Rather than clutter up the Seeking Maintainers thread with thanks, I’ll start a new post.
Trigger for this thank you is
Thank you Martin for all your work, for which I and many others who use Ubuntu MATE (either full time, or part time) have benefited.
You’ve spoken about the project many times on various podcasts, initially as a guest, then became a host on Ubuntu Podcast. You’ve thus helped me to appreciate Ubuntu MATE more, and I’ve learnt more about the creation and work that goes into the Ubuntu flavors, or just contributing to Ubuntu and other Open Source projects.
Your work, possibly done to improve life for your some of your family, was done in a way that helped us too, thus this thank you for your contributions to Open Source, Ubuntu and especially Ubuntu-MATE.
Thank you @m_wimpress although I am not an Ubuntu MATE user anymore, it was my OS for 4 years while I was going through hard times in my life and couldn’t even afford a basic cheap ISP so I was forced to stay offline all that time.
I discovered Ubuntu MATE a few months after 18.04 was released, installed it on my very old computer back then and a few months later those hard times started, won’t get into details but I can say that Ubuntu MATE was there so I could play games and listen to music every day, those were the little things that kept me alive.
I hope it’s not goodbye but “see you later.” You and your friendship has been invaluable to me and my wife. Neither of us will forget hanging out with you in The Hague and how much of a fun time we had with the laughs and conversations.
While you may no longer be a flavor lead, you’re always “part of the family” as far as I am concerned. While you may no longer be actively contributing to Ubuntu, your contributions over the years have been invaluable in shaping what it is today. Many people might not remember you also as Ubuntu Desktop lead, in which many of your stylistic ideas and influence continues to this day.
I, for one, wish you well on this next leg in your journey. From our time hanging out in The Mumble Room (iykyk) to now, you are, and will always be my friend.
@m_wimpress I want to thank you and the others who have been responsible for the creation and maintenance of Ubuntu-Mate (UM). I have been a user (and small financial contributor) for about 10 years. In addition to myself, I support three other people who use it. We are all well past retirement (I am nearly 77), and UM has allowed us to successfully avoid commercial operating systems and all the concomitant problems. I believe that we represent at least part of the demographic group that was targeted when UM was created. So, I am sad that you and others have pulled way from helping steer UM forward.
I wish you well, and I hope that you are successful in your endeavors as well as in finding “new blood” to help with UM.
@Wimpress Over the years you have contributed immensely to the Ubuntu community, the MATE community and the Ubuntu MATE community with the little project that became, in my opinion, the best distribution for new users of Linux. Thank you for you development efforts, you project management, and the innovation that has made this Ubuntu flavor so popular. I hope a new maintainer is found quickly and Ubuntu MATE regains its rightful place as the Ubuntu flavor that got many, many users on the Linux path.
Long ago, I was still stubbornly using Unity a couple years after it was officially supported, then my computer died and I was just a week or two from a paycheck and had to keep working on translating a novel, so Ubuntu MATE went on an SD card and into a Raspberry Pi 3B and between that and Nextcloud I was able to keep working as though nothing had happened until I could build my current PC.
Ubuntu MATE was a fantastic solution I was able to recommend to a lot of people who wanted Ubuntu but were cautious about the desktop interface, because it had so many built-in presets. And then after that, it was just lovely Ubuntu goodness and all of that fun. But it was very accessible and lightweight, and I appreciate all the work you’ve done, plus that it was there for me in a time of need.
Thank you for all of your hard work over the years, and good luck on the next exciting projects!
This is not goodbye, I am still a passionate Linux user and developer. But instead of making a distro, I’ll be mostly working on creating applications and games that run on the distros other people put great effort into building and curating
As I said in the old Ubuntu-Mate.community forums, thank you for giving me more time with the interface I love. I will miss it. I appreciate all you did to give us that extra time.
@Wimpress Thank you for the years of your guidance of this project. Sad to see you go, and hope to continue to hear you on the podcast with Mark and Popey! - smAsh
m_wimpress, I’m MATE addicted (LOVE IT) but understand and fully support your ‘retiring’ from this effort. IF you don’t find someone else (you/we can trust) to take over - Ubuntu is Excellent and meets all my need. If Mate ends, I will miss it. (I”m from the Unix before Linux days so I am used to OSs/desktops/etc. ending, but always a sadness seeing a favorite go).
Thank you for your over a decade of providing Mate!
God Bless you (and your loved ones) on your future endeavors/retirement/other…
I would also like to contribute my share of thanks as I’m also an active Ubuntu MATE user and also I love to promote it in every occasion I get as I see it to be the best DE+Distro combination!
Thus I wish the founder of this best combo the very best in each endeavour they undertake!
Thank you, @wimpress, for the gift you gave us and continuously renewed for over 12 years. Ubuntu MATE was not merely a version of MATE glued onto an Ubuntu base; it was the flagship distribution of MATE, where new tools (such as mate-tweak-tool) were implemented and that are now an essential part of MATE as a desktop. It is important that when working on these projects, there is also the necessary passion, and I therefore understand your decision to pass the torch. I truly hope that whoever takes over the project from you can infuse new life and excitement into it: MATE still has the potential to be a relevant, lightweight, and polished desktop on modern distributions. I use it daily on an office machine (an old 2011 27" iMac) which, thanks to Ubuntu MATE, has never stopped working and runs smoothly and quickly with updated programs, as if it were brand new. Thank you for everything you have done for us users, for the MATE project, for Ubuntu, and for Debian. I will continue to follow your adventures with interest through your podcast… and I hope one day to see that flame burn again for another project I can follow (I tried to get passionate about NixOS… but it’s too complicated for my poor brain). A big hug. - Neff, Switzerland
Thank you Martin ! It’s partly thanks to you that Mate has a vibrant community, forever grateful.
I watched your interview on YouTube entirely, I was wondering , may I kindly ask why you switched to other distribs ? I tried tiling systems and I really don’t like it. Gnome 2 is forever the king in my fair opinion thanks to its infinite customization capabilities. But of course colors preferences highly depends on one’s taste
