How to keep using MATE Desktop in 2026

MATE Desktop
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If you love MATE, you’re probably already aware that the project is going through a rough patch. Martin Wimpress, the founder of Ubuntu MATE, announced in March 2026 that he’s stepping back after 12 years, and the future of Ubuntu MATE’s LTS releases is uncertain. A non-LTS 26.04 release may still happen, but without new maintainers stepping up, long-term support is at risk.

Upstream, MATE Desktop development has slowed significantly with fewer active contributors, and MATE 1.28 has been slow to land across Debian and Ubuntu due to packaging delays. Wayland support remains experimental and incomplete.

That said, MATE is NOT dead yet, and if you love the workflow there’s no reason to abandon it today. You just need to be smart about how you run it. Here are some tips for MATE users who want to keep using it as long as possible:

Choose your distro wisely

MATE may not see frequent upstream releases, but your kernel, drivers, and system libraries still need to stay current. Make sure you’re on a distro that keeps the underlying system patched regardless of the desktop environment.

  • Linux Mint still ships a MATE edition and is supported until 2029.
  • Fedora has a MATE+Compiz spin that stays current.
  • Arch and its derivatives carry MATE in their repos and will continue to as long as the packages build.
  • Debian also carries MATE (1.26 in Trixie, with 1.28 in Testing). If you’re on Ubuntu specifically, the uncertainty around LTS support this cycle is a real concern, so consider one of these alternatives.

Stick with X11 for now

MATE’s Wayland support is still very early and not ready for daily use. X11 is where MATE is stable and fully functional. Don’t rush to a Wayland-only setup.

Learn to install MATE manually

If your preferred distro stops shipping a MATE edition, you can almost always install it from the repos on top of a minimal or alternative desktop install. It’s just a sudo apt install mate-desktop-environment or sudo dnf install @mate-desktop away depending on your distro.

Back up your MATE config

Your panels, applets, keybindings, and theme settings live in ~/.config/dconf and ~/.config/mate. Back these up so you can restore your exact setup if you need to move distros or reinstall.

Get involved!

The project needs contributors now more than ever. Even non-code contributions like documentation, bug reporting, and testing help keep things alive.

Check out the MATE Desktop GitHub and the community discussion on linuxcommunity.io - MATE and Ubuntu MATE forum.

The MATE desktop still offers one of the best traditional Linux workflows out there. With some smart choices, there’s no reason you can’t keep using it for years to come.

Update: Here are places to plug in regardless of skill level:

Official project

Community spaces

Distros shipping MATE (test, report bugs, help users)

Translations

Non-code ways to help

  • File detailed bug reports with reproduction steps
  • Edit and improve documentation through GitHub’s web editor (no git required)
  • Answer questions here and on Reddit
  • Test pre-release builds and report back
  • Spread the word about MATE to new Linux users

I’m very much a MATE noob, so what are your tips for keeping MATE going? Drop them below…

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How to contribute to MATE? (from a 'non-technical' user)
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I have not been using Ubuntu MATE (or Linux for that matter) for all that long (switched to Linux in 2023 and been for the most part running UM since late 2024), but some things I have picked up on are as follows:

  1. In my opinion, out of all the distributions offering the MATE desktop, Ubuntu MATE offers the best “spit and polish” out of the box with themes compatible with GTK4, the MATE Tweak tool with several panel layouts, and a fantastic selection of backgrounds. We used to have the Ubuntu MATE Welcome (Welcome Application) and Software Boutique (App store) but those have been deprecated for some time. I also have VMs running Fedora MATE+Compiz spin and openSUSE Tumbleweed MATE, but (in my opinion) I feel that they have not really been kept updated, using older themes that don’t always work great with modern applications, and just don’t have the same cohesiveness as UM does.
  2. If you are using MATE Desktop on a distro, I suggest scouring the GNOME Look page for themes that support GTK4. Otherwise, you’ll have all your GNOME applications falling back to the Adwaita theme and it will look really out of place since the default MATE themes are GTK3 (as far as I know, maybe even GTK2).
  3. If your distro has the ayatana indicators (I know Arch does in the AUR, other distros might, but this is what Ubuntu MATE uses for indicator technology), I think they are superior to the built-in MATE indicators and panel applets. I suggest installing and using them.

Otherwise, to be honest, I can’t think of any other issues with MATE in 2026. I’ve also tried the vast majority of Desktop Environments (likely all the popular ones) and i3 window manager but MATE fits my workflow the best.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to correct anything or add if I missed something or was wrong.

Thanks,
Jaymo

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This is interesting. Thanks for sharing.

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No problem at all @hydn .

There is actually one other thing I forgot to put in. Ubuntu MATE >=24.04 does not respect dark themes in GTK4 apps in my case using the Yaru themes shipped.

I was able to solve this with AI by writing a systemd user service to read the MATE theme, apply it as the GNOME theme in dconf, and set preference to dark theme.

Please see below.

NOTE: The code below is generated with AI (Deepseek). I have verified that it works for my purposes but use at your own risk.

In ~/.config/systemd/user under file fix-gnome-theme.service:

[Unit]
Description=Sync MATE theme to GNOME settings
After=graphical-session.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c "sleep 5 && MATE_THEME=$(gsettings get org.mate.interface gtk-theme | tr -d \"'\") && gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme \"$MATE_THEME\" && gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme 'prefer-dark'"

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Set this to start on login by typing systemctl --user enable fix-gnome-theme.service in the terminal as a standard user (i.e., not “sudo”).

Jaymo

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Ubuntu 26.04 LTS still has the MATE desktop too.

I’ve done some Quality Assurance installs, and used one I’d not deleted to make a change before writing a comment on a recent support question - I’d made a snap free install of Lubuntu resolute (26.04) & made package changes to switch lubuntu-desktop (LXQt & apps) to ubuntu-desktop (GNOME & apps) using team meta-packages.

As that install still existed (partition hasn’t yet been replaced; or a erase disk & install hasn’t over written it) I just removed ubuntu-desktop and installed ubuntu-mate-desktop and I have the MATE desktop functioning.

I selected to use lightdm as its what most Ubuntu MATE users will be used to anyway; and at least with my quick play it looked good.

Some comments on change -

  • the install actually remained snap free just as installing Ubuntu Desktop earlier had,
  • the lack of Ubuntu MATE team work does show a little; the wallpapers package detail still indicates 24.10 (ie. don’t be expecting newer wallpapers! alas that’s not a first time),
  • it booted up showing the original Lubuntu plymouth screen but I’d not bothered changing that when I installed Ubuntu Desktop (easy fix if I cared; I don’t as this install may not survive the day), and
  • as someone had reported to me before, some (parts) of the GNOME desktop remained (GNOME selectable at login/greeter [lightdm]); but as they showed up in some dpkg lists I ran so I don’t see removing them as difficult (and FYI: I believe I’d run apt autoremove)

To know what’s in Ubuntu MATE’s future, we’ll just have to wait and see, but I still do see hope there.

( GDM3 as greeter on 26.04 allowed me to start Xorg/X11 sessions; that was my only real surprise ! )

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…

Some new RC ISOs were mandated due to fixes; so I needed to do some more QA test installs, and I repeated some of what I talked about in prior thread, without using Ubuntu Desktop first…

I started with a Lubuntu minimal resolute install; ie. starts without snapd but I ensured I did no pinning (same as last time) or apt-mark hold (I may have done last time!) executed so snapd won’t re-install, I logged out of the completed QA test install GUI session, switched to text terminal then apt remove lubuntu-desktop followed by a sudo apt update & sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-desktop and sudo apt autoremove

  • i received a package issue with plymouth-theme-ubuntu-mate-logo (or a package like that) I resolved that manually
  • snapd was installed I noted, along with a few snap packages; differing to last time, but that maybe consequence of no apt-mark command
  • no Ubuntu-MATE plymouth was used (as with last time), but that is easy resolved anyway
  • lightdm being the DM I selected to use offered me the Ubuntu MATE option I expected; a marco option; plus left over lubuntu/lxqt/openbox options (like GNOME I talked about last time, no GNOME this time as gnome wasn’t ever installed)

Results here are essentially identical to what I mentioned earlier; except for the plymouth-theme-ubuntu-mate-logo that I just ‘handled’ accepting that I’ll not see a Ubuntu-MATE plymouth wallpaper on boot/shutdown (I hope that package name is correct; as was near 35 mins ago; maybe I had that issue last time too but just forgot; I understand why it appeared so my surprise is mostly that it didn’t register and thus I didn’t mention it last time)

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I am very happy to read this post - and to have found this new community. I first used Mint MATE back in 2013, and, in spite of some time away from Linux in between, recently came back to find it was still home, sweet home! Just as good as it was back in the golden days. I recently also installed Ubuntu MATE in a VM on my work Macbook (since Mint doesn’t offer an ARM version) and fell in love with that version and the vibrant forum community there. I’m very pleased to see MATE has a cross-distro discussion home here and that the community and discussion will continue.

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Welcome to the community. Check out /g as well to join the MATE group.

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Thank you! Thanks also for the tip - have applied to join the group now.

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I signed up for Ubuntu Pro for Ubuntu Mate 24.04 soon after it was offered. Right now my approach is wait and see. As long as Ubuntu Pro gives the updates needed for basic OS updates and security I will stick with that. If things go awry I will most likely install Mint Mate.

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My current system is Ubuntu Mate 24.04 LTS. As @guiverc mentioned there is some time to wait and see if UM receives new project leader, maintainers and retains official Ubuntu flavour status.

Meanwhile my reasoning is boiling down to an intention to install mainstream Ubuntu desktop 24.04 LTS with additional mate-desktop (not ubuntu-mate-desktop) DE because:

  • mainstream Ubuntu desktop looks more stable and dependable than its flavours
  • mainstream Ubuntu desktop assumes 5 years of support for LTS versions and extra 5 years for pro subscribers
  • experimental installation did not reveal immediate problems or noticeable difficulties.
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