Ubuntu MATE

The official MATE flavor of Ubuntu, offering a traditional GNOME 2-style desktop for users who never warmed to GNOME 3's redesign.

Beginner-Friendly DesktopdesktopMATEUbuntu flavorGNOME2-styleRaspberry-PiDownload ↗Official site ↗Docs / Wiki ↗

Based on

Ubuntu

First released

2014

Package manager

APT (.deb)

Desktop environments

MATE

Ubuntu MATE continues the classic GNOME 2 desktop metaphor -- through the community-maintained MATE fork -- for users who preferred that layout over the GNOME 3/GNOME Shell direction the main Ubuntu flavor took. It ships a distinctive 'Layouts' feature letting users switch between several panel arrangements (Traditional, Redmond/Windows-like, Cupertino/MacOS-like, Contemporary) without installing anything extra. It's also the officially recommended Ubuntu flavor for Raspberry Pi hardware, with images built and tested specifically for that platform alongside the standard desktop/laptop ISOs.

MirrorNest doesn't mirror distro ISOs — installation media should always come straight from the project's own official download page (linked above), so you get the correct checksum/signature to verify against.