on my Desktop beyond the limits of being on a small screen (relatively low pixel count).

#13

Oops, found it, its also in Mate under mouse in Control Center in the Trackpad tab.