Unity vs MATE: How to save a Linux desktop from extinction.

I wish Unity was still a big deal. That is all.

Timestamps:
0:00 Why do DEs have to change?
0:35 Ubuntu Unity Edition
1:15 Unity desktop history
2:20 Why I liked Unity
5:15 Future of Unity
7:34 Missing functionality
8:48 MATE's progress
11:12 Why I love MATE
12:45 The cost of progress

#ubuntu #mate #unity

Links:

[kjcolewelle]

I found Unity really efficient after a few iterations. There were moments when I reached that Zen-like consciousness that the DE was indeed just getting out of my way, leaving me to focus on work. I felt so sad to see Unity go. Glad to see its revival.

[Xmetalfanx]

let's not forget say Cinnamon which was created by the Mint team didn't like the intial direction of Gnome Shell ... it's like Mate and Cinnamon addressed different issues people had with Gnome Shell... in completely different ways

[desktopmonologues]

MATE is one of the best DE's in my opinion. It's down to earth, stable, no gimmicks, and it stays out of your way.

[HarukaJad]

My first ever experience of Linux was Ubuntu 11.04 on Unity, and everytime I see the Unity desktop I'm just reminded of all my blunders trying to understand how it all worked. Its nice to see that there are a group of dedicated people and users of this Desktop around, trying to make it work, and modernizing it. Best of luck to them, and I hope that it can make a resurgence at some point.

[fatihonal]

I tried them all and always came back to Xfce. Simple, stable and does what it is supposed to do :)

[Lanzetsu]

This is the reason I always feel at home with KDE, keeps improving but I get the feeling a classic DE without the need of installing extensions and stuff everywhere, and why I also loved Mint with Cinnamon when it came out (although with Mate feels good as well)

[markschneider]

I've been using Mate for my main Linux desktop for over a year and it's simplicity is awesome. It also runs really well on old hardware.

[Pocket-Calculator]

Canonical approached the GNOME team with several ideas for their desktop. The GNOME team refused them, so Canonical went and made Unity.

Canonical managed to seamlessly integrated GTK 2, 3 and Qt programs; as well as the different ways notification icons work all without bothering developers to change their code.

GNOME couldn't, so they removed menu bars, notification icons and moved to window-side decorations. All the while telling developers that they should choose between being a "GNOME app" or not; AND smugly proclaiming themselves to be "the Linux desktop."

Ironically in this Unity spin the one thing to break the experience are GNOME apps because they themselves decided to fragment the space by changing the way everything works.

Unity was, and still is, a superior environment to GNOME.

[themroc]

You could also have mentioned the Trinity desktop that has been chugging along for even longer.

[AnzanHoshinRoshi]

Thank you, Blaine. I learned how to use Unity but never cared for it. When the whole unification project died, I had no use for it. Mate, as a descendent of Gnome 2, probably would be fun as I liked Gnome 2. But I've used too many WMs since. I'd still use XFCE as a DE but fell for Pop!_OS's Gnome 3 and what has been added since with pop-shell and soon COSMIC.

[EricHeckermoo]

As someone who switched to Linux fill time with Ubuntu 8.04, I love mate and still keep installed. Even though I do cinnamon as my main desktop.

[MaxDad]

Ubuntu 16.04 was the first time I had tried Unity and I didn't give it a lot of time. Fast forward to now and I like it a lot. I think Unity is great at maximizing screen space on low resolution screens, especially if you use something like Plank, or hide the stock dock. I'm currently using MATE with a customized Mutiny layout.

[gavinvales]

I loved Unity, and i started using linux with ubuntu 17.10, when they started using duhnome. Unity is beautiful, and innovative.

[Vlad-]

Man, I feel you with the "why?" Found a perfect desktop on Fvwm, used it over 11 years, migrating the config file for what is the perfect system for me untill at one point in 2016 they decided to drop support to a load of modules I used. I never managed to replicated that desktop I perfected over years and I have been just going from one Desktop Environment to another since then. That sucks a lot.

[garymaxie]

Love Unity and have run it since it came out in 2011. I started with Ubuntu in 2008 with Hardy Herring. I install Ubuntu on computers for people and I always put Unity on every install. Unity just works simple and fast...

[vainoleppanen]

3:00 I really liked alt key to access file menus. It sort of fixed various applications that didn't have good shortcuts.

[neffscape]

I really would like to see these two projects cooperate to give Mate and Unity7 a better future. Like MATE, Unity7 was based on GNOME 2 stack but now things in GNOME world are going to break the Unity experience (headerbars, missing application menus stuff like that). The only way Unity can preserve its functionalities (until UnityX becomes reality) is to adopt MATE apps, that were forked back in the days from GNOME 2. Many problems solved by Martin Wimpress and his team over at Ubunu MATE could benefit Unity7. At the same time, if the Ubuntu Unity Team would cooperate with the Ubuntu MATE theme, mantaining some common packages could become easier. I would love to see again a firefox build featuring supporting global menus. We know it is possibile, but we need people willing to mantain such packages. Snap tecnology could also help keeping old features intact for the future.

[AFCAWorldBodybuildingArchive]

Devs: "Hey users, do you like our product?"
Users: "Hell yes, it's perfect now."
Devs: "Well, sorry to tell you, but..."

ALL THE TIME!!!

[jm-ccvn]

Unity IMO is the best project canonical/ubuntu has ever done, is a shame they abandoned it, and for what Snaps?? LOL. very excited about UnityX

[ThatLinuxDude]

6:00 You mean Qt *6.* Qt 5's quite old.