my reason for linux has evolved over the years from originally being a hardware access freak to “that’s what i’ve always used” today. i still love doing stuff i just can’t do with most other OSes. i do have an old solaris and i run openbsd, too.
as for my DE … i’ve used a few and MATE works out under VNC where unity needs hardware access. none have worked in the cloud for me, yet, but MATE gives me the most hope.
i an currently using unity with 12 user instance on ubuntu 16.04.2 lts.
I’ve been using Linux for 9 years, since 8.04, and, while I did dual boot for two years, strictly to play games, I have for the lest four years been 100% Linux. With this OS, I can do everything I want my computer to do, which is what a good OS should do.
I’ve been using Ubuntu MATE because it’s the interface I fell in love with 9 years ago. It’s way better than it used to be. I’ve been using MATE since Mint introduced it. I found Mint annoying, and went to Lubuntu and installed MATE from the PPA. I was overjoyed to fine UM an official Ubuuntu flavor, and I notice that, in the Ubuntu forums, there are very few problems with the interface, unlike XFCE and KDE Plasma.
Ubuntu MATE FTW!
I started using GNU-Linux with Dapper Drake Ubuntu in 2006. Since that time I have used over 50 different Linux distributions. My favorite Linux distro until last year was Puppy Linux. I must admit I have been using Windows through dozens of major crashes, failures, Blue screens, Black screens and and annoyances. Last April 2006 I had my last MAJOR virus infection. Thanks to Windows I have lost years of photos, data and work. Psychologists claim the difference between sanity and insanity is the fact that insane people continue to repeat the same mistake again and again. I am not lazy and am not insane so I forced myself to use ONLY Linux distributions. Up until March of 2017 I preferred Linux Mint Serena. I have been using Ubuntu 17.04 Mate’ since that time. I am no longer distro hoping ! I have installed Ubuntu Mate 17.04 on all of my computers! This operating system is better than excellent! Thanks to the GNU, Linux Mate, community and Canonical I don’t have to worry about the operating systems and can now focus on Productive use of my computers…
Sometime, just about two years ago, I had an HP 2000 Notebook running Windows 8.1. It was relatively low power, running only a dual core AMD processor, integrated AMD graphics, and 4GB of RAM. It wasn’t a terrible laptop, and despite it being very controversial, Windows 8 wasn’t a terrible operating system.
That being said, the experience wasn’t well optimized, and I was curious about alternatives. I had studied and tinkered with computer hardware and software before, and I knew what Linux was. What sparked my movement away from Windows wasn’t Linux, however. I looked into MacOS. I’d used it before, and it was an alternative I’d understood fully the option of Hackintoshing. After a bit of consideration, I went on to download my first Linux distro, that being Xubuntu. I’d done this because my original focus was low overhead.
To give somewhat of a backstory to my insanity that leads up to present day, I’d like to say I really had no contingency plan. No backup, no other alternative, just shooting in the dark. I installed Xubuntu, completely wiping my drive. Keep in mind, I also did not have recovery disks. I liked it, but it wasn’t quite for me. So for the course of six hours, through the night and into the morning, I hopped from Xubuntu to Lubuntu to various flavors of Mint . So when people ask me how long it took me to use Linux only, I can honestly answer with “Immediately”, but I generally say six hours because I usually get less of the annoying bunches of questions from people who can’t take a simple answer or just don’t believe it. That being said, I stuck with Mint for quite a while, and through the months, I hopped from distro to distro using absolutely everything I could in an unreasonable amount of time. I actually hadn’t tried Ubuntu MATE until December 2016. I used the 16.04 release, and I was very dissatisfied, I’ll be honest. The entire thing felt more outdated than Xfce, and it was quirky in ways that just ■■■■■■ me off.
In the time of just under two years of using Linux, I’ve already created a successful, local business model servicing various needs from tech support and consulting, to services such as offloaded encoding and storage of files and media. I’ve had no need to use Windows for anything, though I do fix and support systems running Windows, as I do keep up on my knowledge base of it, and remain familiar with it.
I didn’t stop using Windows for privacy reasons, because I’m quite practical in that sense. Realistically, once you connect to the internet, your privacy is gone. Deal with it. No, I just stopped using Windows because Linux works better for me. I have more choices, as cliché as that sounds and is, but I also like the way these systems work. I like the way they evolve, and I love the way the community drives them forward.
All that being said, despite first impressions, and 16.10 wasn’t much better, when 17.04 rolled around I hopped on to give it another shot. I’ve got to say, that some incredible changes were made. I’m a fan of the Ubuntu base, and I was quite pleased with the way things turned out. Not only was Ubuntu MATE much more stable than it previously was, it was also much more refined. Between the welcome screen which was actually useful (something very rarely seen, most of the time they require more work to get the help than is helpful itself.), and the theming improvements, better up to date software, smoother performance and overall integration. Still missing Brisk menu hotkey, and the menu on the panel by default is atrocious, but it’s not a deal breaker. Ubuntu MATE is my current daily driver, and it will be for quite some time. I could immediately tell the difference and the amount of work the team has put into the project, and it’s paid off.
At the end of it all, I’m an Ubuntu MATE user and enthusiast, which is something I never thought I’d say, but I’m definitely happy.
Why I chose Linux.
Because with Linux I choose how my operating system is going to preform a task, instead of my operating system choosing how I’m going to preform a task.
Why I chose Ubuntu Mate.
With Ubuntu Mate, the unbeatable combination of a easy to navigate, easy to use desktop environment running on top of Ubuntu is back. Only this time with Mate, which is a fork of Gnome 2, as the desktop environment. I find Ubuntu Mate to be fast, stable, and a perfect fit for my computing needs.
I’m also very intrigued with the crowd funding campaign that is associated with Ubuntu Mate. Especially how part of the funding is used to support other Open Source projects that Ubuntu Mate depends upon. I’ve not seen this in any other Linux distribution before. Very original, I like it.
Hi guys, my experience in computing has been my mistakes and me asking the other people, when Windows Vista came up with many problems,
the shops started to sell computers with Linux installed, that made me curious, I ate many pages in internet to know more, how to install, how it worked, why was better than windows, open source and closed source, from there my ideas changed.
I have used Windows 3.1; Windows 95; Windows NT; Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP; Then I went to Linux, I met Molinux 4.2 Toboso, a Spanish version of Ubuntu 8.10 in Educational version with Gnome 2, fascinating.
I installed 4 versions of Molinux, 2 of Lliurex, 2 of Linux Mint, 3 of Ubuntu being the last 14,04 and now I use Ubuntu Mate 16,04, all based on UBUNTU
I have installed Windows XP and Ubuntu MATE 16.04, 0.01% I use Windows and 99.99% I use MATE
I have tried several different desktops, Gnome2, Unity, KDE, Cinnamon and MATE … Mutiny the best for me.
I love Ubuntu MATE, lightweight, configurable, robust, many desktops in one, if you do not like one of them then choose another.
There are good people working on their development, who do not I know them but I admire their work.
Thank you for creating this system …
It’s similar to the Mint and Antergos distros. The Patreon funding scheme is relatively new. It’s 5 years old. It differs from the other crowdfunding methods by inviting users to maintain their support on a monthly regular basis, which facilitates tremendously the financial management of a continuous project, like a linux distribution or any other similarly non-ending project. Less surprises, a steady influx of money and the ability to make better informed projections. It is infinitely better to the periodic crowdfunding requests that you would see before. Those can still be made in moments of need, but they no longer drive the financial needs of a project.
Anyways, being 5 years old that also helps explain why you haven’t see much of it yet. Between Mint, Antergos and Mate, I don’t which which was the first to adopt this method. There may be others, of course, that I don’t know of. But the Patreon scheme is tremendously popular in other industries. In special the arts and the content creation media. Linux distros will no doubt catch up.
I chose it because it is the closet to OSX for free.
Now if we could get the icons to mount to the right on the desktop it would be great!
I use Linux because I want to own my OS, not rent it from the maker. You don’t own Windows or MacOS. In fact, if you read the user agreements and software release notes, an argument could be made that they own your computer after installation (or at least the hard drive).
I use Mate because I have a 13" slim laptop that I like because it is light and thin and has exceptional battery life. Linux with Mate has a small footprint and isn’t heavy on system resources so I can do a lot of things with a small machine. I actually use Mint on some of my larger machines.
I actually still have Windows 10 as a VM on one of my RHEL machines, but I haven’t powered it up in months.
I use Ubuntu Mate as my developing environment. I require work in Linux and Ubuntu Mate best fit my needs. I previously had used Linux as my home OS. I used Slackware and Gentoo as my preferred distributions at home, but those would require too much work on a machine I needed to run without hiccups. I always liked how Gnome 2 felt vs KDE. I wasn’t a big fan of the Gnome 3 interface. So choosing Ubuntu Mate was an easy choice.
I’m actually going to change my old Windows PC to Ubuntu Mate this evening after work. It’s essentially just a file server, but I need a modern OS on it.
I started using Ubuntu because I read about it on the Majorana forum,
an excellent italian general computer forum where you can ask for support for Windows and in the meantime it push a lot on open source and Linux.
Initially I tried, but I did not like it, until they released a remix, Ubuntu 12.04 Classic Remix, in January 2013, in which they put two desktops: the already well-tested Lxde, and the recent Mate.
When I realized that with Mate I could do whatever I wanted,
I’ve used more and more Ubuntu and less and less Windows.
I’ve also tried other desktops, they are nice, but I can not work fluently.
So I hope Canonical does not make Mate the same end of Unity, I would not like to go back to Windows.
I’m not 100% conversant with the details of how the open-source community works, but my understanding is that Canonical has only the level of control over MATE that whoever owns MATE gives them. I’m not sure who owns what, actually. I should have memorized @wimpy’s interview but i didn’t… i think if he is the one running the builds he controls what goes into Ubuntu-MATE, but the differrentiation between Ubuntu-MATE and the MATE desktop is unclear to me. If it becomes a matter of dire necessity i’m sure something useful may occur.
Ubuntu and MATE are both open source projects that are independent of each other. Ubuntu-MATE is the result of it’s developers combining the Ubuntu operating system with the MATE desktop and releasing it as Ubuntu-MATE. This is a overly simplistic explanation of what has gone into making Ubuntu-MATE the operating system we have come to adore, but it gets the point across.
I’m not sure I could make myself do that anymore. 
I started Linux with Hardy Heron, back in ‘08, after a vicious XP virus attack. I fell in love with the GNOME 2.3 interface. When it was abandoned by GNOME and Canonical, I downgraded to XFCE, but it was an upgrade from GNOME 3. Then Mint introduced MATE, and I installed it from a PPA on Xubuntu, not being a big fan of Mint. Then Ubuntu MATE came out, and I’ve been a happy Linux user ever since. The Welcome screen is unique among distributions, and it’s it’s the distro I install on my friends’ computers who want to try Linux. No complaints about it being hard to use, either.
I use Linux because:
I use Ubuntu MATE:
Because of its stability and ease of use. It is so simple to install packages and to do basic stuff. I tried CentOS 7 and it is too much hassle to do a simple task. I am back to Ubuntu Mate and I am keeping it. Also, I don’t have a legit Windows license and I don’t think that it is safe to use a cracked version. But I prefer Ubuntu Mate to Windows as there is more privacy with Ubuntu
Amazing, in what version of windows did this start?
In windows 10 you can’t choose the updates to lock, and now in windows 7 and 8, they embed telemetry among other system upgrades and and it can not be refused.
To limit this try : http://www.mostonet.it/index_en.html
http://www.mostonet.it/prg/win/moprisuite_news_en_v804.pdf
Yep, in win10. In win7 they pushed some data collecting functions, plus those constant reminders to upgrade to Win10. I had to use the script to block it altogether. In win10 my privacy settings were frequently reset to defaults after updates, updates that could not be switched off. And the Start menu… all those flashing tiles ended up annoying me, some of them could not be removed completely, I could only unpin them… which bothered me because they connected with servers and downloaded news headlines, weather updates, and other stuff I did not want. Brisk Menu is heaven in comparison.
Why I use Linux
I’ve been using Windows for as long as I can remember, and it’s what I’m using for my gaming PC. I need to use something new and different. And now, I’m using Kubuntu on my laptop and Ubuntu MATE on my Raspberry Pi.
Why I’m using Ubuntu MATE
I enjoy MATE when I tried it out to determine whether I should switch to it, Ubuntu Budgie or Kubuntu (after Canonical’s announcement of scrapping Unity). Since I’m using Kubuntu on my laptop, I wanna use it on my Raspberry Pi. Also, its UI looks better than LXDE.