4 ms·

Reminds me of Ubuntu 8.04, the first version I tried back in 2008. I personally find that Mate’s UI didn’t aged well. I wonder why this is popping up on HN’s f

by m_b 6y ago

Reminds me of Ubuntu 8.04, the first version I tried back in 2008. I personally find that Mate’s UI didn’t aged well. I wonder why this is popping up on HN’s frontpage.

ktpsns 6y ago
Mates UI is Gnome 2 by intention. It is a matter of taste.
- bzb6 6y ago
  Isn’t it a fork?
  - pantalaimon 6y ago
    Yes, it's based on the last release of Gnome 2.
pizza234 6y ago
MATE belongs to the class of traditional-metaphor/resource-light desktop environments. Looking good is a secondary target. The direct competitor is XFCE. There are a couple of advantages I personally find over XFCE: - XFCE has a very severe lack of resources; in worst case, this translates to bugs (even severe) not being fixed for a very long time - MATE has a very flexible interface (it's actually impressive how they have exactly the opposite philosophy as the GNOME guys) I've been a longtime XFCE user, but when a couple of bugs started affecting my workflow, I had to leave it. The worst case has a been a bug where around 25% of the times (if not more), moving files via file manager caused the file manager to crash. This has gone unfixed for a very long time (at least 6 months). Despite what some people believes, it's not possible to swap the default file manager. While it's technically feasible, DEs have their FM harcoded in some places (ie. Desktop), which causes subtle breakages if the default FM is swapped.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  And the beauty of FOSS, contributing bug fixes and all that jazz?
- rawoke083600 6y ago
  >MATE belongs to the class of traditional-metaphor/resource-light desktop environments. Looking good is a secondary target. Yup and the next step after that is "title wm" I've recently switched from XFCE to i3mw. So far it' been brilliant !
- cechmaster 6y ago
  > Looking good is a secondary target. What a terrible goal. Why not make it just as important as performance?
  - Scarblac 6y ago
    To me, performance is also secondary. Not getting in the way is the most important thing.
  - keb_ 6y ago
    Personally, I value functionality > performance > looking good. Also, I think MATE looks great. :)
  - boogies 6y ago
    Because Pantheon et al already exist.
- ajford 6y ago
  Holy shit... do you have a link handy to that file manager bug? I run XFCE and have for a while, but I've been seeing that issue lately and thought it was my (older) ssd going out. Hadn't thought it could be related to the DE. Perhaps it's time to give MATE a try.
  - pizza234 6y ago
    I don't have a reference unfortunately, but here's something similar (if not the same): https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2356 https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2356
MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
Yeah Mate is really meh. If I ever introduce users to Linux, it's Mint almost 100% of the time. Cinnamon is fairly stable and feels very much like windows. So far things haven't been bad for me but the moment I try anything besides cinnamon, people figure out how to break it.

by m_b 6y ago

Reminds me of Ubuntu 8.04, the first version I tried back in 2008. I personally find that Mate’s UI didn’t aged well. I wonder why this is popping up on HN’s frontpage.

ktpsns 6y ago

Mates UI is Gnome 2 by intention. It is a matter of taste.

bzb6 6y ago
Isn’t it a fork?
- pantalaimon 6y ago
  Yes, it's based on the last release of Gnome 2.

pizza234 6y ago

MATE belongs to the class of traditional-metaphor/resource-light desktop environments. Looking good is a secondary target. The direct competitor is XFCE. There are a couple of advantages I personally find over XFCE: - XFCE has a very severe lack of resources; in worst case, this translates to bugs (even severe) not being fixed for a very long time - MATE has a very flexible interface (it's actually impressive how they have exactly the opposite philosophy as the GNOME guys) I've been a longtime XFCE user, but when a couple of bugs started affecting my workflow, I had to leave it. The worst case has a been a bug where around 25% of the times (if not more), moving files via file manager caused the file manager to crash. This has gone unfixed for a very long time (at least 6 months). Despite what some people believes, it's not possible to swap the default file manager. While it's technically feasible, DEs have their FM harcoded in some places (ie. Desktop), which causes subtle breakages if the default FM is swapped.

pjmlp 6y ago
And the beauty of FOSS, contributing bug fixes and all that jazz?
rawoke083600 6y ago
>MATE belongs to the class of traditional-metaphor/resource-light desktop environments. Looking good is a secondary target. Yup and the next step after that is "title wm" I've recently switched from XFCE to i3mw. So far it' been brilliant !
cechmaster 6y ago
> Looking good is a secondary target. What a terrible goal. Why not make it just as important as performance?
- Scarblac 6y ago
  To me, performance is also secondary. Not getting in the way is the most important thing.
- keb_ 6y ago
  Personally, I value functionality > performance > looking good. Also, I think MATE looks great. :)
- boogies 6y ago
  Because Pantheon et al already exist.
ajford 6y ago
Holy shit... do you have a link handy to that file manager bug? I run XFCE and have for a while, but I've been seeing that issue lately and thought it was my (older) ssd going out. Hadn't thought it could be related to the DE. Perhaps it's time to give MATE a try.
- pizza234 6y ago
  I don't have a reference unfortunately, but here's something similar (if not the same): https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2356 https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2356

MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago

Yeah Mate is really meh. If I ever introduce users to Linux, it's Mint almost 100% of the time. Cinnamon is fairly stable and feels very much like windows. So far things haven't been bad for me but the moment I try anything besides cinnamon, people figure out how to break it.