Ubuntu Mate and Mint Mate, side by side

[buster]

The oft maligned Mate desktop appears in two relatively popular distros, and both seem pleasant to use. The origin of Mate itself goes all the way back to the popular Gnome 2, which was superseded by the less popular Gnome 3 which had changed the familiar desktop, and so Mate was created, maybe even in anger, by an Argentinian Arch user about 9 years ago. While its standard form seems old, it can be changed easily to many forms. And in the default look, it can easily be navigated by beginners.

The Mate distros I tested were Ubuntu Mate and Mint Mate, and I was surprised at the differences. I installed in VMWare with a Win10 host, and assigned one core and 2 g of ram to each.

INSTALL: No advantage to either. Both installs easy and quick. Can’t get much better than Ubuntu/Mint installs.

Default DESKTOPS: Both have that famous sickness-inducing green bile colour. Did they have to work extra hard to make it so bad? Fortunately, there are many options for colours and wallpaper, so a few clicks solves that. Many options for both distros. No difference between the two.

Desktop STYLES: Here there is quite a difference.

Ubuntu Mate offers 8 different layouts. With a click of the mouse you can have an Apple, a Win7, a Unity, a Pantheon, or 4 others. These choices can be seen in one picture included. I chose the Apple (not called that) and it feels simple and easy. Clean.

Mint Mate offers just one to play with, but you can build almost anything from this. That’s Mint in the picture with the bar on the left. I moved the bar from the bottom and added Plank. More fun I suppose to build your own, but.....

HEAVY-NESS: An Odd term I know, but everyone understands the idea as you move about from computer task to task. Ubuntu Mate, as a Virtual Machine, was not sluggish, but it was slower, and the graphics at the end of a winning card came with a bit of a stutter. TuxRacer was lean and quick, so it’s not serious, but it makes Mint Mate seem even quicker. I suspect it may come from the variety of desktop layouts that are always available on the Ubuntu Mate, and a hard drive install may show no adverse effects with more memory. But knowing this for sure is limited by my dwindling desire for research and work.

INCLUDED SOFTWARE: Lots of familiar stuff. No worry here. And you have Synaptic for whatever you need.

DRAG, DROP, RESOLUTION: Vms need special software so they can function fully with the hosts. It was easy to get open-vm-tools and open-vm-tools-desktop and to run full screen. Integration A+ for both. (Not all distros make this easy.)

CONCLUSIONS: Mate can be turned into a very attractive desktop, with the stability of Mint or Ubuntu behind it, and the regular updates to come in and keep it safe. There’s plenty of flexibility to create your particular ‘look’, and software choices to do whatever you wish to do.

However, choosing between the two is a problem for me. I love the choices presented to me with Ubuntu so I can emulate Apple, but the Mint distro is so light and quick. I still have both running.

[fox]

If it makes you feel any better, I have the same problem in choosing between Ubuntu and Mint on my 2015 iMac. Mint Cinnamon runs better than Ubuntu Gnome on this computer. Gnome has some minor glitches that Mint doesn't, related to copy/paste and sound. But I have always been a Ubuntu fan and all things being equal, I'll always prefer Ubuntu Gnome. Right now, I'm alternating. No problem except for mail that I store locally.

[Jason]

Thanks for your detailed review, Mr. Buster. I found it interesting enough that I'm going to give MATE a try and see if it changes my life. ;-) Just joking but not for the reason you think. I used Ubuntu MATE for quite a long time. Not sure how long but at least 6 months I believe. I really should make notes when I first try a distro and when I switch. Time and memory are blurry to me. The years pass by too quickly and my earlier youth has been wasted.

Default DESKTOPS: Both have that famous sickness-inducing green bile colour. Did they have to work extra hard to make it so bad?

I believe they do. I imagine them working by candlelight (as all good programmers do) thinking of ways to keep beginners from using it so there is a barrier to newbs and therefore, less support questions come their way. ;-)

Ubuntu Mate offers 8 different layouts. With a click of the mouse you can have an Apple, a Win7, a Unity, a Pantheon, or 4 others. These choices can be seen
in one picture included. I chose the Apple (not called that) and it feels simple and easy. Clean.

I hadn't noticed that. I believe that Mint (all versions) have their self-made styling options built-in so maybe that's why. Did you look around in Mint MATE to see if there was? Interesting that you like the Mac interface. I liked Plank for that reason although I haven't tried in Kubuntu. I'm sure I could install it if I wanted. Incidentally, that them you like in MATE is called Cupertino because of where Apple headquarters is located. I believe the theme that looks the most like Windows is called Redmond for the same reason but I can't see your screenshot from where I'm replying. You'll have to confirm. The graphical interface that the MacOS uses is called Aqua, I believe. Fox or Scott can confirm.

HEAVY-NESS: An Odd term I know, but everyone understands the idea as you move about from computer task to task. Ubuntu Mate, as a Virtual Machine, was not sluggish, but it was slower, and the graphics at the end of a winning card came with a bit of a stutter.

That's odd. I'd say that it was a graphics driver but they both they would be both in the same virtual machine and therefore the hardware would look identical.

If you try the distros again, note how much RAM you have left for the host OS, Windows, I presume. Running other programs at the same time in the host might leave the VM left since the host will override the memory use. I think you said you have a machine with a lot of RAM so it's probably not an issue but it's the only thing I can think of.

CONCLUSIONS: Mate can be turned into a very attractive desktop, with the stability of Mint or Ubuntu behind it, and the regular updates to come in and keep it safe. There’s plenty of flexibility to create your particular ‘look’, and software choices to do whatever you wish to do.

Cool that you liked it. I liked it because of its performance that likely comes from its light use of resources and the Boutique as I've mentioned before. I'd still be using it except that the PC I use now has much better performance than the one I used to have and Plasma gives a lot more customization without having to get add-ons that, even when present, don't provide the same flexibility as Plasma.

Sorry for the lengthy response but you have many interesting comments in your review that I just felt like I had to put my two cents in about. I hope it's not taken as criticism. I appreciate your candid observations on various distros.

[Jason]

If it makes you feel any better, I have the same problem in choosing between Ubuntu and Mint on my 2015 iMac. Mint Cinnamon runs better than Ubuntu Gnome on this computer. Gnome has some minor glitches that Mint doesn't, related to copy/paste and sound. But I have always been a Ubuntu fan and all things being equal, I'll always prefer Ubuntu Gnome. Right now, I'm alternating. No problem except for mail that I store locally.

I have a feeling I've asked this before but Ubuntu and Ubuntu Gnome both use Gnome underneath but Ubuntu uses a customized version. So why do you like one more than the other?

[Jason]

Oh, and thanks for the screenshots, Buster. You have great taste. I think it comes from me.

[buster]

Noting a rediscovery in Mint-Mate - If you find a program in the menu you don't want, you can right click it, and one of the options is 'uninstall'. Is that cool or what?

Noting some poetic license - I never, though I could have, run the 2 mates side-by-side. 'Side by Side' just sounded like a better title for the thread.

[Jason]

Noting a rediscovery in Mint-Mate - If you find a program in the menu you don't want, you can right click it, and one of the options is 'uninstall'. Is that cool or what?

Very cool. While I see that on Plasma, I never thought to even check until you brought it up.

Noting some poetic license - I never, though I could have, run the 2 mates side-by-side. 'Side by Side' just sounded like a better title for the thread.

Somehow I never noticed the topic subject. Doh! I must be partially blind.

   
• Anyway, when you ran them side-by-side, I assume you're running each in a VM at the same time, too?
• If so, did you use any other programs at the same time?
• And if you did, did you change the programs (i.e. opening, closing, running a video at the same time or some other process) that were running in any way when you switched between trying them when you noticed the performance difference? You could also just check system monitor or whatever it's called in MATE and it will show you how much RAM the host is using when you try each.
• Oh, and how much RAM do you have on the host computer on which you're testing?