What about MATE

[suomalainen]

I finished upgrading to 12.04.

I tried two previous attempts to install MATE and both times failed miserably.

This resulted in two re-installs. I also observed that downloading from repositories in Finland and the United States of America did indeed produce differing results. Notably when I went to System -> Preferences -> Appearance. In both cases different themes appeared.

Be it as it may, I will hold off on MATE by asking some questions and advice.

1. I visited MATE wiki but didn't see pre-requisites. Are there?
2. Is mate really any good?
3. What other desktops will give me the look and feel as I had under 10.04LTS. Meaning Applications, Places and System in top left and in top right network, battery, date, time on/off. Bottom right 4 desktops and bottom left desktop icon.
4. Stability would be great too.

I welcome your opinions!

[vasa1]

...
3. What other desktops will give me the look and feel as I had under 10.04LTS. Meaning Applications, Places and System in top left and in top right network, battery, date, time on/off. Bottom right 4 desktops and bottom left desktop icon.
...

If you have time, take a look at http://askubuntu.com/questions/58172...lassic-desktop . It's a bit long but you may get some ideas there.

[2Stoned]

Try this: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...3#post12708793

Or download ubuntu mate 12.04.v1. If you need any help, just ask.

[Erik1984]

I'm not sure about MATE. On Ubuntu I don't like it as you can't seem to get the original Ambiance look from 10.04 or 10.10 back. There are themes that try to provide a similar look but it's definitely not the same. I prefer GNOME Classic for Ubuntu 13.04 over MATE if you want the old look.

[tgalati4]

I'm using Linux Mint Mate 14 and it's close enough to the 10.04, 9.04, 8.04 experience that I am comfortable with.

[buzzingrobot]

MATE is a recompilation of Gnome 2, plus fixes to keep it viable with current libraries.

The install procedures outlined at mate-desktop.org have worked several times for me on Ubuntu and Debian. No problems at all. The instructions are version-specific.

If you liked Gnome 2, you'll like MATE.

Mate appears supported by a rather small team of students, etc. I have to wonder about its long-term survivability.

[mikodo]

You indicated you will welcome opinions.

Are you willing to try this install from SourceForge. I installed it ~2 weeks ago, and I am using it now. It is based on Ubuntu 12.04.

I am happy with it.

Hopes this helps.

[stalkingwolf]

Im using Mint 13 (LTR) once installed i add a new panel then use add to panel to add the things i want including work space switcher and menu bar (custom menu) which gives me the app places system menu.
ive also added the mate DE to several releases thru the terminal and it has worked fine.

[suomalainen]

Thank you everyone for some great advice and input!!!!

[3rdalbum]

If you welcome opinions...

People seem to feel personally insulted that the desktop has changed to something other than Gnome 2. But you know, we can't stay using the same software forever.

Unity is radically different from Gnome 2, and it does take some adjusting, but it's a pretty good desktop. The search function is better than anything seen in Gnome previously - it actually WORKS and is so useful I find myself using it a lot. It searches remotely as well as locally and can be extended by "lenses" and "scopes".

HUD is also useful in certain situations - rather than pull up program menus and manually search through to find where that option is, you can just hit Alt and start typing approximately what you want to do.

The Unity Launcher allows programs to show progress bars and numbers on their Launcher icons. For example, start a file copy operation and you can monitor it from within any program, simply by glancing at the progress bar in the Nautilus icon. Quite a decent number of programs support this too.

The indicators are more consistent than they ever were in Gnome 2, you now no longer need to guess what a left-click or a right-click will do to a particular "tray icon".

Documents can be dragged to icons on the Launcher, as a way of saying "Open the file in THIS program". The Launcher dims out any icons that it doesn't believe can accept the file you are dragging - very helpful.

Unity makes the most of physical screen space. Folding the program menus into the top panel, sticking the Launcher on the left side and displaying overlay scrollbars really does add screen space. After using Unity for a few months, I tried to go to Gnome 3 and found that it felt "claustrophobic" because too much of my screen was dedicated to chrome, instead of to the actual content.

In short, what I'm trying to say is: Rather than get 12.04 and then immediately try to go back to the comfortable old way of doing things, maybe you could try learning something newer and more modern? It might take you a week to get used to but in the end you'll probably love it. Just give it a chance. You can't stay with Mate forever - it will probably last longer than the KDE 3 fork, but in the end it'll succumb to bitrot and loss of interest from developers. You'd need to switch away to something better in the end, why not do it now?