Xfce and MATE are fairly similar in a lot of ways. Back in the day Xfce had more emphasis on being lightweight than Gnome 2 did. In terms of being able to put

Xfce and MATE are fairly similar in a lot of ways. Back in the day Xfce had more emphasis on being lightweight than Gnome 2 did. In terms of being able to put your UI elements wherever you want, being simple, configurable and non-opinionated, it's all very similar. I would assume (could be wrong) that Xfce is under more active development than Mate. I made the switch when Gnome 2 was killed overnight, and Mate didn't yet exist. My Xfce desktop looks a lot like my Gnome 2 desktops used to. I've never felt the need to switch to anything else or 'back' to Mate.