I came from Ubuntu MATE and after a bunch of reseach, I thought I would try and XFCE flavor and landed on Xubuntu. I have a laptop I use for casual use, throwing in the truck, going to the coffee shot, etc. so I did a clean install, erased the hdd and started playing with it. Right away, my first attempt at an install was a .deb file. I double clicked, enter my password and nothing happened. I had to launch the .deb from the terminal, which is annoying but okay, whatever. Then after getting my browser setup I started to work on the layout so I went to panel profiles and played around with a few and suddenly, the panel vanishes and I have to launch everything from the terminal. I could not get it back without restarting.
I mean, two steps into using this and I get stymied by what I feel are basic distro functions. I am running a StinkPad L380 with and 8th get i5 8mg ram. It should be fine but it’s not. So then I thought, maybe it is something to do with the StinkPad, so I booted up and older 10th get Dell Latitude with an i7 and 16mg ram and I had the exact same experience.
I loved MATE and I even liked the basic Ubuntu, but this has been a bit of a let down. I am by no means a Linux expert, but I have been using it as a daily driver for 4+ years so I am not a novice either. This has been disappointing to say the least when, what I consider basic functionality, does not even work. I have to wonder what else is not working.
May I ask why that was the first attempt at installing something? The usual workflow hardly ever requires to click on a .deb file. In fact, one should steer clear of the latter, if it can be helped at all — you are essentially granting the author root access. More than that, if they aren’t in any APT repository they can’t be upgraded either and can cause all kinds of other issues down the line, like blocking official packages from being upgraded as well.
It was microsoft Edge as it is my prefered browser. And what is wrong with using .deb files for installations? I use it for Trilium, VS Code and several others. If it wasn’t part of the normal workflow, why does Xubuntu offer the gdebi launcher? No matter what .deb files I tried, the Xubuntu launcher does not launch them. I have to install them via the terminal. In five years of using Linux, no one has ever told me I should not use .deb files to install something.
And the panels disappearing happened on two separate installs on two different laptops. I did not delete anything.
When I finally rebooted and went into the the panels again, when I selected Xubuntu Precise or something like that, it said some files were missing or causing problems and should I delete them, so I deleted them and then it worked. I had to do that for a couple other profiles.
And I understand learning the ropes, I knew there was going to be a learning curve, but I didn’t realize some of the basic things would be a challenge. Part of the problem is I left MATE because of lack of support LTS support and the future was up in the air after the original developer left the project and this was before the site was incorporated on the Ubuntu discourse. I tried Linux Mint and while it is a bit bloated, everything works smoothly, especially during the install process. I had zero issues with installing things the way I wanted to install them and it is extremely easy to customize.
At the end of the day, I wanted to go back to an Ubuntu flavor and after my experience with MATE, I have been dissapointed with XUbuntu. I just found it odd that some of, what I consider basic features, don’t work very smoothly.
MATE was in limbo for a while after the original dev left and LTS was suspended. This happened long before the original MATE discourse was added to the Ubuntu discourse and I switched to Mint. For a variety of reasons after using Mint for a while, I decided I wanted to go back to an Ubuntu flavor and Xubuntu seemed to fit my preferences and work style.
That took about 4-6 weeks, now there is a new team…
You can still upgrade existing installations to 26.04 (and always could, all flavors are just Ubuntu in the end), there were just no isos produced for the LTS.
There are a few threads in the Ubuntu MATE sub category under Flavors & Remixes around these topics…
According to this HowTo there is an official Microsoft repository, which you can add to the list of software sources; no .deb clicking involved. Be aware, though, that you are effectively voiding your warranty[1], if you will, because if something breaks there is no telling what the cause is; but experience has shown that the usual suspects are 3rd party packages. Any .deb has root access to your machine; they could even replace the kernel. Even if they don’t do anything malicious, they can still do things which wouldn’t even be allowed in Ubuntu repositories. Look at this fellow user and his headaches with the Google Chrome repository, which blatantly violates the cardinal rule to leave user/admin configs alone or ask permission if an update is in order — the admin/user has to have the last word on that; it’s a release critical (RC) bug to violate it, for policy is not be trifled with.
As a rule, avoid 3rd party packages at all costs; it’ll spare you a lot of headaches — perhaps even those disappearing panels. If you have to break that rule, best be sure you know all the implications. Use official .debs from the official repos and Snaps (from the App Center) wherever possible, would be my suggestion. Compromise if you don’t have to bend yourself totally out of shape. I live by that rule and can count the (carefully vetted) 3rd party packages on two hands; from memory even. Do that and you’ll have a serene user experience on Ubuntu – any flavor. Nobody is trying to force you, but if you feel like you have to fight against Ubuntu to get your way or the highway, you are using it wrong.
It isn’t wrong, per se, but from my own experience, which started 25 years ago on Debian, they are just going to cause headaches down the line. Packages (.deb) in the official repositories are carefully managed to integrate into the whole landscape. 3rd party packages don’t undergo that rigorous process of integration to begin with, and when they are installed as a one-off from a .deb file outside the APT sources they will just sit there and never get upgraded.
Just because it’s there doesn’t mean it’s part of the usual workflow. It’s there by somewhat popular demand to not have to resort to the terminal when a package can’t be found or provided by means of the Software Center or the App Center, for instance. Consider it a last resort; never the first.
If you mean the app launcher, it’s because .deb files aren’t apps that can be launched. Opening them from the file manager should launch the associated Gdebi and hand it the file path as an argument, however.
I was an active member of the MATE discourse and the uncertanty was there way before LTS was suspended. A lot of the long time MATE users were concerned about it’s future and it turned out they were correct (I still use MATE for my home NextCloud server so I did not abandon it totally). It was the first distro I really latched on to and embrace linux and I am glad MATE is gaining a team and I hope they can modernize it as it had a very old school look and feel to it… which is not a bad thing, but it felt like it was stuck in the past a bit. To be honest, it was the MATE community that kept me there more than the distro, and I know some of them migrated to this new discourse, but it’s not the same.
Anyway, I have Xubuntu running now and it’s stable. There are some annoying things to it, like not being able to select Open as Root from the context menu, but I have found the custom commands so I am sure I can sort it out. I also miss the Applets and Desklets from Mint but again, I think I have found some work arounds for some of those things so I am sure I will get used to it.
As I said earlier, MATE was my first distro and my only requirement at the time was something light and not resource intensive. I didn’t know what gnome was much less all the differences between flavors. The main reason I stuck with MATE for so long was the community. They were welcoming and friendly and put up with my newbiness and helped me embrace linux in general.
