Trolling in Synaptic description?

**bob43** · January 24th, 2014

I installed Ubuntu 13.10 , then added the repositories for the MATE desktop environment. I looked in Synaptic package manager. I see that the:-

mate-desktop-environment-extra

file, has the following description against it ( I quote):-

The MATE Desktop Environment, a non-intuitive and unattractive desktop
for users, using traditional computing desktop metaphor.
This package depends on the extra set of applications that are
part of the official MATE release.

-------------------
Whatever you think of MATE this is pretty rude isn't it? Has something been hacked? Has anyone else noticed this?

Regards

**papibe** · January 24th, 2014

Hi bob43.

That looks awful. I'd like to know the source of this so I can report it.

Could you open a terminal run this command and post back its results?

Code:

apt-cache policy mate-desktop-environment-extra

Regards.

BTW: there's no such package on the Ubuntu repositories, so my guess is that it came from a ppa, or from another manually added repository.

**QIII** · January 24th, 2014

Still, just ... wrong!

**coffeecat** · January 24th, 2014

The deb package mate-desktop-environment-extra_1.6.0.2+raring_all.deb from the mate-desktop.org site itself contains this in the DEBIAN/control file:

Package: mate-desktop-environment-extra
Source: mate-desktop-environment
Version: 1.6.0.2+raring
Architecture: all
Maintainer: Stefano Karapetsas <stefano@karapetsas.com>
Installed-Size: 26
Depends: mate-core (= 1.6.0.2+raring), mate-desktop-environment (= 1.6.0.2+raring), mate-bluetooth (>= 1.6.0), mate-netspeed (>= 1.6.0), mate-sensors-applet (>= 1.6.0), mate-system-tools (>= 1.6.0), mozo (>= 1.6.0), dconf-tools
Section: mate
Priority: optional
Homepage: http://www.mate-desktop.org/
Description: MATE Desktop Environment
The MATE Desktop Environment, a non-intuitive and unattractive desktop
for users, using traditional computing desktop metaphor.
.
This package depends on the extra set of applications that are
part of the official MATE release.

The package mate-desktop-environment_1.6.0.2+raring_all.deb contains the same sentence in the control file.

If you google "The MATE Desktop Environment, a non-intuitive and unattractive desktop" there are dozens of hits. The sentence seems to be everywhere, including here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/matede/

It looks to be a joke from the maintainer himself.

EDIT: And from two years ago:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-mint-mate.html

MATE is designed to be, and let me quote the author, a non-intuitive and unattractive desktop for users, using traditional computing desktop metaphor.

And from the Linux Mint forums just over two years ago:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=86481

**buzzingrobot** · January 25th, 2014

Yes, it's a "joke". Or, intended as such.

Mate was launched on Arch after the debut of Gnome 3 amid much hostility to that new approach, some reasonable, some not. The remark was apparently an in-joke.

For the sake of prfoessionalism, it should have been removed long ago.