Here my PC specs:
32 gb ram
1 TB nvme
Ryzen 5 5500
ASrcok 4 gb VRAM RX 550
What is better
"Better" is a matter of opinion. Your specs indicate either should run without a problem. Both are Ubuntu, of course, so the decision is based on whether you like the MATE interface over the stock Ubuntu desktop offerings. We here prefer MATE, which is why this forum exists. The good news is that you can "try before you buy" with Linux, so install one, use it for a while and then try another. That's what many of us did.
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You might want to read these on Standard Ubuntu, Dash, data collection, and gnome 3 desktop, before choosing.
https://copicode.com/templates/dash/dash-on-ubuntu-guide-en.php
Mate is a fork of gnome 2, uses various standard menus and a standard desktop, with options for a dock, is community driven and as far as I know doesn't collect data.
Biggest con of Ubuntu Mate is a small development team.
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Also, if you post the output of the following command, our more experienced members could flag any obvious issues that they might spot.
inxi -ACDMNSG
That gives a report that looks like this:
System:
Host: OasisMega1 Kernel: 6.8.0-45-generic x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: MATE 1.26.0 Distro: Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M4A78-E v: Rev 1.xx
serial: 101048580000313 BIOS: American Megatrends v: 2603 date: 04/13/2011
CPU:
Info: quad core model: AMD Phenom II X4 810 bits: 64 type: MCP cache:
L2: 2 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1900 min/max: 800/2600 cores: 1: 1900 2: 1900 3: 1900
4: 1900
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD RS780D [Radeon HD 3300] driver: radeon v: kernel
Display: server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: ati,radeon
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa gpu: radeon resolution: 1440x900~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: AMD RS780 (DRM 2.50.0 / 6.8.0-45-generic LLVM 15.0.7)
v: 3.3 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.3
Audio:
Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-2: AMD RS780 HDMI Audio [Radeon 3000/3100 / HD 3200/3300]
driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.8.0-45-generic running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet
driver: ATL1E
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 2.27 TiB used: 1.38 TiB (60.5%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD20EZRX-00DC0B0
size: 1.82 TiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD5000AAKS-00V1A0
size: 465.76 GiB
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Clearly up to you, both Ubuntu and Ubuntu MATE work well.
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Thanks I’d consider are
- security; Ubuntu Desktop packages come from main thus get checks made by the Ubuntu Security team; MATE uses community packages from universe which don’t.. will this matter to you?
- MATE is a GTK3 desktop, GNOME is a GTK4 desktop; what apps will be used if your system is lacking resources, do you want perfect theming etc? aesthetics type stuff
- GNOME is efficient for sure, but it doesn’t make me happy; I’d be happier using a MATE desktop
- GNOME gets 5 years of guaranteed support for fixes for LTS; MATE being a flavor only comes with 3 years for LTS(though of course any MOTU or better could upload fixes during the 5 years, but there is no guarantee of this). If you’re not using a LTS release both get 9 months!
- You maybe using large/huge hi-def screens where scaling is important; they do differ here…
- etc
The hardware being used is all you list, and that would not really be my concern; the hardware that I may consider would be graphics stack as issues show up (on older hardware) usually with GNOME/KDE Plasma before they appear in MATE.. but your hardware isn’t 12+ years old I gather anyway.
Both Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu MATE are Ubuntu systems, so essentially they’re the same. The differences in regards security can show if you compared the results using ubuntu-security-status on each anyway.
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You have a powerful computer with 32 Gb of memory–UM is a lighter OS than Ubuntu. I much prefer UM because I can make it look any way I want with a click of a button–Mate Tweak stores all my looks. I’d have even more if Cairo Dock worked on this computer. I have 13 different looks in Tweak.
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My PC specs don't differ that much from yours:
16GB RAM
1TB nvme
Ryzen 5 3600
MSI X570 Gaming Plus
XFX 8GB VRAM RX 570
And I will always choose Ubuntu Mate over Standard Ubuntu (GNOME) because it has more capabilities while eating much less resources (RAM & CPU) 
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Thank you for those screenshots, @Anthony_Craig! I'm curious: What did you use to place the digital clock and date on your desktop in the Variety Windows and Redmond Variety screenshots?
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@DaveHighland I use the wallpaper-switcher Variety (with 22.04, I can install the program in Software Boutique–in the Accessories category, or Synaptic). Once Variety is installed, you can go to Preferences–>Effects, and at the bottom are boxes for a clock or quotes. For the clock/date and color format, I can mess with the code. For a black/blue scheme:
clock_filter = "-density 100 -font `fc-match -f '%{file[0]}' '%CLOCK_FONT_NAME'` -pointsize %CLOCK_FONT_SIZE -gravity SouthEast -fill '#00000044' -annotate 0x0+\[%HOFFSET+58\]+\[%VOFFSET+108\] '%l:%M' -fill blue -stroke black -strokewidth 5 -annotate 0x0+\[%HOFFSET+60\]+\[%VOFFSET+110\] '%l:%M' -font `fc-match -f '%{file[0]}' '%DATE_FONT_NAME'` -pointsize %DATE_FONT_SIZE -fill '#00000044' -annotate 0x0+\[%HOFFSET+58\]+\[%VOFFSET+58\] '%a, %b %d' -fill blue -stroke black -strokewidth 2 -annotate 0x0+\[%HOFFSET+60\]+\[%VOFFSET+60\] '%a, %b %d'"
The file variety.conf has commented-out instructions on how to make the format/color whatever you wish.
For the program to download certain images, telling the program to search for:
# List of sources
# Each source is srcX = <enabled or not|source type - one of image, folder, flickr, wallhaven, etc.|location>
# location depends on type - path or url or search options, or just a name for unconfigurable sources
# Folders are included recursively
# BE CAREFUL: all keys below (src1, src2, etc.) MUST be different
[sources\]
src1 = True|favorites|The Favorites folder
src2 = True|fetched|The Fetched folder
src3 = True|folder|/usr/share/backgrounds
src4 = True|flickr|user:www.flickr.com/photos/peter-levi/;user_id:93647178@N00;
src5 = True|apod|NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day
src6 = True|bing|Bing Photo of the Day
src7 = True|earthview|Google Earth View Wallpapers
src8 = True|unsplash|High-resolution photos from Unsplash.com
src9 = 'True|wallhaven|"Dodge Viper"'
src10 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/3c38bf18-95d9-490c-8f63-3af5e78fd56d.png
src11 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/20250206_153122.jpg
src12 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/2025_02_05_15.00.40.jpg
src13 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/Baron_58 - 2025-02-10 19.31.08.png
src14 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/03194e08-58b2-4e39-8702-e6996375d073.png
src15 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/ca1ad9fa-5f22-41f5-ae40-11138185f017.png
src16 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/85eae821-949a-46ca-8ad8-5dcfefe73bcd.png
src17 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/f66df854-d751-4770-8d47-597acaef911c.png
src18 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/eea54597-3951-448b-a833-48443842c914.png
src19 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/Forza Motorsport 6-2025_01_18-04_53_09.png
src20 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/Forza Motorsport 6-2025_01_18-04_51_11.png
src21 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/3807f67d-111b-4669-84f3-f7f43c1a2b57.png
src22 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/29422bb7-0e49-4057-ac1e-9ef755d7e571.png
src23 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/Forza Motorsport 6-2025_02_01-20_59_31.png
src24 = True|image|/home/anthony/Pictures/Screenshots/070f7d99-bf23-4bd1-a02f-21523bcc3981.png
src25 = 'True|wallhaven|"ferrari enzo"'
src26 = True|wallhaven|Ferrari Italia
src27 = 'True|wallhaven|"McLaren F1"'
src28 = "True|wallhaven|motorcycle,ninja"
src29 = 'True|wallhaven|"Lamborghini Countach"'
src30 = 'True|wallhaven|"Mclaren F1"'
src31 = 'True|wallhaven|"Ford GT"'
src32 = True|wallhaven|astronomy
src33 = True|wallhaven|LMP
src34 = True|wallhaven|F-18
src35 = 'True|wallhaven|"F-4 Phantom"'
src36 = True|wallhaven|F-14
src37 = True|wallhaven|F-15
src38 = True|wallhaven|F-16
src39 = True|wallhaven|F-22
src40 = True|wallhaven|SR-71
src41 = True|wallhaven|F-117
src42 = True|wallhaven|B-2 Stealth Bomber
src43 = True|wallhaven|Ferrari F40
src44 = True|folder|/media/anthony/External Drive/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/SpaceEngine/screenshots
src45 = True|image|/home/anthony/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/X-Plane 12/Output/screenshots/Screenshot at 2025-06-04 19-02-20.png
src46 = True|image|/home/anthony/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/X-Plane 12/Output/screenshots/Screenshot at 2025-06-04 19-01-55.png
src47 = True|image|/home/anthony/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/X-Plane 12/Output/screenshots/MSFS Morro.png
src48 = True|image|/home/anthony/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/X-Plane 12/Output/screenshots/MSFS Morro1.png
src49 = True|wallhaven|Ancient Egypt
src50 = "True|wallhaven|Ancient Egypt,Temples"
src51 = True|chromeos|Chrome OS Wallpapers
src52 = True|desktoppr|Random wallpapers from Desktoppr.com
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@DaveHighland Hey. The thing with the clock colors--I have a lot of files I named to tell me what colors they would be, like variety.black.blue.bak. With this system I can choose the colors i want, save as variety.conf, so it only takes a second to have Variety look different, after a restart.
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If you are moving away from Windows, and looking to maximize the leveraging of your GUI experience/interraction with Windows, continuing with a "similar" look & feel while adopting Linux, then UbuntuMATE would indeed be the better choice, IMHO. Most of us in this Community very naturally believe it is a better choice, for a wide range of reasons, some of them very individually adressing a very personal context. I myself am not looking to "jump ship" unless circumstances would force me to. 
If you are looking to use this "imposed transition" to explore a different paradigm of interraction with your computer, Ubuntu Desktop would be one of the available "flavours" (admittedly the default) which offers such an exploratory experience. If you were to pursue this route, I would "burn" a Live for a few of the flavours as ISOs, and try those Live (without install, and ignore the performance hit during that evaluation) to get the feel of how each Flavour changes your relationship with your computer (a.k.a. your interraction), and go with the one which leaves you with the best "intuitive connection".
Keep in mind that most of the flavours imply a technology platform choice (GTK3/4, Qt, X-Windows, etc.), and choosing one which has more potential longevity can be nuanced and complex, depending on which applications (which are not universally on for technologies) suit your needs best. So you need to check those out too. To facilitate that comparison, be sure to compile a suite of test files for various tasks/workflows and keep track of how things perform for each Application/Flavour permutation.
Try not to let the "let-down" experienced with one flavour turn you off continuing with your exploratory adventure. Persist, because you might discover the potential drastically positive experience you might derive from one of the other flavours.
Welcome to the Linux Experience!
The worlds of adventure await your personal discovery!
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Can't get closer than Redmond, if you want a Taskbar and quick launch buttons-- because of my poor eyesight, this Redmond plus Variety showing date/ clock big enough that I can actually see it, is what I wish Windows had started with Windows'95 up to XP-- that was the last Windows OS I used (wanted money I didn't have). Windows 11 has a dock, so the Cupertino setting of Mate gives that option, too. Steve Jobs always said that Windows just copied Apple.
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@lah7 Thanks for clearing that code up.
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