Linux Mint 12 MATE Images
On this page you’ll find all of the images in this review of Linux Mint 12 MATE. They are ordered by title and including the install routine, booting, login, desktop, software manager and other important images.
After you’ve clicked an image, it will load on a new page and you can then navigate back and forth by clicking on the smaller screenshots under it. Or simply right-click on an image and open it in a new window or a new tab.
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- Control Center
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- Desktop
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- DuckDuckGo Search Engine
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- Featured Applications
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- Flash Video Content
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- Install Frostwire
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- MintMenu
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- Multimedia Section of the Software Manager
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- Software Manager
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- The Linux Mint 12 MATE Desktop
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- Themes & Background
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I was kind of wondering what all had to be done in order to make MATE usable and stable. Maybe this is a bit like Debian Sid – applications work, and they are generally very stable, but sometimes, you get erratic packaging or unexplained changes because developers readily admit that it has not been rigorously tested. Of course, Debian Sid developers LOVE to test, as do Debian users, so it usually gets a pretty good exercise.
Hopefully, MATE will be the same way, and if so, GNOME and Mint lovers like Jim will be really happy. I have to tell you that I am ALREADY happy – using Xfce in Debian Sid and never having to install; I’ve had this one going for a couple of years now. But I’m not typical; I have over thirty years of experience developing, testing, and administering software, and specific experience with Linux dating back to 1995, before ANY systems were even close to being as simple and straightforward as they are today. Therefore, I don’t need Mint, though it is convenient. For me, Debian Sid is convenient enough, and more so in some ways. I install it, customize it, put a modest amount of extra work into it, but then I run it for years on end (two years and counting with this particular system, but I’ve commonly gone five or more years with one system instance). Mint, except for LMDE and LMDX, does not have that model, but I am glad they DO have it in Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) – which is GNOME-based, and LMDX (Debian Xfce). They are OK, but less polished; I can do better with a straight Debian system for my interests.
Still, as I said, I am not the usual audience. The classic Mint audience will love the MATE version; the “new” Mint audience may love the hybrid; Debian users who are Mint fans have two options, so the Mint team has their bases VERY well covered indeed!
I just installed Mint 12 a week ago on a separate external HDD to give it a try. After few hours I was fed up with it. Gnome 3 is not suitable for me, and on top of that I couldn’t run it properly after I upgraded my ATI drivers. I was frustrated but I wanted to see if I can do some modifications. Well.. I gave up on Gnome 3 and I did installed enlightment desktop. It is perfect but I wanted to use something more familiar. I’ve been using Mint since version 2 (Bianca) and I did compare it to every major distro and guess what? Until Mint 12 was packed with Gnome 3 it was always best distro, now users have to choose between Debian based and ubuntu based variations of xfce, lxde, kde4 and most unfortunate Gnome 3.
I was about to write my review about it, when I noticed separate desktop with MATE. I did load it up and I am stuck with it. I love it. It seems top be very stable (at least on my pc) very fast, configurable, flexible and well known from the past.
I am sure MATE is the future of MINT’s desktop. Brilliant combination of Gnome 2 and KDE 3.5. It needs some polishing and maybe some more features, but as for now I am confident it is the best desktop for all linux users.
I am using linux every day for past 20+ years now, I see constant changes in directions taken by coders, based upon my knowledge and experience I am sure MATE can become the best and most wide used desktop environment in Linux world. Just give it some time… After all simplicity is the key to success.
[...] I just did a full review of Linux Mint 12 MATE. So that should give you a better idea of what you can expect from it. [...]
For me, MATE has been far more stable than Gnome-Shell. Dont even bother trying to come out of Standby/Suspend with Gnome-Shell. It does not even load the panels. MATE fired right back up as if it had never been off. I’ll give Clem and the guy(s) credit, they did a phenomenal job with the Shell Extensions. But you can only polish a deuce so much :-P Its still crap in the end LOL.
I had a minor problem with MATE not recognising the resolution of both my monitors. It defaulted to the resolution of the lower resolution one. While the GNOME 3 desktop which starts by default correctly set both monitors to the correcct resolution.
Other than the minor issue I’m very pleased with MATE. Now I need to make it the default desktop, so I don’t have to remember to select it each time I restart, which is rare enough that I will almost definately forget.
“Eventually, MATE will be in every way identical to Gnome 2 and represent the future of traditional desktops within Linux.”
Curious.
I’m quite interested in Mate, but having used a lot of desktops over the years, I find KDE a very natural continuation of the more traditional desktop environment. Maybe it’s a little too ‘classic windows’ for some, and not minimalistic enough for others, but there is almost no learning curve of the basic interface required for Windows XP and OSX 10.5 and 10.6 users.
It will be time to build another box soon, and I might well try LM again, so thanks for the heads up of an otherwise not widely discussed option.
I am downloading Linux Mint 12, and I will give it a good look, plus my mother has agreed to use my Lenovo laptop with Mint on it to see if it will work for her or not. We agreed that if she is able to use it, she is welcome to do so, and if she isn’t, she can plug her own laptop back onto the network and use it instead.
I am looking forward to trying out Mint myself to see if it is usable, and if not, to pick something else that she can try using. I’ll try to write about the experience, either here or in the Desktop Linux Reviews Forum.
Jim I have been running MATE for a bit more than a week, alternating it with both Mint12/Gnome3 and fedora/Gnome 3.
Mo doubt about it, the Mint team has a huge stake in MATE “It’s really your Linux Mint desktop the way it was truly meant to be…”
Exactly right. The Mint menu/desktop at this point is not working so comfortably on Gnome 3 foundations as it does on Gnome 2/MATE. That seemed apparent to me in the first 30 minutes.
Can Clem make the Gnome 3 variant work equally well? Of course, he and his team already have done a great deal and they are very clever people. Might they do better with MATE? I think so. Fonts need work, but that is a relatively small part of the challenge, I suspect.
BTW, if MATE is unstable that has not shown up yet. I am running the full stable of codecs, nvidia driver, HP wireless printer and wireless connection to my router without any apparent problem thus far.
Compare with fedora 16/KDE (also on test) which I closed the other day, restarted and found my “K” application widget was gone! Now that’s a gremlin.
I am glad to hear that MATE is stable enough for use. I have given Gnome 3 and Unity a fair try and simply am not willing to use them. Gnome 3 wasn’t terrible for me but seems heavy and slow (used with openSuse) while Unity is so full of bugs it is unusable. I’ve never liked KDE despite several tries and Xfce is not bad but I really do not like its menu or file manager.
So I have been sticking with Gnome 2 (Linux Mint 10, due to better power management in the 2.6.35 kernel) and LXDE. I think I’ll be waiting for Linux Mint 13 to install as hopefully by then MATE will be fully functional and the linux kernel will take care of the power management issues. Plus it will be an LTS version.
Originally I was a bit alarmed when Mint called this an RC because it seemed really buggy especially the display was almost unusable. But within days things improved dramatically with updates. Now I . can hardly tell the difference between MATE and and the old version of Gnome except for the uninstall option on the menu. I think this is being worked on now.
Oddly MATE worked fine with my ATI card proprietary driver but Gnome does not and has lots of artifacts unless I remove the proprietary driver.
I understand that the desktop is an overlay on Gnome 3. I would like to hear more about the new advantages of Gnome 3 that caused this shift away from the old desktop in the first place.
Great review. I’m only curious about MATE as I’m a happy Debian Xfce 4.8 user.
Absolute top marks for ‘discombobulated’ had to look that one up, a great word indeed! :)
Now that I’ve read your MATE review I need to fire up the new box again, reinstall Mint 12 (to clean out anything I might have saved in the Gnome 3 world) and try the MATE desktop out. I have some bad feeling about using a fork of a project as it might go away though. MATE will need to evolve to use the new GTK3 stuff used in Gnome 3 to absorb new stuff while keeping the old look, feel and smell. Hope Mint is up to the challenge!
Just reading and hearing that MATE is more stable than GNOME 3 is great news. This would definite help make Mint 12 the Linux distro to watch.
I can only wish that MATE would become available for Mint Debian soon. If not, then I would have to settle using Mint 12 for my future new laptop in 2012.
Well, I just installed 12 and tried both Gnome3 and Mate. Neither worked very well for me. On Gnome3 the bars would keep vanishing and take 10 seconds to come back. On Mate it was a little slow, it seemed when I hit a button it would take a second to respond. Also, no sound, I have never had a Mint not work with sound for me. I tried installing the proprietary drivers and that made Gnome3 have the graphical glitches that you experienced.
No bother, I’ll stick to 12 for now, I love it, and will try an upgrade in a few months. I’m also planning on upgrading my Asus Atom nettop to a fitpc3 when they come out and I’ll try it then for sure. I’m not upset as Mint has been a 11 out of 10 for me the last few years, have to have a miss eventually, so this hasn’t soured my experience with Mint at all. When switching to new desktop managers I understand that things will be a little rocky.
Let me start by saying that Linux (and Mint in particular) has been my favorite OS for a few years now. I have all the confidence in people like Clem, because they want to do the right things as well as things right.
A fact is that so far I am not thrilled about Gnome 3, but hope that Mate is going to be what Mint 11 was, which is near perfect, at least for me as an enthusiastic and advanced user. ‘Mint 11 is a kind of ‘benchmark’ as to how Gnome 3 or Mate should work in future, I think.
Going back to Mint 11 is no option for me on the long run, because changes or improvements in systems are inevitable, but continuing on a wrong path is not advisable either.
Opening the desktop e.g. and having an overview of Places, System and Favorites down on the left hand side is (for me ) a ‘one click’ information overview that I would not want to miss in a system. I have gotten used to it and tweaking things here and there is a wonderful component of Mint. AFAIAC lets keep it that way as a starting point for whatever new system is going to be..
Even more security, speed and choice of software etc. is welcome as a second requirement for an even better system, be it G3 or others to follow.
As a result I can’t wait to see all imperfections in Mate being taken care of over the next few months.
Good!
if its speed was better!
In my computer speed is very bad.
I have ATI VGA(128 Mg!)