Why was the welcome center retired? I'm just curious to know why.
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"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
(C) Shakespeare
I loved that welcome Screen and it saved me a lot of work installing stuff. I've had to write all the software to install programs on a piece of paper.
Is it too difficult to leave it running? I think it was the flagship of Mate
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It's not good that they don't have the welcome center anymore. It's still there on linux mint-21.2-cinnamon and I use it often.
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there is still the welcome center. But it's called "Ubuntu-Mate"
The welcome centre was handy when you were actually installing the distro but it was most often encountered at the start of live disk sessions, when it held things up.
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This. And it would always pop up at the worst possible moment. I have cursed it countless times.
I didn't like it or use it, but it was pretty easy to shut off, one check mark.
If you go to the Control Centre, under Startup Applications, my drop-down shows that as the last on the list.
If the check-mark is there, it will start/display at login.
--- edit ---
By dragging the icon for Welcome from the menu under Administration, onto the panel, I was able to look at the command that calls it up, which is this (for 22.04):
BAMF_DESKTOP_FILE_HINT=/var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/ubuntu-mate-welcome_ubuntu-mate-welcome.desktop /snap/bin/ubuntu-mate-welcome
Asking Snap to report what it encompasses reveals:
Lookup in Synaptic shows:
So, that identifies it as part of a Snap install. I suspect it was Snap at 20.04 as well, because my package listings in Synaptic shows the last version available being for 18.04 
:
I guess, being accepted as a Ubuntu-family distro, UbuntuMATE must "submit" to dictates on how certain packages must be delivered. That is truly a crying shame for all packages that must be forced into the Snap ecology, which, in my view, simply creates bloat, without mentioning other problems encountered and reported by others.
You may find this post (or the whole thread) interesting, @ericmarceau .
Delivering an up-to-date curated software list for Ubuntu MATE users was not a bad idea at all. Now, the list is no longer curated, so the Software Boutique is deprecated. However, the idea itself has survived as the deb-get project.
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Thank you, @ironfoot.
I appreciate you providing those background references. Yes, they do help shed more light on the evolution of how we got to where we are.
While I never had much personal use for the curated application list, I am absolutely in the camp of those who feel that such a tool is critical to facilitate the on-boarding of newcomers/newbies into the Linux/Ubuntu/UbuntuMATE fold.
I am of the firm stance that if there is one tool which should be universal, and shared, by all distros (as part of the Linux brother-/sister-hood), something like the Software Boutique, which groups similar applications under a common umbrella, is most assuredly priceless!
Again, I repeat, I have no use for it myself, but I have to admit scanning the Boutique now and again, to see if anything has gained significant recognition/momentum/endorsement.
For a cross-distro application for such curation, having a "vote" icon showing the distros that actually include the application in their list of recommended packages (not necessarily installed by default) would also be most beneficial for those newbies.
Maybe those reviews/recommendations could be done by a multi-distro assessment team, thereby lowering each distro's investment in bringing such a useful recommendation tool to the forefront.
Just an idea!
On that point, snap or not, there is much for classifying something like the Boutique as a "must-have".
As for Welcome, I am still not convinced regarding the frame of mind that classifies "Welcome" as a "perfect fit" for the snap delivery model. That just doesn't jive! All I see is putting Welcome under the snap umbrella because it can be better "frozen" and "protected" for "remote-only modification". That last part is the part that I have much difficulty in having forced upon me. Shades of MS !
Not buying it, not one iota!
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I think, there is no conspiracy in this particular case. Historically, the Welcome app and the Software Boutique were developed as components (modes, parts) of a single application. And they were packaged and delivered as a single snap. The separation was planned for the version 2.0, but the version 2.0 was never released.
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