Why is Ubuntu MATE 16.04 only supported for 3 years, but not 5 years? Other Ubuntu Distros are supported for 5 though.
Pure diminishing returns. Why spend resources beyond when the number of users gets rather small?
Heck, I’m an LTS guy and waiting for 18.04… and I feel like the dinosaur minority with all the hype on 16.10 which is supported for a WHOLE 9 MONTHS! 
By the way, after 3 years the Ubuntu stuff will continue coasting for 2 more years and the chances of something breaking are small to need support for the Mate stuff. The repositories will last even beyond that. I just checked… my Ubuntu Server 10.04 (Apr 2010) still has active repositories!
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Only Ubuntu and Kubuntu offer 5 year LTS, all the other flavours are 3 years. Which means we maintain/support the bit that are intrinsically MATE for 3 years, after that only the Ubuntu base system updates and security fixes will continue.
We simply can’t commit to 5 years of support and point releases. What are you going to be doing in 5 years time?
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I still am running Ubuntu MATE 14.04.2 i’ll be updrading when it is 16.04 stableised. Probably by the time Ubuntu MATE 16.04.1 is released. I can’t wait to try it and the new features it will have! 
I absolutely love Ubuntu MATE.
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Would the LSB thing affect my HP printer at all?
Agree diminishing return needs to be considered. There are those that need the absolute latest now and others who say why change something that is not broke. I recently upgraded three PCs to UM, two came from 10.04 and one from 12.04.
Although I am resistant to change, I am very happy with UM 16.04.
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So could you update the Mate part of 16.04 when support ends, while leaving the Ubuntu 16.04 components alone?
Steve
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