Hi. I was wondering if by 28.04 UM might have a standalone install, rather than just installing Ubuntu, then running the command to install mate-desktop? I have so many UIs that I think I would lose the variety without UM.
Ubuntu MATE team members arenāt paid, being volunteers, and as such will need to respond to family & other demands for their time, and youāre asking how much time & resources theyāll have available in the next ~20 months??
If you want to ensure it happens, maybe consider contributing yourself, to better the odds of a release in 2028-April happening (for a release to be an LTS, there are qualification requirements too).
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I would contribute if I could, but I have no skills to help the teamāI wish I had majored in Computer Science, but got a Bachelorās in Biology.
Do you think this would work? I dl stock Ubuntu (my computer says Jammy is okay until 2027), then enter the command āmate-desktopā, then I install a backup of Home from an externalāif I used that process, would I have a setup similar to Jammy? I have Latte, Cairo Dock, and others (the customs of Redmond, etc.)
Not all contributors are developers, let alone having a degree thatās close. A B.Sci(Biology) to me means you likely understand rules & can think clearly, even if youāve got some adaption thatāll need to be made. An important requirement is just time & desire to learn & contribute.
The package you mention mate-desktop is packaged upstream as you can confirm on your own machine, ie.
guiverc@d7050-next:/de2900/lubuntu_64$ apt info mate-desktop
Package: mate-desktop
Version: 1.28.2-1
Priority: optional
Section: universe/x11
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Debian+Ubuntu MATE Packaging Team <debian-mate@lists.debian.org>
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Installed-Size: 116 kB
Depends: hicolor-icon-theme, libmate-desktop-2-17t64 (>= 1.28.2), mate-desktop-common (= 1.28.2-1), libc6 (>= 2.34), libglib2.0-0t64 (>= 2.50.0), libgtk-3-0t64 (>= 3.22.0)
Recommends: mate-user-guide
Suggests: mate-desktop-environment
Homepage: https://mate-desktop.org/
Task: ubuntu-mate-core, ubuntu-mate-desktop
Download-Size: 27.8 kB
APT-Sources: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu stonking/universe amd64 Packages
Description: Library with common API for various MATE modules
The MATE component mate-desktop contains the libmate-desktop library, the
mate-about program, as well as some desktop-wide documents.
.
The libmate-desktop library provides an API shared by several applications
on the desktop, but that cannot live in the platform for various
reasons.
Key detail to me there is the Original Maintainer, ie. that package comes from Debian+Ubuntu MATE Packaging team, meaning itāll be suitable for Debian & Ubuntu, but it wonāt have the Ubuntu MATE specific features added in Ubuntu MATE specific packages.
The Ubuntu MATE package is ubuntu-mate-desktop, which would pull in (due to depends requirements) mate-desktop-environment-core, which in turn will cause the mate-desktop to be pulled in. That will get you a full Ubuntu MATE experience.
Iām though in 2026-August running stonking or what will be 26.10 on release, so I can only view rules that exist NOW, and not how theyāll appear many cycles later when weāre working on 28.04 (whatever codename itāll have). Things could change between now & 2028.
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Hiā thanks for the awesome answer. Iām disabled and so canāt drive and have no job, so I have no responsibilities to show at a workplace. I worked at Monsanto (this was when I did drive, but my sister says I should never have been drivingāalmost had a major wreck on an Interstate) and had a 3.2 from Truman State, which I guess was good enough, with my disability, because I interviewed at some cool placesā Donald Danforth Plant Science (right across the road from Monsanto) and Sigma Aldrich. How can I help? I love UMāIāve never found an OS that can look however I want (free, too) and would love to help it get stand-alone. So give me some stuff to do!
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Hiāhow do I help the UM team?
When I saw your post here, I said the following in the Ubuntu MATE development chat on Matrix
This post maybe worth a read as for a possible contributor (even if not developer/packager) .. UM 28.04, By this time an iso? - #5 by sciguy1872
How can I help? I love UMāIāve never found an OS that can look however I want (free, too) and would love to help it get stand-alone. So give me some stuff to do!
Iāve involved in a number of teams; my selected flair shows my Lubuntu membership, Iām on the Ubuntu News team, and am a moderator here (like I was on Lubuntu Discourse & Ubuntu MATE discourse) and in other teams too, but I didnāt see myself as the best person to take this further, thus my suggestion in that room for someone to respond.
Iāll suggest be patient, weāre all volunteers, most with busy lives (with family & other responsibilities) and someone will respond when weāre able.
If after a reasonable time, youāve not heard anything; you can of course āpingā me again & I can speak out again, or try another approach.
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Hi. Sitting here drinking coffee from my Ubuntu Mate mug while wearing my Ubuntu Mate polo shirtā any news about my helping the Project?
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I posted a reminder (earlier today) in the Ubuntu MATE Development room (again), you might want to enter the room and watch/listen and speak up there too, as youāll find them there more often than here.
https://matrix.to/#/#ubuntu-mate-development:ubuntu.com
The teamās dailies have been failing for a few days, so theyāre busy with life currently, but please be patient.
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Hiāthanks for the info! I guess Iāll wait a couple days, since you posted again, then Iāll try the channel.
@sciguy1872 You can join the channel now, which will allow you to watch who speaks, how they communicate and moreā¦
Further, you could reply āin threadā to my comment, and even if you just say āthat was meā or something, theyāll be capable of seeing that and starting communicating there when they can (even if not in that thread, but likely to be in that room).
This is based on you being able to see prior discussions, some protocols & rooms allow that where others donāt, and sorry I canāt recall where our [Ubuntu] Matrix falls in this regard (though I just joined a different public room & I can view back years, but I do believe different rooms can have different defaults).
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I donāt see the need. If you join [that matrix room], you should be able to see what Iāve said, and it includes links to this thread on Ubuntu Discourse anyway, where they can read this entire thread.
People get busy with their own lives, needs of their families & loved ones, work needs etc, so projects they do in their free time can sometimes get ignored out of necessity; it happens. When things get āless hecticā they usually return.
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@guiverc Hi. Thanks for the help! I already posted in the UM channel. Thanks again! Iāll repost after 15 days if I donāt get a reply.
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@sciguy1872 Hi and welcome to the community.
First of all please accept my apologies for not being able to reply sooner. And thank you for offering to help with the project.
@guiverc has already answered you and we spoke on the matrix room. However for posterity, please see my answers below.
We will give our best to have a solid 28.04 UM LTS release. We only missed 26.04 LTS. We are working towards 26.10 release and intend to continue.
Thatās what many of us (non-developers) think. While coding, debugging are core part of any software project, there are many avenues for us to contribute. Take a look here (some links may need to be updated though).
As discussed on matrix, you could help with testing. And you having an nvidia graphics card is a plus.
This is what you would do if UM were to vanish for good, which we are determined to not let happen 
. But yes, that approach works, although you may not have UM specific customization.
Accessibility is a high priority for us. You could help with that part, even if your challenge may not be directly affecting computer use.
Thank you again.
Regards,
SV
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