Ubuntu is a very popular Linux distribution and operating system. Ubuntu provides different Desktop flavors like KDE, Gnome, Unity, XFCE, Mate. In this tutorial, we will download, install and take a look to the Ubuntu Mate Desktop.

Download Ubuntu Mate

Ubuntu Mate provided for different architectures and platforms. 64 bit and 32 bit x86, RaspberryPi(ARMv7, ARMv8), GPD Pocket platforms are supported. In this case, we will download the 64-bit PC or x86 platform.

https://ubuntu-mate.org/download/

When we click to the 64-bit will see the following screen which provides 2 versions of Ubuntu. We will select the 19.04 (Disco) which is the latest but do not have long term support.

We will see the following screen which provides ISO file as torrent, magnet link or file.

Create Ubuntu Mate Installation Medium/USB/CD

If we will install the Ubuntu Mate into a physical PC, Laptop, RaspberryPi we should burn the ISO file onto a CD, USB or similar medium. We can use the following tutorial which explains.

How To Create Bootable Ubuntu Installation USB/Flash Disk with Rufus On Windows?

Install Ubuntu Mate

We will see the following screen where it is the start of the Ubuntu Mate.

If we are installing Ubuntu Mate for the VmWare the installation will start automatically like below.

Ubuntu Mate First Look

In this part, we will look at some popular components of the MATE desktop.

Application Menu

We can see that there are different applications categories like,

• `All` contains all applications
• `Favourites` contains favorite applications
• `Accessories` contains helpful applications
• `Administration` contains administrative applications like Startup Disk Creator, Users and Groups
• `Education` contains educational applications if they are installed
• `Graphics` contains applications used to view, create, edit graphics like Shotwell, Gimp, etc
• `Internet` contains internet-related applications like Firefox, Thunderbird, Transmission
• `Office` contains office-related applications like LibreOffice, Atril Document Viewer
• `Preferences` contains personal configuration about the MATE and Desktop experience like Appearance, About User, Displays etc.
• `Sound&Video` contains applications like Brasero, Cheese, VLC Media Player
• `System Tools` contains Mate Terminal, Mate Disk Usage Analyzer, Mate System Monitor

Install Software To Ubuntu MATE

We can install the Ubuntu MATE packages with the Software&Updates applications. We can access it from Menu->Administration->Software&Updates like below.

We will see the following screen where we can change package and repository related configurations. We can install the synaptic GUI based package manager with the following command from the terminal.

$ sudo apt install synaptic

We can now open the Synaptic Package Manager from the Menu like below.

We will be asked for the password to get root privileges.

The main screen of the Synaptic Package Manager is like below.

Ubuntu Mate is periodically checking for the updates. When there are new versions of the installed packages they are listed for the update like below.

Ubuntu Mate Control Center

We can change various configuration about the Ubuntu Mate from the Mate->Control Center which will open a screen like below.

As we can see we can change different configuration about the Ubuntu Mate from the Control Center.

Session Lock Screen

After some time if there is no interaction with the Mate we will see the following Lock Screen where we can unlock with the user password.