Hello world!

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Hello World!

Gnome 2 was the most popular Linux desktop but it’s no longer available… MATE is here to provide that same desktop to you :)

Perberos initially forked Gnome 2 and called the project MATE. Users and developers were successful at running MATE in Arch Linux and due to popular demand Perberos made it easier for MATE to compile under Debian.

Stefano-k and myself then joined the project and packaged it for Debian and Linux Mint. The MATE desktop was featured in Linux Mint 12 and is now quickly gaining momentum.

Our top priority is to improve MATE and for it to be on par, in terms of features and stability, with Gnome 2.32. We’ll port themes, applets, and applications which were developed for Gnome 2, and help developers port theirs to this new desktop.

79 thoughts on “Hello world!”

  2. quick question about the name (and perhaps a means of potentially branding the fork…): does MATE have anything to do with yerba mate, the hot beverage that is wildly popular in South America?

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      • MATE is the most popular tradition here in Uruguay, ask the Argentinians! LOL, thats why we own the highes consume per capita of yerba in the world. So i guess that will be using MATE desktop even more than gnome-shell, i hope also per capita. This project is so much good news for me, thanks guys for made this possible.

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      • I don’t consider myself an expert on the beverage, but I lived in Argentina for a couple years and never once heard it called “maté” but always “mate” (with the accent on the first syllable).

        I’m not saying it’s never done, or that perhaps their aren’t regions that use that pronunciation, but I certainly doubt it (since “maté” has another meaning: “I killed.”).

        Of course, Perberos could straighten it out if he wished, and he certainly knows the language better than I.

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          • Perberos, for the sake of the Wikipedia article, could you please clarify what you’re referring to by “it’s MATE”? Is the official name of the project “MATE” or “MATÉ”? Whichever it is, I would suggest making it consistent across Github, Wikipedia, and especially this site, as the official site.

          • Is MATE how I named it, and how is named in the source code.
            Clem wanted to name it MATÉ because it sound like “マテ”, and because “mate” is a vulgar word. And I do not manage this site.
            conflict of interests lol

            well, I am permissive :)

        • Hi, I am from Argentina and I can definitively say that it should be MATE and NOT MATÉ.

          In Spanish, the latter implies stressing the last syllabe and the word means “I killed”. The beverage is called mate and the plant is yerba mate with no diacritical on the ‘e’.

          You can see the discussion on the English Wikipedia entry for “Yerba mate” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Yerba_mate#Requested_move which resulted in the entry being renamed from “Yerba maté” (wrong) to “Yerba mate” (right).

          I just made a similar request for the entry “MATE (desktop environment)”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:MAT%C3%89_(desktop_environment)#request_move

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          • Mate in NZ and Australia means friend or pal so it is a good word with positive connotations in the English language.

  3. I take it MATE will support all those wonderful GTK2 themes, such as Bisigi themes, Equinox, and the themes found on Gnome-look.org? I was sad to see such beauty left out to die with the push to Gnome Shell.

    If MATE must migrate to GTK3, I can fully understand and accept it. I just wish to see more elegant themes from GTK2 port to GTK3!

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  5. Good news. I really hope this project reaches the peak. One more sane choice for the ones who are not keen to GNOME Shell. I’ve been on Shell and grown used to it, however, MATE is a urgent and necessary project for others. Keep up the good work.

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  6. I started using Mate with Linux Mint 12 few days ago, so far it works great and I’m really happy to have an alternative to Gnome 3!
    I have two petitions, first I want to be able to customize the menu as in Gnome 2 (I want to add new custom menu entries). Second I want to have a trash bin applet that shows if it is empty or not like the one in Gnome 2.
    Thank you so much, you rock!

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  7. Added MATE to LMDE (tracking SID/Experimental) Gnome 3.2. After a few tweaks (“places” would open Chrome browser rather than file manager – Found fix was to “…Goto your ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list OR /usr/share/applications/defaults.list and put this line in:

    inode/directory=nautilus.desktop…” Now opens nautilus. Tweaking the fonts (slight hinting), and most all is fine. Waiting for the fixes added to Mint Lisa (fixes high CPU usage) to come to LMDE, but expect that to be a little while.
    Excellent job. I don’t hate the shell ;) , but its nice to have Mate, with compiz. The development of Mate is very rapid. Amazed at how much work you have done.

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  8. Have been following MATE’s development in Linux Mint 12 and it’s looking better after every update. One thing though…

    On the “tagline” on the About page? Seems to me it needs to be changed a bit. MATE is a fork of Gnome 2 (latest version being 2.32) which, as you say, follows the traditional computing desktop metaphor. But this traditional desktop metaphor. while old, is highly intuitive and while not exactly attractive, it’s certainly “comfortable” top many users. Saying it’s non-intuitive and unattractive definitely gives the wrong impression.

    Other than that, MATE’s looking great so far.

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  10. I’m happy the MATE project is getting strong. I felt bad for the people who felt option-less with the death of the gnome panel. Just wondering if MATE will be ported to GTK+3. I’m not much of a programmer and cannot imagine how difficult that would be but it seems in order to keep MATE relevant on a “technological level” you will have to port to GTK+3 sometime.

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  11. Sorry for my ignorance. Since Gnome is licensed under GPL, why can’t Mate just take the codebase for Gnome 2.32 and continue bug-fixing from there?

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  12. Thank for your effort! I’m still using gnome 2 on Ubuntu 10.10 until it stops getting updates, and carefully weighing options for when I’ll have to let go Ubuntu for good. Mint / MATE looks really good! Agree 100% with Cheeseburg, and I wonder if Compiz will still be around. I hope MATE prospers and gets ever stronger!

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  15. Hey guys, did you think of using some kind of acronym (or rather backronym) for MATE? For example, MATE Ain’t Toy Environment :)
    (As you see, this one is recursive and is also a hit at Gnome 3.)

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  16. Thank you very much for your very important job! «MATÉ» is the only hope for many users who prefer the traditional «GNOME 2»…
    Just one thing… Could you, please, explain, what does it mean: «It provides an intuitive and attractive desktop to Linux users using traditional semaphores.» («About» page)? I mean the «semaphores». :) May be I’m not very well in English? :) Just interesting. Thanks.

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  17. Will MATE be just bug fix / compatibility desktop, or is it planned for 2.34 with more features in future. We don’t wanna have MATE as temporary adjustment till gnome 3 matures. But want it to stay for ever as simple as it is now. we just need a good workable desktop.

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    • “workable desktop”
      yes, thats what I wanted too.

      “Will MATE be just bug fix / compatibility desktop”
      Thats is what I panned

      “or is it planned for 2.34 with more features in future”
      Thats is what I dream, but then I remember GNOMEShell/KDE4/Widows8 and stop dreaming instantly

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  18. Great work you guys got going on. I might be able to help in a few ways,
    my work is mostly well known as are my my skills. Have shed-loads
    of experience with Gnome, and Linux Mint (Hi clem :P )

    If you guys want an extra hand, let me know.

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  19. I read about MATE before , and some applications will be ported .
    My suggestions , using another applications ,not OLD GNOME APPS.
    For example,
    From XFCE
    Thunar file manager(with integration into UI)
    bulk rename
    xarchiver
    From LXDE
    lxterm
    lxrandr
    lxtask
    and run manager ALT+F2 (i don’t know exactly the name)
    ANOTHER applications
    MEDIT text editor
    SimpleBurn

    This instead of porting GNOME applications, so keeping the desktop environment, it fast and lightweight

    QUESTION When will the UI be ported to GTK+ 3 ?

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  22. Thank you for you efforts. The Gnome devs made such a huge mistake. Word of your project is spreading real fast, admiration and support all the way!!

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  23. Thanks! Mate is really a great improvement in usability compared to Unity or default Gnome 3. Being fed up with Unity and gnome-session-fallback i recently switched to Linux Mint 12 and love it!

    :-)

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  24. Just wanted to say a huge thanks for your efforts. I’m still under Ubuntu Lucid and therefore with GNOME 2 (I love it). But one thing is sure: after testing it for a while I won’t use GNOME 3, neither with the default shell nor with Unity.

    I was wondering what I was going to do. Now I know there’s going to be a good, usable, “unintuitive” desktop. Keep up the good work and thanks again!

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  25. I’ve followed the progress of the MATÉ project for a couple of months and finally took the plunge. I’ve been running MATÉ as my desktop for the past few days on Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric) after using Unity (meh), Gnome3, Xfce 4.8…settling on Gnome Classic fallback as the only thing close to the desktop I wanted. You’ve done us all a solid by forking Gnome2 into MATÉ. Thanks very much. Keep up the good work.

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  26. Perberos,
    I’m solidly behind your efforts concerning MATE. It’s exactly what is needed at this point in time. Unity sucks, and Gnome 3 is not very intuitive nor user-friendly. Your DE will keep gaining in popularity and use. I just hope someone takes your packages and creates an Ubuntu based distro solely using MATE as the Desktop Environment. I’m Ubuntu loyal but I can’t stand Unity.

    Again, thanks for MATE.

    Later…

    Bob

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  27. I’ve been promoting Linux [Fedora (my favourite) & Ubuntu] and helping Linux users in my hometown for years and Gnome was the DE of choice for many. Many switched to Fedora when they got fed up with Unity and when Gnome 3 was released, I got the weird look from all of them. I was in charge of customizing another DE that’s similar to Gnome2 before the official support of distributions cease. I did configure Xfce to look like Gnome2, but still has some issues. MATE saved the day! I’m waiting for MATE to appear in Fedora repos or as RPMs. Thankyou all for rescuing Gnome2. I’ll help in ways I can and will report bugs and test results. Keep up the good work.

    Thanks.

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  29. I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate you guys!
    I’m a capable computer user but by no means a programmer. I don’t know how to use HTML or “compile a kernel.” So until I do, the efforts and labors of the ripe brains of the open source community support my behind.
    Just as I get used to the set up of my Ubuntu 10.04 LTS -Super OS variety (yeah I know but it suits my usage) and have everything tuned just right (complete 2D/3D acceleration, TCP Tuning etc.) I’m left with the Unity/GNOME 3 GUI. Not only did I find it less easy to work with but I hate and turn off animations. I don’t think they’re pleasant to look at or whatever, and I don’t see a benefit in wasting computing resources on it. I turn off tab sliding, fading, scrolling -everything. Having these options is nice.
    So anyway, Thanks!

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  30. I am extremely pleased that you have decided to develop a desktop based on GNOME 2. It really looks great. I read about Mate in Wikipedia. Keep up the great work and I wish you well. I am currently on Ubuntu 10.04LTS and at some stage I will upgrade to 12.04LTS. I do not want to use Unity. I am glad that Mate is here as an alternative.

    Best regards
    Philip

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    • RehdonI voted GNOME classic but on secnod thought that’s wrong: I’m sticking to Ubuntu 10.10 with GNOME 2.92 for as long as that will be supported.This all GNOME Shell/Unity is good for you, it’s the future! thing has led me to re-evaluate GNOME 2.92 and take note of its many problems, though: f.i. even on modern hardware Nautilus is horribly slow, menus are slow if you’re loading images, etc. Time to look around, I hear good things about KDE, the main hurdle is that I use GTK/GNOME apps like Evolution, I wonder how hard a migration would be.Rehdon

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    • RossInstalled 11.04 with beta 1 and hated it, because it was lrdicaaly different and very unstable. But I’ve always liked tinkering (probably the main reason I love linux) and making things work, stop after 2 weeks of fooling around with unity I got it to a relatively useful state. By that time it had become completely stable and I got used to all the keyboard shortcuts which helped me become more productive then ever.Unity is now on my main machine and I rather love it. Now I’m trying to figure out how to flip the whole menu to the right without breaking anything.

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    • clemejI chose unity because I’m still tniyrg to like it, but I’m really not, and will probably go back to classic gnome. Here are a few reasons:- As mentioned above, its dual monitor support leaves a lot to be desired.- Searching is -not- a good paradigm for an application menu, but a tree structure is. In order for search to work, you have to know what you’re looking for.. sometimes, you don’t. I know i downloaded a word processor, but I type word processor’ into the search bar and nothing comes up. It’s a guaranteed way to install a program and then never find it again three months later when you can’t remember what its called. I would -seriously- request that the developers add the option to open a classic application menu when right clicking on the menu icon.- I miss having convenient access to my filesystem bookmarks without having to load up a nautilus window on my home folder just to open a new nautilus menu to my work project’s samba share.- Xterm crashes nouveau in natty, but that’s not a unity issue.- As mentioned above, the we -really- want to ape apple and move out menus to the top absolutely fails with focus follows mouse, since as you move up to the top menu, if you pass over another window, the menu changes to that window. Now, the solution to that is you shouldn’t use focus follows mouse , which someone in some thesis somewhere decided that was bad UI design . This cocky we know better than you that always pervaded gnome, and now has seeped into ubuntu (starting with the anti-notification-area crusade in karmic) is really putting me off.- GVim is broken with the top menu when run from the command line, as a developer, that’s a HUGE problem.In short, i switched to ubuntu years ago because the defaults worked well enough for a power user like me out of the box, and I could spend my time working instead of tweaking my setup on every new machine. It was also simple enough my wie could sit down and use. Ubuntu’s practical approach contrasted with gnome’s we just wont give people the option to do anything fancy . Unity throws a lot of that out the window. After having used gnome shell this week on another work machine, it suffers from the same problems.

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  34. I am a writer first and a tech geek second. When I first migrated from the “ooh, shiny” but very impractical (and broken) Windows Vista and Windows 7 over to Ubuntu 10.4 back in 2010, I instantly fell in love with GNOME 2. It provided a distraction-free work environment (a must for writers with short attention spans :P ), an infinitely customizable UI and complete usability. It just worked and it was wonderful. Then Ubuntu 11.10 forced Unity on us, and GNOME released version 3. Both were very distracting to use, offered zero customization and were a broken, unruly mess.

    “What’s all this garbage!?” I demanded. “This is the whole reason I ditched Windows!” So, for a year, I’ve been searching distros and desktop environments and finally wandered across this little project. I was skeptical at first, but after installing Mint 12 and configuring MATE, I feel as if I’ve come home after a long and arduous journey.

    GNOME 3 may have won brownie points with the tech industry and the press, but they’ve ticked off a lot of people in the process.

    Thank you, MATE team! Thank you, Open Source Software! Thank you, Linux! You have all earned my deepest respect and gratitude. This is the reason why I switched to Linux and why I am a Linux user to stay. Best of wishes to you all!

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    • agYea definitely the siputd menu w/e it’s called is awful. Even Gnome-shell’s is better. It is very difficult to browse. It looks like crap. It is really weird when you are trying to use it to execute a console command. All the lenses are really kinda confusing. I like the idea (gnome-do like) but I also like being able to browse through my applications without having to click though 3-4 different things first. I think that part of unity needs an interface overhaul/redo. Much of the rest is fine so long as it gets more configurable (for example we need to be able to theme/change the colors on the panel that comes out of the left side of the screen. (and actually everything including the launcher/dash thing w/e you all are calling it. So in short: fix the launcher interface, make everything themeable/customizable.

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  35. the clock and the system try have a weird color on fedora when i use any of the equinox themes… you know how can i fix this? thank you.

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  36. It’s so sad to see such division in Linux.
    The GNOME heirarchy need to take a long, hard look at themselves. They are behaving just like Microsoft with their ‘our way, or the highway’ attitude. It really hurts me to see FOSS infighting like this.
    Maybe the ‘good old days’ of Linux innovation are gone for good. Sadly, Ubuntu has to be blamed for much of the demise of FOSS. It threw out a cherry to all, then, with the abomination that is Unity (aka dis-Unity) it poisoned the cherry and now we see Canonical for what it is – corporate big-business in FOSS clothing.
    Sorry Canonical, but I don’t want your advert-laden ‘software-center’. Neither do I want your clouds (where you WILL spy on my content in your corporate interests).
    Maybe the only hope is Debian, or even FreeBSD. I don’t know. But what I do know is that Linux has become some corrupted beauty. It used to be pure and simple – back in the day…

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  37. God bless you guys for making Mate. Like many I’ve got a life to live and serious work to do. If Gnome 3 had provided ANY benefits to my productivity, i would have perhaps stuck with it, but the developers had their heads so far up their asses they lost sight of what an OS is supposed to be. Shame on Ubuntu. Between Unity and Gnome 3, they’re dead to me.

    In case anyone wonders what a desktop environment -is- supposed to be: the best analogy i’ve heard is that of city streets, water pipes, electrical cables and sewers. When they are working – the city forgets they are there and productivity surges.

    To extend the analogy, Gnome 3 devs decided these things for us:
    –> Everyone should ride unicycles to work.
    –> If you want water for tea, go use the hose in the garden.
    –> Making toast requires the use of a hand cranked generator.
    –> Pee in the sink because toilets are outdated.

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  38. Are you planning Seahorse-plugins for Caja and Pluma?

    Without this you can not work.
    I’m using Mint 9 Isadora. What a year I still have about a year.

    (Seahorse plugin for Nautilus randomly select keys. Horror.)

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