<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" ><generator uri="https://jekyllrb.com/" version="4.3.4">Jekyll</generator><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/rss.xml" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" /><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" /><updated>2025-04-06T16:57:16+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/rss.xml</id><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE</title><entry xml:lang="en"><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE 24.10 Release Notes</title><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-oracular-oriole-release-notes/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Ubuntu MATE 24.10 Release Notes" /><published>2024-10-07T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2025-04-06T16:54:02+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-oracular-oriole</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-oracular-oriole-release-notes/"><![CDATA[<p>Ubuntu MATE 24.10 is more of what you like, stable MATE Desktop on top of current Ubuntu. Read on to learn more 👓️</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/oracular/screenshot.png" alt="Ubuntu MATE 24.10" /> <strong>Ubuntu MATE 24.10</strong></p> <h2 id="thank-you-">Thank you! 🙇</h2> <p><strong>My sincere thanks to everyone who has played an active role in improving Ubuntu MATE for this release 👏 I’d like to acknowledge the close collaboration with the Ubuntu Foundations team and the Ubuntu flavour teams, in particular <a href="https://launchpad.net/~eeickmeyer">Erich Eickmeyer</a> who pushed critical fixes while I was travelling. Thank you!</strong> 💚</p> <h2 id="what-changed-since-the-ubuntu-mate-2404-lts">What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS?</h2> <p>Here are the highlights of what’s changed since the <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-noble-numbat-release-notes/">release of Ubuntu MATE 24.04</a></p> <ul> <li>Ships stable <a href="https://mate-desktop.org">MATE Desktop</a> 1.26.2 with a handful of bug fixes 🐛</li> <li>Switched back to Slick Greeter (replacing Arctica Greeter) due to race-condition in the boot process which results the display manager failing to initialise. <ul> <li>Returning to Slick Greeter reintroduces the ability to easily configure the login screen via a graphical application, something users have been requesting be re-instated 👍</li> </ul> </li> <li>Ubuntu MATE 24.10 .iso 📀 is now 3.3GB 🤏 Down from 4.1GB in the 24.04 LTS release. <ul> <li>This is thanks to some fixes in the installer that no longer require as many packages in the live-seed.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/oracular/login-window.png" alt="Login Window Configuration" /> <strong>Login Window</strong></p> <h2 id="what-didnt-change-since-the-ubuntu-mate-2404-lts">What didn’t change since the Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS?</h2> <p>If you follow upstream MATE Desktop development, then you’ll have noticed that Ubuntu MATE 24.10 doesn’t ship with the recently released MATE Desktop 1.28 🧉</p> <p>I have prepared packaging for MATE Desktop 1.28, along with the associated components but encountered some bugs and regressions 🐞 I wasn’t able to get things to a standard I’m happy to ship be default, so it is tried and true MATE 1.26.2 one last time 🪨</p> <h2 id="major-applications">Major Applications</h2> <p>Accompanying <strong>MATE Desktop 1.26.2</strong> 🧉 and <strong>Linux 6.11</strong> 🐧 are <strong>Firefox 131</strong> 🔥🦊, <strong>Celluloid 0.27</strong> 🎥, <strong>Evolution 3.54</strong> 📧, <strong>LibreOffice 24.8.2</strong> 📚</p> <p>See the <a href="https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/oracular-oriole-release-notes/44878/1">Ubuntu 24.10 Release Notes</a> for details of all the changes and improvements that Ubuntu MATE benefits from.</p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>Download Ubuntu MATE 24.10</h2> <p>Available for 64-bit desktop computers!</p> <a href="/download/" class="btn">Download</a> </div> <h2 id="upgrading-to-ubuntu-mate-2410">Upgrading to Ubuntu MATE 24.10</h2> <p>The upgrade process to Ubuntu MATE 24.10 is the same as Ubuntu.</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OracularUpgrades">Ubuntu 24.10 Upgrade Process</a></li> </ul> <p>There are no offline upgrade options for Ubuntu MATE. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.</p>]]></content><author><name>Martin Wimpress</name></author><category term="release" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[What's new in Ubuntu MATE 24.10 LTS (Oracular Oriole)]]></summary></entry><entry xml:lang="en"><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS Release Notes</title><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-noble-numbat-release-notes/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS Release Notes" /><published>2024-04-23T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2025-04-06T16:54:02+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-noble-numbat</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-noble-numbat-release-notes/"><![CDATA[<p>Ubuntu MATE 24.04 is more of what you like, stable MATE Desktop on top of current Ubuntu. This release rolls up some fixes and more closely aligns with Ubuntu. Read on to learn more 👓️</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/noble/screenshot.png" alt="Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS" /> <strong>Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS</strong></p> <h2 id="thank-you-">Thank you! 🙇</h2> <p><strong>I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who has played an active role in improving Ubuntu MATE for this release 👏 I’d like to acknowledge the close collaboration with all the Ubuntu flavour teams and the Ubuntu Foundations and Desktop Teams. The assistance and support provided by <a href="https://launchpad.net/~eeickmeyer">Erich Eickmeyer</a> (Ubuntu Studio), <a href="https://launchpad.net/~tsimonq2">Simon Quigley</a> (Lubuntu) and <a href="https://launchpad.net/~fossfreedom">David Muhammed</a> (Ubuntu Budgie) have been invaluable. Thank you!</strong> 💚</p> <h2 id="what-changed-since-the-ubuntu-mate-2310">What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 23.10?</h2> <p>Here are the highlights of what’s changed since the <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-mantic-minotaur-release-notes/">release of Ubuntu MATE 23.10</a></p> <ul> <li>Ships stable <a href="https://mate-desktop.org">MATE Desktop</a> 1.26.2 with a selection of bug fixes 🐛 and minor improvements 🩹 to associated components.</li> <li>Integrated the new ✨ <a href="https://snapcraft.io/ubuntu-desktop-bootstrap">Ubuntu Desktop Bootstrap</a> installer 📀</li> <li>Added <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/gnome-firmware">GNOME Firmware</a>, that replaces <a href="https://snapcraft.io/firmware-updater">Firmware Updater</a>.</li> <li>Added <a href="https://snapcraft.io/snap-store">App Center</a>, that replaces Software Boutique.</li> <li>Retired Ubuntu MATE Welcome; although it is still available for Ubuntu MATE 23.10 and earlier.</li> </ul> <h2 id="major-applications">Major Applications</h2> <p>Accompanying <strong>MATE Desktop 1.26.2</strong> 🧉 and <strong>Linux 6.8</strong> 🐧 are <strong>Firefox 125</strong> 🔥🦊, <strong>Celluloid 0.26</strong> 🎥, <strong>Evolution 3.52</strong> 📧, <strong>LibreOffice 24.2.2</strong> 📚</p> <p>See the <a href="https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/noble-numbat-release-notes/39890">Ubuntu 24.04 Release Notes</a> for details of all the changes and improvements that Ubuntu MATE benefits from.</p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>Download Ubuntu MATE 24.04</h2> <p>Available for 64-bit desktop computers!</p> <a href="/download/" class="btn">Download</a> </div> <h2 id="upgrading-to-ubuntu-mate-2404">Upgrading to Ubuntu MATE 24.04</h2> <p>The upgrade process to Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS from either Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS or 23.10 is the same as Ubuntu.</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NobleUpgrades">Ubuntu 24.04 Upgrade Process</a></li> </ul> <p>There are no offline upgrade options for Ubuntu MATE. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.</p>]]></content><author><name>Martin Wimpress</name></author><category term="release" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[What's new in Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat)]]></summary></entry><entry xml:lang="en"><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE 23.10 Release Notes</title><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-mantic-minotaur-release-notes/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Ubuntu MATE 23.10 Release Notes" /><published>2023-09-25T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2025-04-06T16:54:02+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-mantic-minotaur</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-mantic-minotaur-release-notes/"><![CDATA[<p>Ubuntu MATE 23.10 is more of what you like, stable MATE Desktop on top of current Ubuntu. This release rolls up a number of bugs fixes and updates that continues to build on recent releases, where the focus has been on improving stability 🪨</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/mantic/screenshot.png" alt="Ubuntu MATE 23.10" /> <strong>Ubuntu MATE 23.10</strong></p> <h2 id="thank-you-">Thank you! 🙇</h2> <p><strong>I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who has played an active role in improving Ubuntu MATE for this release 👏 From reporting bugs, submitting translations, providing patches, contributing to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/ubuntu_mate">our crowd-funding</a>, developing new features, creating artwork, offering community support, actively testing and providing QA feedback to writing documentation or creating this fabulous website. Thank you!</strong> 💚</p> <h2 id="what-changed-since-the-ubuntu-mate-2304">What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 23.04?</h2> <p>Here are the highlights of what’s changed since the <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-lunar-lobster-release-notes/">release of Ubuntu MATE 23.04</a></p> <h3 id="mate-desktop">MATE Desktop</h3> <p><a href="https://mate-desktop.org">MATE Desktop</a> has been updated to 1.26.2 with a selection of bugs fixes 🐛 and minor improvements 🩹 to associated components.</p> <ul> <li><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">caja-rename</code> 23.10.1-1 has been ported from Python to C.</li> <li><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">libmatemixer</code> 1.26.0-2+deb12u1 resolves heap corruption and application crashes when removing USB audio devices.</li> <li><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-desktop</code> 1.26.2-1 improves portals support.</li> <li><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-notification-daemon</code> 1.26.1-1 fixes several memory leaks.</li> <li><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-system-monitor</code> 1.26.0-5 now picks up libexec files from <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">/usr/libexec</code></li> <li><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-session-manager</code> 1.26.1-2 set <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">LIBEXECDIR</code> to <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">/usr/libexec/</code> for correct interaction with <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-system-monitor</code> ☝️</li> <li><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-user-guide</code> 1.26.2-1 is a new upstream release.</li> <li><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-utils</code> 1.26.1-1 fixes several memory leaks.</li> </ul> <h4 id="yet-more-ai-generated-wallpaper">Yet more AI Generated wallpaper</h4> <p>My friend <a href="https://twitter.com/simonjbutcher">Simon Butcher</a> 🇬🇧 is Head of Research Platforms at Queen Mary University of London managing the Apocrita HPC cluster service. <strong>Once again, Simon has created a stunning AI-generated 🤖🧠 wallpaper for Ubuntu MATE using bleeding edge diffusion models</strong> 🖌 <em>The sample below is 1920x1080 but the version included in Ubuntu MATE 23.10 are 3840x2160</em>.</p> <div class="gallery"> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/mantic/minotaur-king.jpg" alt="" /> </div> </div> <p>Here’s what Simon has to say about the process of creating this new wallpaper for Mantic Minotaur:</p> <blockquote> <p>Since Minotaurs are imaginary creatures, interpretations tend to vary widely. I wanted to produce an image of a powerful creature in a graphic novel style, although not gruesome like many depictions. The latest open source Stable Diffusion XL base model was trained at a higher resolution and the difference in quality has been noticeable, particularly at better overall consistency and detail, while reducing anatomical irregularities in images. The image was produced locally using Linux and an NVIDIA A100 80GB GPU, starting from an initial text prompt and refined using img2img, inpainting and upscaling features.</p> </blockquote> <h2 id="major-applications">Major Applications</h2> <p>Accompanying <strong>MATE Desktop 1.26.2</strong> 🧉 and <strong>Linux 6.5</strong> 🐧 are <strong>Firefox 118</strong> 🔥🦊, <strong>Celluloid 0.25</strong> 🎥, <strong>Evolution 3.50</strong> 📧, <strong>LibreOffice 7.6.1</strong> 📚</p> <p>See the <a href="https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/mantic-minotaur-release-notes/35534">Ubuntu 23.10 Release Notes</a> for details of all the changes and improvements that Ubuntu MATE benefits from.</p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>Download Ubuntu MATE 23.10</h2> <p>Available for 64-bit desktop computers!</p> <a href="/download/" class="btn">Download</a> </div> <h2 id="upgrading-from-ubuntu-mate-2304">Upgrading from Ubuntu MATE 23.04</h2> <p>You can upgrade to Ubuntu MATE 23.10 from Ubuntu MATE 23.04. Ensure that you have all updates installed for your current version of Ubuntu MATE before you upgrade.</p> <ul> <li>Open the “Software &amp; Updates” from the Control Center.</li> <li>Select the 3rd Tab called “Updates”.</li> <li>Set the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” drop down menu to “For any new version”.</li> <li>Press <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>F2</kbd> and type in <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">update-manager -c -d</code> into the command box.</li> <li>Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ‘23.10’ is available. <ul> <li>If not, you can use <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">/usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/check-new-release-gtk</code></li> </ul> </li> <li>Click “Upgrade” and follow the on-screen instructions.</li> </ul> <p>There are no offline upgrade options for Ubuntu MATE. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.</p> <h2 id="feedback">Feedback</h2> <p>Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.community/">come and talk to us</a>.</p>]]></content><author><name>Martin Wimpress</name></author><category term="release" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[What's new in Ubuntu MATE 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur)]]></summary></entry><entry xml:lang="en"><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE 23.04 Release Notes</title><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-lunar-lobster-release-notes/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Ubuntu MATE 23.04 Release Notes" /><published>2023-04-20T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2025-04-06T16:54:02+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-lunar-lobster</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-lunar-lobster-release-notes/"><![CDATA[<p>Ubuntu MATE 23.04 is the least exciting Ubuntu MATE release ever. The good news is, if you liked Ubuntu MATE 22.10 then it is more of the same; just with better artwork! 🖌️🖼️ I entered this development cycle full of energy and enthusiasm off the back of the <a href="https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-summit-2022-reflections">Ubuntu Summit in Prague</a>, but then I was seriously ill 🤒 and had a long stay in hospital. I’m recovering well and should be 100% in a couple of months. This setback and also changing jobs a couple of months ago has meant that I’ve not been able to invest the usual time and effort into Ubuntu MATE. I’m happy to say that I’ve been able to deliver another solid 🪨 release with the help of the Ubuntu community.</p> <h2 id="thank-you-">Thank you! 🙇</h2> <p>**I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who has played an active role in improving Ubuntu MATE for this release 👏 From reporting bugs, submitting translations, providing patches, contributing to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/ubuntu_mate">our crowd-funding</a>, developing new features, creating artwork, offering community support, actively testing and providing QA feedback to writing documentation or creating this fabulous website. Thank you! 💚</p> <h2 id="what-changed-since-the-ubuntu-mate-2210">What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 22.10?</h2> <p>Here are the highlights of what’s changed since the <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-kinetic-kudu-release-notes/">release of Ubuntu MATE 22.10</a></p> <h3 id="mate-desktop">MATE Desktop</h3> <p>Both <a href="https://mate-desktop.org">MATE Desktop</a> and <a href="https://github.com/AyatanaIndicators">Ayatana Indicators</a> have seen some version bumps that fix 🩹 an assortment of minor bugs 🐛</p> <h4 id="ai-generated-wallpapers-yet-again">AI Generated wallpapers (yet again!)</h4> <p>My friend <a href="https://twitter.com/simonjbutcher">Simon Butcher</a> 🇬🇧 is Head of Research Platforms at Queen Mary University of London managing the Apocrita HPC cluster service. <strong>Once again, Simon has created **some stunning **AI-generated</strong> 🤖🧠 ** for Ubuntu MATE using bleeding edge diffusion models** 🖌 <em>The samples below are 1920x1080 but the versions included in Ubuntu MATE 23.04 are 3840x2160</em>.</p> <div class="gallery"> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/lunar/Lunar-Lobster-Explorer.jpg" alt="" /> </div> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/lunar/Lunar-Lobster-Landing.jpg" alt="" /> </div> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/lunar/Lunar-Lobster-Steampunk.jpg" alt="" /> </div> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/lunar/Lunar-Lobster.jpg" alt="" /> </div> </div> <p>Here’s what Simon has to say about the process of creating these new wallpapers for Lunar Lobster:</p> <blockquote> <p>My usual workflow involves checking reddit, etc for the latest techniques, and then installing the latest open-source tools and checkpoints for unlimited experimentation (e.g. stable diffusion), plus some selective use of Dall-e and Midjourney, while trying not to exhaust my credits. I then experiment with lot of different prompts (including negative prompts to discourage certain features), settings, styles and ideas from each tool to see what sort of images I can get, then tweak and evolve my approach based on the results.</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p>Lobsters are fascinating creatures, but in real life, I find them a bit ugly, with all those antennae and legs akimbo. For the theme of “Lunar Lobster”, rather precise anatomy, I explored ideas of stylised alien robotic space lobsters, lunar landers and other lobster-themed spacecraft. After a producing a shortlist of varied images, I then perform any necessary AI processing such as inpainting, outpainting (generating new parts of an image beyond the existing canvas - particularly useful for getting the correct aspect ratio) and AI upscaling to make them suitable for use as wallpaper.</p> </blockquote> <h3 id="flatpak">Flatpak</h3> <p><a href="https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-flavor-packaging-defaults/34061">Flatpak is no longer installed by default</a>, but can still be installed should you want to use it.</p> <h3 id="pipewire">PipeWire</h3> <p>As a <a href="https://linuxdowntime.com/">podcaster</a> and <a href="https://twitch.tv/WimpysWorld">streamer</a> I’m delighted to have PipeWire installed by default since Ubuntu MATE 22.10. The Ubuntu MATE meta packages have been updated to correctly install the revised pipewire packages in Ubuntu. Special thanks to Erich Eickmeyer, from the Ubuntu Studio project, for his work on this.</p> <h2 id="major-applications">Major Applications</h2> <p>Accompanying <strong>MATE Desktop 1.26.1</strong> 🧉 and <strong>Linux 6.20</strong> 🐧 are <strong>Firefox 111</strong> 🔥🦊, <strong>Celluloid 0.20</strong> 🎥, <strong>Evolution 3.48</strong> 📧, <strong>LibreOffice 7.5.2</strong> 📚</p> <p>See the <a href="https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/lunar-lobster-release-notes/31910">Ubuntu 23.04 Release Notes</a> for details of all the changes and improvements that Ubuntu MATE benefits from.</p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>Download Ubuntu MATE 23.04</h2> <p>Available for 64-bit desktop computers!</p> <a href="/download/" class="btn">Download</a> </div> <h2 id="upgrading-from-ubuntu-mate-2210">Upgrading from Ubuntu MATE 22.10</h2> <p>You can upgrade to Ubuntu MATE 23.04 from Ubuntu MATE 22.10. Ensure that you have all updates installed for your current version of Ubuntu MATE before you upgrade.</p> <ul> <li>Open the “Software &amp; Updates” from the Control Center.</li> <li>Select the 3rd Tab called “Updates”.</li> <li>Set the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” drop down menu to “For any new version”.</li> <li>Press <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>F2</kbd> and type in <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">update-manager -c -d</code> into the command box.</li> <li>Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ‘23.04’ is available. <ul> <li>If not, you can use <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">/usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/check-new-release-gtk</code></li> </ul> </li> <li>Click “Upgrade” and follow the on-screen instructions.</li> </ul> <p>There are no offline upgrade options for Ubuntu MATE. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.</p> <h2 id="feedback">Feedback</h2> <p>Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.community/">come and talk to us</a>.</p>]]></content><author><name>Martin Wimpress</name></author><category term="release" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[What's new in Ubuntu MATE 23.04 (Lunar Lobster)]]></summary></entry><entry xml:lang="en"><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE 22.10 Release Notes</title><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-kinetic-kudu-release-notes/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Ubuntu MATE 22.10 Release Notes" /><published>2022-09-29T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2024-04-24T21:55:28+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-kinetic</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-kinetic-kudu-release-notes/"><![CDATA[<p>Ubuntu MATE 22.10 is a modest update by recent standards and focused on <em>“quality of life improvements”</em>. And there is good reason why this release of Ubuntu MATE doesn’t feature the usual bucket 🪣 list of changes you’d typically expect, and that’s because I’ve been helping bring the full Ubuntu MATE experience to Debian MATE 🧉</p> <p>This may raise some questions for Ubuntu MATE users, so let’s try and address them:</p> <ul> <li><strong>I’m not stepping away from Ubuntu or Ubuntu MATE</strong>. I will continue to use and develop Ubuntu MATE 👍</li> <li>I’ve closely collaborated with the MATE packaging team for Debian for over 8 years 👴</li> <li>Making the MATE experience in Debian and Ubuntu consistent <strong>makes maintenance easier for all involved</strong> 🛠</li> <li>Ubuntu MATE offers some modernisation of MATE via home-grown apps such as MATE Tweak and Ayatana Indicators. <strong>We want Debian users to benefit from those improvements too</strong> 💖</li> <li>We’re hopeful the MATE spin in Debian 12 will offer the same (or extremely similar) experience Ubuntu MATE users have enjoyed for some time 🎁</li> </ul> <h2 id="thank-you-">Thank you! 🙇</h2> <p><strong>I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who has played an active role in improving Ubuntu MATE for this release 👏 From reporting bugs, submitting translations, providing patches, contributing to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/ubuntu_mate">our crowd funding</a>, developing new features, creating artwork, offering community support, actively testing and providing QA feedback to writing documentation or creating this fabulous website. Thank you! Thank you all for getting out there and making a difference!</strong> 💚</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/kinetic/kinetic-kudu-desktop.jpg" alt="Ubuntu MATE 22.10" /> <strong>Ubuntu MATE 22.10 using the Pantheon layout and new centered panel applets and HUD</strong></p> <h2 id="what-changed-since-the-ubuntu-mate-2204">What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 22.04?</h2> <p>Here are the highlights of what’s changed since the <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-jammy-jellyfish-release-notes/">release of Ubuntu MATE 22.04</a></p> <h3 id="mate-desktop">MATE Desktop</h3> <p>The usual point release updates to <a href="https://mate-desktop.org">MATE Desktop</a> and <a href="https://github.com/AyatanaIndicators">Ayatana Indicators</a> have been included that fix 🩹 an assortment on minor bugs 🐛 <strong>The main change in MATE Desktop is to MATE Panel</strong>, where we’ve included an early snapshot release of <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-panel</code> 1.27.0 along with a patch set that <strong>adds centre alignment of panel applets</strong>.</p> <p>This much requested feature comes from Ubuntu MATE community contributor <a href="https://github.com/thesquash">Gordon N. Squash</a> 🇺🇸 and allows panel applets to be centre aligned, as well as the usual left and right alignment. I’m sure you’ll all join me in thanking 🙇 Gordon for working on this feature.</p> <p><strong>Centre aligning of applet icons will ship with MATE Desktop 1.28, but we’re including it early 🐓 for Ubuntu MATE users</strong>. We’ve updated MATE Tweak to correctly save/restore custom layouts that use centre aligned applets and all the panel layouts shipped with Ubuntu MATE 22.10 have been updated so they’re compatible with center alignment of applets ✅</p> <h4 id="ai-generated-wallpapers-again">AI Generated wallpapers (again!)</h4> <p>My friend <a href="https://twitter.com/simonjbutcher">Simon Butcher</a> 🇬🇧 is Head of Research Platforms at Queen Mary University of London managing the Apocrita HPC cluster service. <strong>Once again, Simon has created some stunning AI generated 🤖🧠 wallpapers for Ubuntu MATE using bleeding edge diffusion models</strong> 🖌 <em>The samples below are 1920x1080 but the versions include in Ubuntu MATE 22.10 are 3840x2160</em>.</p> <div class="gallery"> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/kinetic/kudu-field.jpg" alt="" /> </div> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/kinetic/kudu-foresty.jpg" alt="" /> </div> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/kinetic/kudu-grass.jpg" alt="" /> </div> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/kinetic/kudu-standalone.jpg" alt="" /> </div> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/kinetic/kudu-verdant.jpg" alt="" /> </div> </div> <p>Here’s what Simon has to say about about some of the challenges he faced creating these new wallpapers for Kinetic Kudu:</p> <blockquote> <p>AI image generation is continuing to improve at a mind-boggling rate. Yet, until recently, coherent human faces, hands and anatomically correct animals have proved rather tricky. Fortunately human faces are getting particular attention in the open source community after the release of Stable Diffusion. However, while an anthropomorphic portrait of a Kudu wearing a rather dapper suit will be stylishly rendered, getting consistent results for kudu in their natural habitat proved particularly tricky, exacerbated by their elegant horn structure. Often you will get rather wild interpretations of the horns, 5 legged creatures, or nightmarish output akin to the Pushmi-Pullyu from the Dr Doolittle stories.</p> </blockquote> <div align="center"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AI-generated kudu are hard. They are happy posing for their portrait in a suit, but as soon as you want them to act normal, you get abominations like this double-headed beastie <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/stablediffusion?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#stablediffusion</a> <a href="https://t.co/BgPR3QBqru">https://t.co/BgPR3QBqru</a> <a href="https://t.co/RVCbgMsOAh">pic.twitter.com/RVCbgMsOAh</a></p>&mdash; Simon Butcher (@simonjbutcher) <a href="https://twitter.com/simonjbutcher/status/1572574722612920322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div> <blockquote> <p>Jellyfish, on the other hand, are a mass of tentacles and perhaps benefit aesthetically from the randomness induced by AI-generated images, in the same way that forests, mountains and hobbit villages generated by AI can be produced en-masse to a very satisfying extent. So while 1000 stunning unique images of jellyfish can be produced in a few minutes with a powerful GPU, the kudu was quite a challenge, and I had to experiment a lot with various prompts and styles, and a lot of cherry-picking - throwing away about 99% of the results that weren’t quite right. For the next release, I’m hoping we’ll see further AI innovation in time for the next release, or…maybe the next code name will be a lionfish?</p> </blockquote> <h3 id="pipewire">PipeWire</h3> <p><strong>PulseAudio has been replaced with PipeWire</strong> and Bluetooth audio codec support has been expanded with the addition of AAC, LDAC, aptX and aptX HD.</p> <p>As a <a href="https://linuxdowntime.com/">podcaster</a> and <a href="https://twitch.tv/WimpysWorld">streamer</a> I’m delighted to have PipeWire installed by default in Ubuntu MATE 22.10. The migration to PipeWire has resolved some longstanding minor annoyances I’ve had with audio in that past and all the tools 🧰 I use for audio and video production continue to function correctly.</p> <h4 id="pipewire-on-ubuntu-mate-2204">PipeWire on Ubuntu MATE 22.04</h4> <p>If you like to ride the LTS train 🚆 but want to use PipeWire in Ubuntu MATE 22.04 (<em>as I have been doing for some months</em>) then this is how to make the change:</p> <div class="language-bash highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nb">sudo </span>apt-get <span class="nb">install </span>gstreamer1.0-pipewire pipewire-audio-client-libraries wireplumber <span class="nb">sudo </span>apt-get remove pulseaudio-module-bluetooth <span class="nb">sudo </span>apt-get <span class="nb">install </span>libfdk-aac2 libldacbt-abr2 libldacbt-enc2 libopenaptx0 libspa-0.2-bluetooth libspa-0.2-jack </code></pre></div></div> <p>Once the installs/removals are complete restart your computer.</p> <h3 id="ubuntu-mate-stuff">Ubuntu MATE Stuff</h3> <p>The <em>“MATE HUD”</em> has seen some significant work from community contributor <a href="https://github.com/twa022">twa022</a> 🌎. The <strong>HUD now supports MATE, XFCE and Budgie</strong>, has improved accuracy for HUD placement (taking into account various panel offsets/struts), <strong>is highly configurable and includes a new HUD settings app</strong> ✨</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/kinetic/hud-settings.png" alt="HUD Settings" /> <strong>HUD Settings</strong></p> <h4 id="mate-user-manager">MATE User Manager</h4> <p><strong>A new utility, User Manager, has been added to complement the suite of MATE tools.</strong> User Manager replaces the aging <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">gnome-system-tools</code> which was removed from Ubuntu MATE in the 22.04 release and allows you to add/modify/remove user accounts. It also includes the ability to define which users are Administrators, enable/disable auto-login, set profile images and manage group memberships.</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/kinetic/mate-user-manager.png" alt="MATE User Manager" /> <strong>MATE User Manager</strong></p> <h4 id="yaru">Yaru</h4> <p>And last but not least, the Ubuntu MATE Artwork package has been updated to <strong>include all the refinements and improvements in the suite of <a href="https://github.com/ubuntu/yaru">Yaru</a> themes</strong> 🎨</p> <h2 id="major-applications">Major Applications</h2> <p>Accompanying <strong>MATE Desktop 1.26.1</strong> 🧉 and <strong>Linux 5.19</strong> 🐧 are <strong>Firefox 105</strong> 🔥🦊, <strong>Celluloid 0.20</strong> 🎥, <strong>Evolution 3.46</strong> 📧, <strong>LibreOffice 7.4</strong> 📚</p> <p>See the <a href="https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/kinetic-kudu-release-notes/27976">Ubuntu 22.10 Release Notes</a> for details of all the changes and improvements that Ubuntu MATE benefits from.</p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>Download Ubuntu MATE 22.10</h2> <p>This new release will be first available for PC/Mac users.</p> <a href="/download/" class="btn">Download</a> </div> <h2 id="upgrading-from-ubuntu-mate-2204">Upgrading from Ubuntu MATE 22.04</h2> <p>You can upgrade to Ubuntu MATE 22.10 from Ubuntu MATE 22.04. Ensure that you have all updates installed for your current version of Ubuntu MATE before you upgrade.</p> <ul> <li>Open the “Software &amp; Updates” from the Control Center.</li> <li>Select the 3rd Tab called “Updates”.</li> <li>Set the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” drop down menu to “For any new version”.</li> <li>Press <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>F2</kbd> and type in <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">update-manager -c -d</code> into the command box.</li> <li>Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ‘22.10’ is available. <ul> <li>If not, you can use <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">/usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/check-new-release-gtk</code></li> </ul> </li> <li>Click “Upgrade” and follow the on-screen instructions.</li> </ul> <p>There are no offline upgrade options for Ubuntu MATE. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.</p> <h2 id="feedback">Feedback</h2> <p>Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.community/">come and talk to us</a>.</p>]]></content><author><name>Martin Wimpress</name></author><category term="release" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[What's new in Ubuntu MATE 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu)]]></summary></entry><entry xml:lang="en"><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS Release Notes</title><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-jammy-jellyfish-release-notes/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS Release Notes" /><published>2022-03-29T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2024-04-24T21:55:28+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-jammy</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-jammy-jellyfish-release-notes/"><![CDATA[<p>Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS is the culmination of 2 years of continual improvement 😅 to Ubuntu and MATE Desktop. As is tradition, the LTS development cycle has a keen focus on eliminating paper 🧻 cuts 🔪 but we’ve <em>jammed</em> in some new features and a fresh coat of paint too 🖌 The following is a summary of what’s new <a href="/blog/ubuntu-mate-impish-indri-final-release/">since Ubuntu MATE 21.10</a> and some reminders of how we got here from 20.04. Read on to learn more 🧑‍🎓</p> <h2 id="thank-you-">Thank you! 🙇</h2> <p><strong>I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who has played an active role in improving Ubuntu MATE for this LTS release 👏 From reporting bugs, submitting translations, providing patches, contributing to our crowd funding, developing new features, creating artwork, offering community support, actively testing and providing QA feedback to writing documentation or creating this fabulous website. Thank you! Thank you all for getting out there and making a difference!</strong> 💚</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/jammy/ubuntu-mate-mutiny-dark.png" alt="Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS" /> <strong>Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) - Mutiny layout with Yark-MATE-dark</strong></p> <h2 id="whats-changed">What’s changed?</h2> <p>Here are the highlights of what’s changed recently.</p> <h3 id="mate-desktop-1261-">MATE Desktop 1.26.1 🧉</h3> <p>Ubuntu MATE 22.04 features MATE Desktop 1.26.1. MATE Desktop 1.26.0 was introduced in 21.10 and benefits from <strong>significant effort 😅 in fixing bugs 🐛 in MATE Desktop, optimising performance ⚡ and plugging memory leaks</strong>. MATE Desktop 1.26.1 addresses the bugs we discovered following the initial 1.26.0 release. Our community also fixed some bugs in Plank and Brisk Menu 👍 and also fixed the screen reader during installs for visually impaired users 🥰 In all over 500 bugs have been addressed in this release 🩹</p> <h3 id="yaru-">Yaru 🎨</h3> <p>Ubuntu MATE 21.04 was the first release to ship with a MATE variant of the <a href="https://github.com/ubuntu/yaru">Yaru theme</a>. A year later and we’ve been working hard with members of the Yaru and Ubuntu Desktop teams to bring <strong>full MATE compatibility to upstream Yaru, including all the accent colour varieties.</strong> All reported bugs 🐞 in the Yaru implementation for MATE have also been fixed 🛠</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/jammy/yaru-themes.png" alt="Yaru Themes" /> <strong>Yaru Themes in Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS</strong></p> <p>Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS ships with all the Yaru themes, including our own <em>“chelsea cucumber”</em> version 🥒 The legacy Ambiant/Radiant themes are no longer installed by default and neither are the stock MATE Desktop themes. We’ve added an <strong>automatic settings migration</strong> to transition users who upgrade to an appropriate Yaru MATE theme.</p> <h4 id="cherries-on-top-">Cherries on top 🍒</h4> <p>In collaboration with <a href="https://github.com/Jupi007">Paul Kepinski</a> 🇫🇷 (Yaru team) and <a href="https://twitter.com/3v1n0">Marco Trevisan</a> 🇮🇹 (Ubuntu Desktop team) <strong>we’ve added dark/light panels and panel icons to Yaru for MATE Desktop and Unity</strong>. I’ve added a collection of new dark/light panel icons to Yaru for popular apps with indicators such as Steam, Dropbox, <a href="https://ulauncher.io/">uLauncher</a>, <a href="http://jonls.dk/redshift/">RedShift</a>, <a href="https://transmissionbt.com/">Transmission</a>, Variety, etc.</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/jammy/panel-light.png" alt="Light Panel" /> <img src="/images/blog/jammy/panel-dark.png" alt="Dark Panel" /> <strong>Light and Dark panels</strong></p> <p>I’ve added patches 🩹 to the Appearance Control Center that <strong>applies theme changes to Plank (the dock), Pluma (text editor) and correctly toggles the colour scheme preference for GNOME 42 apps</strong>. When you choose a dark theme, everything will go dark in unison 🥷 and vice versa.</p> <p>So, <strong>Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS is now using everything Yaru/Suru has to offer.</strong> 🎉</p> <h4 id="ai-generated-wallpapers">AI Generated wallpapers</h4> <p>My friend <a href="https://twitter.com/simonjbutcher">Simon Butcher</a> 🇬🇧 is Head of Research Platforms at Queen Mary University of London managing the Apocrita HPC cluster service. He’s been creating AI 🤖 generated art using bleeding edge CLIP guided diffusion models 🖌 The results are pretty incredible and we’ve <a href="https://twitter.com/m_wimpress/status/1504030749451862026">included the 3 top voted “Jammy Jellyfish” in our wallpaper selection</a> as their vivid and vibrant styles compliment the Yaru accent colour theme options very nicely indeed 😎</p> <div class="gallery"> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/jammy/jelly3.jpg" alt="" /> </div> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/jammy/jelly4.jpg" alt="" /> </div> <div class="gallery-item"> <img src="/images/blog/jammy/jelly6.jpg" alt="" /> </div> </div> <p>If you want the complete set, here’s a tarball of all 8 wallpapers at 3840x2160:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://people.ubuntu.com/~flexiondotorg/Jammy_Jellyfish_AI_Wallpapers.tar.xz">AI Generated <em>“Jammy Jelly”</em> by Simon Butcher</a> 🎁 (22MB)</li> </ul> <h3 id="ubuntu-mate-stuff-">Ubuntu MATE stuff 🧉</h3> <p>Ubuntu MATE has a few distinctive apps and integrations of it’s own, here’s a run down of what’s new and shiny ✨</p> <h4 id="mate-tweak">MATE Tweak</h4> <p>Switching layouts with MATE Tweak is its most celebrated feature. We’ve improved the reliability of desktop layout switching and restoring custom layouts is now 100% accurate 💯</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/jammy/panel-layouts.png" alt="Ubuntu MATE Desktop Layouts" /> <strong>Having your desktop your way in Ubuntu MATE</strong></p> <p>We’ve removed <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-netbook</code> from the default installation of Ubuntu MATE and as a result the Netbook layout is no longer available. We did this because <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-maximus</code>, a component of <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-netbook</code>, is the cause of some compatibility issues with client side decorated (CSD) windows. There are still several panel layouts that offer efficient resolution use 📐 for those who need it.</p> <p><strong>MATE Tweak has refreshed its supported for 3rd party compositors.</strong> Support for Compton has been dropped, as it is no longer actively maintained and <strong>comprehensive support for <a href="https://github.com/yshui/picom">picom</a> has been added</strong>. <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">picom</code> has three compositor options: Xrender, GLX and Hybrid. All three are can be selected via MATE Tweak as the performance and compatibility of each varies depending on your hardware. <strong>Some people choose to use <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">picom</code> because they get better gaming performance or screen tearing is reduced. Some just like subtle animation effects <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">picom</code> adds</strong> 💖</p> <h4 id="mate-hud">MATE HUD</h4> <p>Recent versions of <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">rofi</code>, the tool used by MATE HUD to visualise menu searches, has a new theme system. <strong>MATE HUD has been updated to support this new theme engine and comes with two MATE specific themes (<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-hud</code> and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-hud-rounded</code>) that automatically adapt to match the currently selected GTK theme</strong>.</p> <p>You can add your own <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">rofi</code> themes to <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">~/.local/share/rofi/themes</code>. Should you want to, you can use any <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">rofi</code> theme in MATE HUD. Use <kbd>Alt</kbd> + <kbd>F2</kbd> to run <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">rofi-theme-selector</code> to try out the different themes, and if there is one you prefer you can set it as default by using running the following in a terminal:</p> <div class="language-bash highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>gsettings <span class="nb">set </span>org.mate.hud rofi-theme &lt;theme name&gt; </code></pre></div></div> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/jammy/mate-hud.png" alt="MATE HUD" /> <strong>MATE HUD uses the new rofi theme engine</strong></p> <h4 id="windows--shadows">Windows &amp; Shadows</h4> <p>I’ve updated the Metacity/Marco (the MATE Window Manager) themes in Yaru to make sure they match GNOME/CSD/Handy windows for a consistent look and feel across all window types 🪟 and 3rd party compositors like <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">picom</code>. I even patched how Marco and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">picom</code> render shadows so windows they look cohesive regardless of toolkit or compositor being used.</p> <h4 id="ubuntu-mate-welcome--boutique">Ubuntu MATE Welcome &amp; Boutique</h4> <p>The Software Boutique has been restocked with software for 22.04 and <strong>Firefox 🔥🦊 ESR (<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">.deb</code>) has been added to the Browser Ballot in Ubuntu MATE Welcome.</strong></p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/jammy/firefox-esr.png" alt="Ubuntu MATE Welcome Browser Ballot" /> <strong>Comprehensive browser options just a click away</strong></p> <h3 id="41-less-fat-">41% less fat 🍩</h3> <p>Ubuntu MATE, like it’s lead developer, was starting to get a bit large around the mid section 😊 <strong>During the development of 22.04, the image 📀 got to 4.1GB 😮</strong></p> <p>So, we put Ubuntu MATE on a strict diet 🥗 We’ve removed the proprietary NVIDIA drivers from the local apt pool on the install media and thanks to migrating fully to Yaru (which now features excellent de-duplication of icons) and also removing our legacy themes/icons. And now the Yaru-MATE themes/icons are completely in upstream Yaru, we were able to remove 3 snaps from the default install and <strong>the image is now a much more reasonable 2.7GB; 41% smaller.</strong> 🗜</p> <p>This is important to us, because <strong>the majority of our users are in countries where Internet bandwidth is not always plentiful</strong>. Those of you with NVIDIA GPUs, don’t worry. If you tick the 3rd party software and drivers during the install the appropriate driver for your GPU will be downloaded and installed 👍</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/jammy/install-3rd-party.png" alt="Install 3rd party drivers" /> <strong>NVIDIA GPU owners should tick <em>Install 3rd party software and drivers</em> during install</strong></p> <p>While investigating 🕵 <a href="https://pad.lv/1959995">a bug in Xorg Server that caused Marco (the MATE window manager) to crash</a> <strong>we discovered that Marco has lower frame time latency ⏱ when using Xrender with the NVIDIA proprietary drivers</strong>. <strong>We’ve published a PPA where NVIDIA GPU users can install a version of Marco that uses Xpresent for optimal performance</strong> ⚡</p> <div class="language-bash highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nb">sudo </span>apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/marco <span class="nb">sudo </span>apt upgrade </code></pre></div></div> <p>Should you want to revert this change you install <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">ppa-purge</code> and run the following from a terminal: <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">sudo ppa-purge -o ubuntu-mate-dev -p marco</code>.</p> <h4 id="but-wait-theres-more-">But wait! There’s more! 😲</h4> <p>These reductions in size are after <strong>we added three new applications to the default install on Ubuntu MATE: GNOME Clocks, Maps and Weather</strong> My family and I 👨‍👩‍👧 have found these applications particularly useful and use them regularly on our laptops without having to reach for a phone or tablet.</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/jammy/gnome-clocks-maps-weather.png" alt="GNOME Clocks, Maps &amp; Weather" /> <strong>New additions to the default desktop application in Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS</strong></p> <p>For those of you who like a minimal base platform, then <strong>the minimal install option is still available which delivers just the essential Ubuntu MATE Desktop and Firefox browser.</strong> You can then build up from there 👷</p> <h4 id="packages-packages-packages-">Packages, packages, packages 📦</h4> <p>It doesn’t matter how you like to consume your Linux 🐧 packages, Ubuntu MATE has got you covered with <strong>PPA, Snap, AppImage and FlatPak support baked in by default.</strong> You’ll find <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">flatpak</code>, <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">snapd</code> and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">xdg-desktop-portal-gtk</code> to support Snap and FlatPak and the (ageing) <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">libfuse2</code> to support AppImage are all pre-installed.</p> <p>Although <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">flatpak</code> is installed, <a href="https://flathub.org/home">FlatHub</a> is not enabled by default. To enable FlatHub run the following in a terminal:</p> <div class="language-bash highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>flatpak remote-add <span class="nt">--if-not-exists</span> flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo </code></pre></div></div> <p><strong>We’ve also included <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">snapd-desktop-integration</code> which provides a bridge between the user’s session and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">snapd</code> to integrate theme preferences 🎨 with snapped apps</strong> and can also automatically install snapped themes 👔 <strong>All the Yaru themes shipped in Ubuntu MATE are fully snap aware</strong>.</p> <h3 id="ayatana-indicators">Ayatana Indicators</h3> <p>Ubuntu MATE 20.10 transitioned to <a href="https://github.com/AyatanaIndicators">Ayatana Indicators</a> 🚥 As a quick refresher, Ayatana Indicators are a fork of Ubuntu Indicators that aim to be cross-distro compatible and re-usable for any desktop environment 👌</p> <p><strong>Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS comes with Ayatana Indicators 22.2.0 and sees the return of Messages Indicator 📬 to the default install</strong>. Ayatana Indicators now provide improved backwards compatibility to Ubuntu Indicators and no longer requires the installation of two sets of libraries, saving RAM, CPU cycles and improving battery endurance 🔋</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/jammy/ayatana-settings.png" alt="Ayatana Indicator Settings" /> <strong>Ayatana Indicators Settings</strong></p> <p>To compliment the BlueZ 5.64 protocol stack in Ubuntu, Ubuntu MATE ships <strong>Blueman 2.2.4 which offers comprehensive management of Bluetooth devices and much improved pairing compatibility</strong> 💙🦷</p> <p>I also patched <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">mate-power-manager</code>, <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">ayatana-indicator-power</code> and Yaru to <strong>add support for battery powered gaming input devices, such as controllers 🎮 and joysticks 🕹</strong></p> <h3 id="active-directory">Active Directory</h3> <p>And in case you missed it, the Ubuntu Desktop team added the option to enroll your computer into an Active Directory domain 🔑 during install. Ubuntu MATE has supported the same capability since it was first made available in the 20.10 release.</p> <h3 id="raspberry-pi-image-">Raspberry Pi image 🥧</h3> <ul> <li>Should be available very shortly after the release of 22.04.</li> </ul> <h3 id="major-applications">Major Applications</h3> <p>Accompanying <strong>MATE Desktop 1.26.1</strong> and <strong>Linux 5.15</strong> are <strong>Firefox 99.0</strong>, <strong>Celluloid 0.20</strong>, <strong>Evolution 3.44</strong> &amp; <strong>LibreOffice 7.3.2.1</strong></p> <p>See the <a href="https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/jammy-jellyfish-release-notes/24668">Ubuntu 22.04 Release Notes</a> for details of all the changes and improvements that Ubuntu MATE benefits from.</p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>Download Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS</h2> <p>This new release will be first available for PC/Mac users.</p> <a href="/download/" class="btn">Download</a> </div> <h2 id="upgrading-from-ubuntu-mate-2004-lts-and-2110">Upgrading from Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS and 21.10</h2> <p>You can upgrade to Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS from Ubuntu MATE either 20.04 LTS or 21.10. Ensure that you have all updates installed for your current version of Ubuntu MATE before you upgrade.</p> <ul> <li>Open the “Software &amp; Updates” from the Control Center.</li> <li>Select the 3rd Tab called “Updates”.</li> <li>Set the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” drop down menu to “For long-term support versions” if you are using 20.04 LTS; set it to “For any new version” if you are using 21.10.</li> <li>Press <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>F2</kbd> and type in <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">update-manager -c -d</code> into the command box.</li> <li>Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ‘XX.XX’ is available. <ul> <li>If not, you can use <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">/usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/check-new-release-gtk</code></li> </ul> </li> <li>Click “Upgrade” and follow the on-screen instructions.</li> </ul> <p>There are no offline upgrade options for Ubuntu MATE. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.</p> <h2 id="feedback">Feedback</h2> <p>Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.community/">come and talk to us</a>.</p>]]></content><author><name>Martin Wimpress</name></author><category term="release" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[What's new in Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)]]></summary></entry><entry xml:lang="en"><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE 21.10 for GPD Pocket 3</title><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-for-gpd-pocket3/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Ubuntu MATE 21.10 for GPD Pocket 3" /><published>2022-01-21T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2022-01-21T15:04:26+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-for-gpd-pocket3</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-for-gpd-pocket3/"><![CDATA[<p>In what has become something of a tradition, the Ubuntu MATE team have released images for the <a href="https://www.gpd.hk/gpdpocket3">GPD Pocket 3</a> modular handheld PC. <strong>Many thanks to the team at GPD for providing sample hardware for us to work with!</strong></p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/gpd-pocket3-laptop.jpg" alt="Ubuntu MATE 21.10 running on the GPD Pocket 3" /> <strong>Ubuntu MATE 21.10 running on the GPD Pocket 3</strong></p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>GPD Pocket 3 Download</h2> <p>The Ubuntu MATE 21.10 image for GPD Pocket 3 is available for download now</p> <a href="/download/" class="btn">Downloads</a> </div> <h2 id="tweaks-for-the-gpd-pocket-3">Tweaks for the GPD Pocket 3:</h2> <p>All the hardware in the GPD Pocket 3 works with a modern Linux OS, but some configuration tweaking is required to deliver an optimised <em>“out of box”</em> experience. Here’s what we did:</p> <ul> <li>Enable frame buffer and Xorg display rotation.</li> <li><strong>Accelerometer support for automatic screen rotation.</strong> <ul> <li>Also automatically rotates touch screen and stylus (draw and erase)</li> </ul> </li> <li>Enable <strong>fractional scaling by default</strong> <ul> <li>Results in an effective resolution of ~1280x800 to make the display panels easily readable.</li> <li>Simple to toggle on/off via the <em>Display Scaler</em> app if you want to restore full resolution.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Enable audio via the HDaudio legacy driver.</li> <li>Suspend is implemented via <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">s2idle</code> <ul> <li>A temporary workaround until S3 sleep state is supported.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Enable scroll wheel emulation while holding down the centre trackpad button.</li> <li>Enable Tear-Free rendering by default.</li> <li>Enable double size console (tty) font resolution.</li> </ul> <p>Sadly, no support for the fingerprint reader. AFAIK only USB fingerprint readers are supported in Linux.</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/gpd-pocket3-tablet.jpg" alt="Ubuntu MATE 21.10 running on the GPD Pocket 3 in Tablet mode" /> <strong>Ubuntu MATE 21.10 running on the GPD Pocket 3 in Tablet mode</strong></p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>More Details &amp; Downloads</h2> <p>Find out more about Ubuntu MATE for the GPD Pocket 3. Get the downloads!</p> <a href="/ports/umpcs/" class="btn">Details &amp; Downloads</a> </div>]]></content><author><name>Martin Wimpress</name></author><category term="release" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[Ubuntu MATE 21.10 for GPD Pocket 3]]></summary></entry><entry xml:lang="en"><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE 21.10 Release Notes</title><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-impish-indri-final-release/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Ubuntu MATE 21.10 Release Notes" /><published>2021-10-14T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2024-04-24T21:55:28+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-impish</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-impish-indri-final-release/"><![CDATA[<p>The significant change in Ubuntu MATE 21.10 is the introduction of <a href="https://mate-desktop.org/blog/2021-08-08-mate-1-26-released/">MATE Desktop 1.26.0</a> ✨ which was 18 months in the making. Thanks to the optimisations in MATE Desktop 1.26, Ubuntu MATE 21.10 is faster and leaner 💪</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/impish/impish-indri-desktop.png" alt="Ubuntu MATE 21.10" /> <strong>Ubuntu MATE 21.10 (Impish Indri).</strong></p> <h2 id="what-changed-since-the-ubuntu-mate-2104">What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 21.04?</h2> <p>Here are the highlights of what’s changed since the <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-hirsute-hippo-release-notes/">release of Hirsute Hippo 🦛</a></p> <h3 id="mate-desktop-">MATE Desktop 🧉</h3> <p>A <strong>significant effort 😅 has been invested in fixing bugs 🐛 in MATE Desktop 1.26.0, optimising performance ⚡ and plugging memory leaks</strong>. MATE Desktop is faster and leaner as a result and it’s <strong>underpinnings have been modernised and updated</strong>. This last point mostly benefits developers working on MATE, but is important to highlight to users at it demonstrates <strong>MATE Desktop is being maintained to ensure it’s longevity</strong>.</p> <p>Here are some of the other <strong>quality of life 💌 improvements in MATE Desktop 1.26</strong>:</p> <ul> <li>The Control Center features: <ul> <li>Improved Window Preferences dialog with a more <strong>comprehensive window behaviour and placement options</strong> presented.</li> <li>Display preferences now has an option for <strong>discrete display scaling</strong>.</li> <li>Power Manager has a new option to enable keyboard dimming.</li> <li>Notifications now support for hyperlinks.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Caja can <strong>format drives and has a new Bookmarks sidebar</strong>.</li> <li><strong>Caja Actions</strong>, which allows you to add arbitrary programs to be launched through the context menu, is now part of the Desktop.</li> <li>Calculator now uses GNU MPFR/MPC for <strong>high precision, faster computation and additional functions</strong>.</li> <li>Pluma has a <strong>new mini map instant overview</strong>, a grid background to turn Pluma into a writing pad and the preferences have been redesigned.</li> <li>Atril is much <strong>faster scrolling through large documents and the memory footprint has been reduced</strong>.</li> <li>Engrampa, the archive manager, now <strong>supports EPUB, ARC and encrypted RAR files</strong>.</li> <li>Marco, the windows manager: <ul> <li>Correctly restores minimised windows to their original position.</li> <li>Thumbnail <strong>window previews support HiDPI</strong>.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Netspeed applet shows <strong>more information about your network interfaces</strong>.</li> </ul> <p>While MATE Desktop is not completely ready for Wayland just yet, 1.26.0 represents a significant stepping stone towards that objective with <strong>most of the MATE Desktop being able to run on a Wayland compositor</strong>. 👍</p> <h3 id="ubuntu-mate-enhancements">Ubuntu MATE Enhancements</h3> <p>Ubuntu MATE has tweaked 🔧 the default desktop configuration slighty:</p> <ul> <li>Image Extrapolation and Interpolation is disabled by default in Eye of MATE to make <strong>image viewing faster and image quality sharper</strong>.</li> <li>The <strong>Alt-Tab pop-up is now expanded</strong> to fit long window titles.</li> <li>If you use the <strong>Mutiny layout, session loading is now faster</strong>.</li> </ul> <h3 id="guest-session">Guest Session</h3> <p>Once in a while a friend, family member, or colleague may want to borrow your computer 😱 The <strong>Guest Session provides a convenient way, with a high level of security, to lend your computer to someone else</strong>. A guest session can be launched either from the login screen or from within a regular session. If you are currently logged in, click the icon at the far right of the menu bar and select Guest Session. This will lock the screen for your own session and start the guest session.</p> <p>A <strong>guest cannot view the home folders of other users, and by default any saved data or changed settings will be removed/reset at logout</strong>. It means that each session starts with a fresh environment, unaffected by what previous guests did.</p> <h3 id="redshift">RedShift</h3> <p>RedShift makes a return, after being temporarily removed in Ubuntu MATE 21.04.</p> <h2 id="raspberry-pi-images">Raspberry Pi images</h2> <p>We will be refreshing our Ubuntu MATE images for Raspberry Pi in the coming weeks.</p> <h2 id="major-applications">Major Applications</h2> <p>Accompanying <strong>MATE Desktop 1.26.0</strong> and <strong>Linux 5.13</strong> are <strong>Firefox 93.0</strong>, <strong>Celluloid 0.20</strong>, <strong>LibreOffice 7.2.1.2</strong></p> <p>See the <a href="https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/impish-indri-release-notes/21951">Ubuntu 21.10 Release Notes</a> for details of all the changes and improvements that Ubuntu MATE benefits from.</p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>Download Ubuntu MATE 21.10</h2> <p>This new release will be first available for PC/Mac users.</p> <a href="/download/" class="btn">Download</a> </div> <h2 id="upgrading-from-ubuntu-mate-2104">Upgrading from Ubuntu MATE 21.04</h2> <p>You can upgrade to Ubuntu MATE 21.10 from Ubuntu MATE 21.04. Ensure that you have all updates installed for your current version of Ubuntu MATE before you upgrade.</p> <ul> <li>Open the “Software &amp; Updates” from the Control Center.</li> <li>Select the 3rd Tab called “Updates”.</li> <li>Set the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” drop down menu to “For any new version”.</li> <li>Press <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>F2</kbd> and type in <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">update-manager -c -d</code> into the command box.</li> <li>Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ‘XX.XX’ is available. <ul> <li>If not, you can use <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">/usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/check-new-release-gtk</code></li> </ul> </li> <li>Click “Upgrade” and follow the on-screen instructions.</li> </ul> <p>There are no offline upgrade options for Ubuntu MATE. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.</p> <h2 id="feedback">Feedback</h2> <p>Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.community/">come and talk to us</a>.</p>]]></content><author><name>Martin Wimpress</name></author><category term="release" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[What's new in Ubuntu MATE 21.10 (Impish Indri)]]></summary></entry><entry xml:lang="en"><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE 21.04 Release Notes</title><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-hirsute-hippo-final-release/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Ubuntu MATE 21.04 Release Notes" /><published>2021-04-22T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2024-04-24T21:55:28+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-hirsute</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-hirsute-hippo-final-release/"><![CDATA[<p><strong>Can you smell 👃 that? That’s the smell of fresh paint 🖌 with just a hint of cucumber 🥒</strong></p> <p>Ubuntu MATE 21.04 is here and it has a new look thanks to the collaboration with the <a href="https://github.com/ubuntu/yaru">Yaru team</a>. This release marks the start of a new visual direction for Ubuntu MATE, while retaining the features you’ve come to love 💚 Read on to learn 🎓 what we’ve been working on over the last 6 months and get some insight to what we’ll be working on next.</p> <p>We would like to take this opportunity to extend our thanks 🙏 to everyone who contributed to this release, including:</p> <ul> <li>The Yaru team for welcoming us so warmly 🤗 into the Yaru project and for all their hard work during this development cycle</li> <li>The Ayatana Indicator team who helped add new features and fix bugs that improved the indicator experience</li> <li>Everyone who participated in the QA/testing and bug filing 🐛</li> <li>Those of you who have been contributing to documentation and translations</li> </ul> <p>Thank you! Thank you all very much indeed 🥰</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/hirsute/hirsute-hippo-desktop.png" alt="Ubuntu MATE 21.04" /> <strong>Ubuntu MATE 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo)</strong></p> <h1 id="what-changed-since-the-ubuntu-mate-2010">What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 20.10?</h1> <p>Here are the highlights of what’s changed since the <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-groovy-gorilla-release-notes/">release of Groovy 🕶 Gorilla 🦍</a></p> <h2 id="mate-desktop-">MATE Desktop 🧉</h2> <p>The <a href="https://mate-desktop.org">MATE Desktop</a> team released <strong>maintenance 🔧 updates for the current stable 1.24 release of MATE</strong>. We’ve updated the <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/debian-mate-team">MATE packaging in Debian</a> to incorporate all these <strong>bug 🐛 fixes and translation updates</strong> and synced those packages to Ubuntu so they all feature in this 21.04 release. <strong>There are no new features, just fixes</strong> 🩹</p> <h2 id="ayatana-indicators-">Ayatana Indicators 🚥</h2> <p>A highlight of the <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-groovy-gorilla-release-notes/">Ubuntu MATE 20.10 release</a> was the transition to Ayatana Indicators. You can read 👓 the <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-groovy-gorilla-release-notes/">20.10 release notes</a> to learn what Ayatana Indicators are and why this transition will be beneficial in the long term.</p> <p>We’ve added new versions of Ayatana Indicators including <strong>‘Indicators’ settings to the Control Center</strong>, which can be used to configure the installed indicators.</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/hirsute/ayatana-settings.png" alt="Ayatana Indicator Settings" /> <strong>Ayatana Indicators Settings</strong></p> <p>Other indicator changes include:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Added Printer Indicator</strong> 🖨 which replaces the legacy printer applet</li> <li><strong>Removed <a href="http://jonls.dk/redshift/">RedShift</a></strong> <ul> <li>We ran into a show stopper 🛑 bug 🐞 that prevented it’s inclusion in 21.04</li> <li>We’ll either re-introduce RedShift in a future release or adopt <a href="https://github.com/AyatanaIndicators/ayatana-indicator-display/issues/14">a potential alternative solution from the Ayatana Indicator project</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>Expect to see more Ayatana Indicators included in future releases of Ubuntu MATE. Top candidates are:</p> <ul> <li>Display Indicator - <em>needs uploading to Debian and Ubuntu</em></li> <li>Messages Indicator - <em>needs uploading to Debian and Ubuntu</em> <ul> <li><strong><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">ayatana-webmail</code> is available for install in Ubuntu MATE 21.04</strong></li> </ul> </li> <li>Keyboard Indicator - <em>requires feature parity with MATE keyboard applet</em></li> <li>Bluetooth Indicator - <em>requires integration work with Blueman</em></li> </ul> <h2 id="yaru-mate-">Yaru MATE 🎨</h2> <p>This is where most of the work was invested 💦</p> <p><strong>A new derivative of the Yaru theme, called Yaru MATE, has been created in collaboration with the Yaru team.</strong> During our discussions with the Yaru team we decided to make one significant departure from how Yaru MATE is delivered; <strong>Yaru MATE is only providing a light and dark theme</strong>, with the light theme being default. This differs from Yaru in Ubuntu which features a mixed light/dark by default.</p> <p><strong>We’ve decided to offer only light and dark variants of Yaru MATE as it makes maintaining the themes much easier</strong>, the mixed light/dark Yaru theme does require extra work to maintain due to the edge cases it surfaces. <strong>Offering just light and dark variants also ensures better application compatibility.</strong></p> <p>This work touched on a number of projects, here’s what Ubuntu MATE now enjoys as a result of Yaru MATE:</p> <ul> <li><strong>GTK 2.x, 3.x and 4.x Yaru MATE light and dark themes</strong></li> <li><strong>Suru icons</strong> along with a number of <strong>new icons specifically made for MATE Desktop and Ubuntu MATE</strong></li> <li><strong>LibreOffice Yaru MATE icon theme, which are enabled by default</strong> on new installs</li> <li><strong>Font contrast is much improved</strong> throughout the desktop and applications</li> <li><strong>Websites honour dark mode at the operating system level</strong> <ul> <li>If you enable the Yaru MATE Dark theme, websites that provide a dark mode will automatically use their dark theme to match your preferences.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>In return for the excellent theme and icons from the Yaru team, the Ubuntu MATE team worked on the following which are now features of Yaru and Yaru MATE:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Pixel perfect Marco/Metacity/Compiz window manager theme</strong> that matches Yaru GNOME Shell window rendering <ul> <li>All icons in these themes are <strong>SVG for improved HiDPI support</strong></li> </ul> </li> <li><strong><a href="https://github.com/ubuntu/yaru/pull/2546">GTKSourceView 2.x, 3.x and 4.x style</a></strong> <ul> <li>Based on <a href="https://vanillaframework.io/docs/settings/color-settings">Vanilla colour palette</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>As a result of our window manager and GTKSourceView contributions it is now possible to use all three upstream Yaru themes from Ubuntu in Ubuntu MATE 💪</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/hirsute/yaru-mate-gtksourceview.png" alt="Yaru MATE GTKSourceView" /> <strong>Yaru MATE GTKSourceView, Tiled Windows and Plank theme</strong></p> <h3 id="going-the-extra-mile-">Going the extra mile 🎽</h3> <p>In order to make Yaru MATE shine we’ve also created:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Plank themes that match Yaru MATE for side and bottom docks</strong></li> <li><strong>Patched Marco window manager disable shadows on side-tiled windows</strong> <ul> <li>The Yaru and Yaru MATE window manager themes feature clean edge styling for side tiled windows</li> </ul> </li> <li><strong>Multiple colour variants of Yaru MATE are available via Ubuntu MATE Welcome</strong></li> <li><strong><a href="https://snapcraft.io/gtk-theme-yaru-mate">Published a Yaru MATE GTK theme snap in the Snap Store</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="https://snapcraft.io/icon-theme-yaru-mate">Published a Yaru MATE icon theme snap in the Snap Store</a></strong></li> <li><strong><a href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2021/04/install-yaru-mate-theme-20-04">Published a Yaru MATE PPA for users of Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS</a></strong></li> </ul> <h4 id="yaru-mate-snaps">Yaru MATE Snaps</h4> <p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">snapd</code> will soon be able to automatically install snaps of themes that match your currently active theme. The snaps we’ve created are ready to integrate with that capability when it is available.</p> <p>The <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">gtk-theme-yaru-mate</code> and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">icon-theme-yaru-mate</code> snaps are pre-installed in Ubuntu MATE, but are not automatically connected to snapped applications. Running the following commands in a terminal periodically, or after you install a snapped GUI application, will connect the themes to compatible snaps until such time <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">snapd</code> supports doing this automatically.</p> <div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>for PLUG in $(snap connections | grep gtk-common-themes:gtk-3-themes | awk '{print $2}'); do sudo snap connect ${PLUG} gtk-theme-yaru-mate:gtk-3-themes; done for PLUG in $(snap connections | grep gtk-common-themes:gtk-2-themes | awk '{print $2}'); do sudo snap connect ${PLUG} gtk-theme-yaru-mate:gtk-2-themes; done for PLUG in $(snap connections | grep gtk-common-themes:icon-themes | awk '{print $2}'); do sudo snap connect ${PLUG} icon-theme-yaru-mate:icon-themes; done </code></pre></div></div> <h3 id="whats-next-">What’s next? 🔮</h3> <p>While we made lots of progress with Yaru MATE for 21.04, the work is on going. Here’s what we’ll be working on next:</p> <ul> <li>Some symbolic icons are being provided by a fallback to the Ambiant MATE and Radiant MATE icon themes, something we are keen to address for Ubuntu MATE 21.10.</li> <li>Ubuntu MATE doesn’t have a full compliment of Suru icons for MATE Desktop, yet.</li> <li>Plymouth boot theme will be aligned with the EFI respecting theme shipped in Ubuntu.</li> </ul> <h2 id="mutiny-️">Mutiny 🏴‍☠️</h2> <p>The Mutiny layout, which provides a desktop layout that somewhat mimics Unity, has been a source of bug reports and user frustration 😤 for sometime now. Switching to/from Mutiny has often crashed resulting in a broken desktop session 😭</p> <p>We have <strong>removed MATE Dock Applet from Ubuntu MATE</strong> and <strong>refactored the Mutiny layout to use Plank</strong> instead.</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/hirsute/yaru-mate-mutiny-dark.png" alt="Mutiny layout with Yaru MATE Dark" /> <strong>Mutiny layout with Yaru MATE Dark</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>Switching to the Mutiny layout via MATE Tweak will automatically theme Plank</strong> <ul> <li>Light and dark Yaru themes for Plank are included</li> </ul> </li> <li>Mutiny <strong>no longer enables Global Menus and also doesn’t undecorate maximised windows by default</strong> <ul> <li>If you like those features you can <strong>enable them via MATE Tweak</strong></li> </ul> </li> <li><strong>Window Buttons Applet is no longer integrated</strong> in the Mutiny top panel by default. <ul> <li>You can manually add it to your custom panel configuration should you want it.</li> <li><strong>Window Buttons Applet has been updated to automatically use window control buttons from the active theme</strong>. HiDPI support is also improved.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>As a result of these changes Mutiny is more reliable and retains much of the Unity look and feel that many people like.</p> <h2 id="command-line-love-">Command line love 🧑‍💻</h2> <p>We’ve included a few popular utilities requested by command line warriors. <strong><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">neofetch</code>, <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">htop</code> and <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">inxi</code> are all included in the default Ubuntu MATE install.</strong> <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">neofetch</code> also features an Ubuntu MATE ASCII logo.</p> <h2 id="raspberry-pi-images">Raspberry Pi images</h2> <p>We will release Ubuntu MATE 21.04 images for the Raspberry Pi in the days following the release for PC 🙂</p> <h2 id="major-applications">Major Applications</h2> <p>Accompanying <strong>MATE Desktop 1.24.1</strong> and <strong>Linux 5.11</strong> are <strong>Firefox 87</strong>, <strong>LibreOffice 7.1.2.2</strong>, <strong>Evolution 3.40</strong> &amp; <strong>Celluloid 0.20</strong>.</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/hirsute/versions.png" alt="Major Applications" /></p> <p>See the <a href="https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/hirsute-hippo-release-notes/19221">Ubuntu 21.04 Release Notes</a> for details of all the changes and improvements that Ubuntu MATE benefits from.</p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>Download Ubuntu MATE 21.04</h2> <p>This new release will be first available for PC/Mac users.</p> <a href="/download/" class="btn">Download</a> </div> <h1 id="upgrading-from-ubuntu-mate-2010">Upgrading from Ubuntu MATE 20.10</h1> <p>You can upgrade to Ubuntu MATE 21.04 from Ubuntu MATE 20.10. Ensure that you have all updates installed for your current version of Ubuntu MATE before you upgrade.</p> <ul> <li>Open the “Software &amp; Updates” from the Control Center.</li> <li>Select the 3rd Tab called “Updates”.</li> <li>Set the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” dropdown menu to “For any new version”.</li> <li>Press <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>F2</kbd> and type in <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">update-manager -c</code> into the command box.</li> <li>Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ‘21.04’ is available. <ul> <li>If not, you can use <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">/usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/check-new-release-gtk</code></li> </ul> </li> <li>Click “Upgrade” and follow the on-screen instructions.</li> </ul> <p>There are no offline upgrade options for Ubuntu MATE. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.</p> <h1 id="feedback">Feedback</h1> <p>Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.community/">come and talk to us</a>.</p>]]></content><author><name>Martin Wimpress &amp; Monica Ayhens-Madon</name></author><category term="release" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[What's new in Ubuntu MATE 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo)]]></summary></entry><entry xml:lang="en"><title type="html">Ubuntu MATE 20.10 Release Notes</title><link href="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-groovy-gorilla-release-notes/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Ubuntu MATE 20.10 Release Notes" /><published>2020-10-22T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2024-04-24T21:55:28+00:00</updated><id>https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-groovy</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-groovy-gorilla-release-notes/"><![CDATA[<p>The releases following an LTS are always a good time ⌚ to make changes the set the future direction 🗺️ of the distribution with an eye on where we want to be for the next LTS release. Therefore, Ubuntu MATE 20.10 ships with that latest MATE Desktop 1.24.1, keeps paces with other developments within Ubuntu (such as Active Directory authentication) and migrated to the Ayatana Indicators project.</p> <p>If you want bug fixes :bug:, kernel updates :corn:, a new web camera control :movie_camera:, and a new indicator :point_right: experience, then 20.10 is for you :tada:. Ubuntu MATE 20.10 will be supported for 9 months until July 2021. If you need Long Term Support, we recommend you use Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS.</p> <p>Read on to learn more… :point_down:</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/groovy/groovy-gorilla-desktop.png" alt="Ubuntu MATE 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla)" /> <strong>Ubuntu MATE 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla)</strong></p> <h2 id="whats-changed-since-ubuntu-mate-2004">What’s changed since Ubuntu MATE 20.04?</h2> <h3 id="mate-desktop">MATE Desktop</h3> <p>If you follow the <a href="https://twitter.com/ubuntu_mate">Ubuntu MATE twitter account</a> 🐦 you’ll know that MATE Desktop 1.24.1 was recently released. Naturally Ubuntu MATE 20.10 features that maintenance release of MATE Desktop. In addition, <a href="https://pad.lv/1891891">we have prepared updated MATE Desktop 1.24.1 packages for Ubuntu MATE 20.04</a> that are currently in the SRU process. Given the number of MATE packages being updated in 20.04, it might take some time ⏳ for all the updates to land, but we’re hopeful that the fixes and improvements from MATE Desktop 1.24.1 will soon be available for those of you running 20.04 LTS 👍</p> <h3 id="active-directory">Active Directory</h3> <p>The Ubuntu Desktop team added the option to enroll your computer into an Active Directory domain 🔑 during install. We’ve been tracking that work and the same capability is available in Ubuntu MATE too.</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/groovy/active-directory.png" alt="Active Directory Enrollment" /> <strong>Enroll your computer into an Active Directory domain</strong></p> <h3 id="ayatana-indicators">Ayatana Indicators</h3> <p>There is a significant under the hood change 🔧 in Ubuntu MATE 20.10 that you might not even notice 👀 at a surface level; we’ve replaced Ubuntu Indicators with <a href="https://github.com/AyatanaIndicators">Ayatana Indicators</a>.</p> <p>We’ll explain some of the background, why we’ve made this change, the short term impact and the long term benefits.</p> <h4 id="what-are-ayatana-indicators">What are Ayatana Indicators?</h4> <p>In short, Ayatana Indicators is a fork of Ubuntu Indicators that aims to be cross-distro compatible and re-usable for any desktop environment 👌 Indicators were developed by Canonical some years ago, initially for the GNOME2 implementation in Ubuntu and then refined for use in the Unity desktop. Ubuntu MATE has supported the Ubuntu Indicators for some years now and we’ve contributed patches to integrate MATE support into the suite of Ubuntu Indicators. Existing indicators are compatible with Ayatana Indicators.</p> <p>We have migrated Ubuntu MATE 20.10 to Ayatana Indicators and Arctica Greeter. I live streamed 📡 the development work to switch from Ubuntu Indicators to Ayatana Indicators which you can find below if you’re interested in some of the technical details 🤓</p> <p class="center"> <iframe class="youtube-embed" width="600" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4ICRjjjMbEE?html5=1&amp;rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> </p> <h4 id="the-benefits-of-ayatana-indicators">The benefits of Ayatana Indicators</h4> <p>Ubuntu MATE 20.10 is our first release to feature Ayatana Indicators and as such there are a couple of drawbacks; there is no messages indicator and no graphical tool to configure the display manager greeter (login window) 😞</p> <p>Both will return in a future release and the greeter can be configured using <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dconf-editor</code> in the meantime.</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/groovy/arctica-greeter-dconf.png" alt="Arctica Greeter dconf configuration" /> <strong>Configuring Arctica Greeter with <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">dconf-editor</code></strong></p> <p>That said, there are significant benefits that result from migrating to Ayatana Indicators:</p> <ul> <li>Debian and Ubuntu MATE are now aligned with regards to Indicator support; patches are no longer required in Ubuntu MATE which reduces the maintenance overhead.</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/ubuntu-mate/mate-tweak">MATE Tweak</a> is now a cross-distro application, without the need for distro specific patches.</li> <li>We’ve switched from <a href="https://github.com/linuxmint/slick-greeter">Slick Greeter</a> to <a href="https://github.com/ArcticaProject/arctica-greeter">Arctica Greeter</a> (both forks of Unity Greeter) <ul> <li>Arctica Greeter integrates completely with Ayatana Indicators; so there is now a consistent Indicator experience in the greeter and desktop environment.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Multiple projects are now using Ayatana Indicators, including desktop environments, distros and even mobile phone projects such as <a href="https://ubports.com/">UBports</a>. With more developers collaborating in one place we are seeing the collection of available indicators grow 📈</li> <li>Through UBports contributions to Ayatana Indicators we will soon have a Bluetooth indicator that can replace Blueman, providing a much simpler way to connect and manage Bluetooth devices. UBports have also been working on a network indicator and we hope to consolidate that to provide improved network management as well.</li> <li>Other indicators that are being worked on include printers, accessibility, keyboard (long absent from Ubuntu MATE), webmail and display.</li> </ul> <p>So, that is the backstory about how developers from different projects come together to collaborate on a shared interest and improve software for their users 💪</p> <h3 id="webcamoid">Webcamoid</h3> <p>We’ve replaced Cheese :cheese: with Webcamoid :movie_camera: as the default webcam tool for several reasons.</p> <ul> <li>Webcamoid is a full webcam/capture configuration tool with recording, overlays and more, unlike Cheese. While there were initial concerns :pensive:, since Webcamoid is a Qt5 app, nearly all the requirements in the image are pulled in via YouTube-DL :tada:.</li> <li>We’ve disabled notifications :bell: for Webcamoid updates if installed from universe pocket as a deb-version, since this would cause errors in the user’s system and force them to download a non-deb version. This only affects users who don’t have an existing Webcamoid configuration.</li> </ul> <h3 id="linux-kernel">Linux Kernel</h3> <p>Ubuntu MATE 20.10 includes the 5.8 Linux kernel. This includes numerous updates and added support since the 5.4 Linux kernel released in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Some notable examples include:</p> <ul> <li>Airtime Queue limits for better WiFi connection quality</li> <li>Btrfs RAID1 with 3 and 4 copies and more checksum alternatives</li> <li>USB 4 (Thunderbolt 3 protocol) support added</li> <li>X86 Enable 5-level paging support by default</li> <li>Intel Gen11 (Ice Lake) and Gen12 (Tiger Lake) graphics support</li> <li>Initial support for AMD Family 19h (Zen 3)</li> <li>Thermal pressure tracking for systems for better task placement wrt CPU core</li> <li>XFS online repair</li> <li>OverlayFS pairing with VirtIO-FS</li> <li>General Notification Queue for key/keyring notification, mount changes, etc.</li> <li>Active State Power Management (ASPM) for improved power savings of PCIe-to-PCI devices</li> <li>Initial support for POWER10</li> </ul> <h2 id="raspberry-pi-images">Raspberry Pi images</h2> <p>We have been preparing Ubuntu MATE 20.04 images for the Raspberry Pi and we will be release final image for 20.04 and 20.10 in the coming days 🙂</p> <h2 id="major-applications">Major Applications</h2> <p>Accompanying <strong>MATE Desktop 1.24.1</strong> and <strong>Linux 5.8</strong> are <strong>Firefox 81</strong>, <strong>LibreOffice 7.0.2</strong>, <strong>Evolution 3.38</strong> &amp; <strong>Celluloid 0.18</strong>.</p> <p class="center"><img src="/images/blog/groovy/versions.png" alt="Major Applications" /></p> <p>See the <a href="https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/groovy-gorilla-release-notes/15533">Ubuntu 20.10 Release Notes</a> for details of all the changes and improvements that Ubuntu MATE benefits from.</p> <div class="jumbotron"> <h2>Download Ubuntu MATE Today</h2> <p>This new release will be first available for PC/Mac users.</p> <a href="/download/" class="btn">Download</a> </div> <h2 id="upgrading-from-ubuntu-mate-2004-lts">Upgrading from Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS</h2> <p>You can upgrade to Ubuntu MATE 20.10 from Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS. Ensure that you have all updates installed for your current version of Ubuntu MATE before you upgrade.</p> <ul> <li>Open the “Software &amp; Updates” from the Control Center.</li> <li>Select the 3rd Tab called “Updates”.</li> <li>Set the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” drop down menu to “For any new version”.</li> <li>Press <kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>F2</kbd> and type in <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">update-manager -c -d</code> into the command box.</li> <li>Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ‘XX.XX’ is available. <ul> <li>If not, you can use <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">/usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/check-new-release-gtk</code></li> </ul> </li> <li>Click “Upgrade” and follow the on-screen instructions.</li> </ul> <p>There are no offline upgrade options for Ubuntu MATE. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.</p> <h2 id="feedback">Feedback</h2> <p>Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please <a href="https://ubuntu-mate.community/">come and talk to us</a>.</p>]]></content><author><name>Monica Madon &amp; Martin Wimpress</name></author><category term="release" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[What's new in Ubuntu MATE 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla)]]></summary></entry></feed>