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MATE Desktop

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MATE Desktop
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The continuation of GNOME 2
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199
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MATE Desktop is a fork of GNOME 2. It provides an intuitive and attractive desktop to Linux users using traditional metaphors. MATE Desktop is a fork of GNOME 2. It provides an intuitive and attractive desktop to Linux users using traditional metaphors. The talk introduces MATE to those who haven't heard of it, explains the reasons of its birth, explains the difference with GNOME Classic and GNOME Flashback sessions, describes the features and changes added after the fork and shows the current roadmap for the future versions
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Transcript: English(auto-generated)
I will start with pronunciation. It will be hard for non-English speakers because it's Máté. The name comes from South America. I'll start with the history of this project.
The latest release of GNOME 2 was in September of 2010, and a year later it came out in GNOME 3. It was a completely different desktop environment. Not all users of GNOME 2 like this desktop.
So, in Agri, Per Barros, an ARK Linux user, started a fork, calling it Máté. The first description of the project was an active desktop using traditional computing metaphor.
Also, the project was really an ARK because it was a method of a migrate script, just replacing all new occurrences in the code with Máté. So it was not so good code.
But also, if this was not good, the first distribution started to include Máté. The distribution that was not happy with GNOME 3, like Linux Mint or Xalix, started to release Máté in their repositories and also Máté edition in their dbl.
This brought to a new community because it was a new project. Nobody from GNOME was present in this community.
So we started to prepare the website, wiki forum, IRC channels, mailing list, and development is hosted on GitHub. You can ask why Máté, if there are so many alternatives in GNOME 3,
the classic mode, the flashback edition, LXDE, XFCE. The reason is that all the alternatives are not really like GNOME 2. We wanted to keep GNOME 2 with all its features, with all its applications,
so this is the main reason. Classic mode requires new hardware because it is based on 3D, and flashback mode is just the panel and the applets because the other applications are the same of GNOME 3, and they have received a lot of changes in the interface.
Of course, LXDE and XFCE are different desktops, they are LXDE, now it's switching to OQT, and XFCE is different desktop, different file manager, different panels, different philosophy.
The past year we got the 1.6 release. It's our idea of GNOME 2.34, it was a missing release. We removed all obsolete text from Máté, like gconf, bonobo,
and we replaced all this technology with new libraries that now are in Jlib or in GTK. We started to add systemd support to Máté because it was missing in GNOME 2.
We did a lot of bug fixes, we solved some bugs that were present in GNOME 2 for years. We added only small new features because our idea is to keep the traditional desktop, so we are adding to Máté only small features.
We also added new themes with GTK 3 support to keep compatibility with all applications that this version can provide. We provided themes that support both GTK 2 and GTK 3 using the same graphics.
This release is the start of eight months of development, 1,800 commits by 59 people, and we have also 150 translators that are translating Máté in Transifex.
We use Transifex to manage translations. New features in 1.6 are the option to center new windows, like GNOME 3.
We added new arguments to the panel, like the reset command argument to bring the panel to the default configuration, and also an argument to run the analog because if users use other window managers in this way,
they can set the shortcut to open the run dialog. We added a feature to close the windows with the middle click on the bottom bar. We added new themes to notification daemon.
We added support for the M-Prize specification to manage multimedia keys because most of the media applications are using M-Prize or the new D-Bus specification.
So, supporting M-Prize, all media players now work with Máté. We also added support for competes in MetaCity, the new window manager, so if users change theme in control center,
the theme of competes of MetaCity will be changed too, if they are running. These are the new features in the file manager, Kaja. We added an underedo feature before GNOME, added it in Autilos 3.
We restored the edit location button on the bar, it was removed in the latest GNOME 2 release, and we also added a button to show differences when the user tries to replace text files.
This is a small overview of new themes of Máté 1.6. This is called Menta. We added also a standard black theme, black Máté. This is green Laguna.
It's similar to Menta but with the darkest bars. The 1.6 access brought Máté in almost all distributions, like Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, Mint, OpenSUSE, and so on.
Máté is also packaged in non-Linux distributions, like BSD and others. The new community now has about 90 people, average on the first channel on IRC.
We have ten contributors that write code for Máté, and we have a lot of members in the official forum, and also 380 members on G Plus community,
so it's not so big but not so small a community. The past year we got a student under Fedor Umbrella for the Google Summer of Code. He worked on adding support for GTK3 on Máté, and we are receiving a lot of donations from users that are using Máté from Smith Companies.
For example, we got a dedicated server from a German company, Fiskolo, that is using Máté in their offices. This is the main goal of the Máté project,
is to keep the traditional desktop metaphor, like young shoe, and we will continue to develop this desktop, keeping it traditional with new small features.
We will fix bugs, and we will support new libraries, like systemd and Wayland, all the new software that will be written in the future. The other goal is to be an alternative for lower-end hardware,
because not all hardware supports every desktop, because to run young shoe, now you should have a powerful hardware. So we will always keep compatibility with lower-end hardware,
such as Raspberry on a device, and old computers, and so on. We also created a package called Máté University,
where we are adding code examples to learn how to develop extensions for Máté, like panel applets, extensions for the file manager, plugins for the text editor or the image viewer, etc.
Also this project is hosted on GitHub. Now I will talk about the future of Máté. First, we will add support for GTK3 and Wayland.
I am talking about support because it will be not a complete migration, but we will support GTK3. It means that distribution maintenance can compile Máté with GTK2 or GTK3. It will be their choice. They can choose also to make available two versions of Máté with both GTK3 versions.
We will complete the support for systemd. I am always talking about support because systemd will be not a dependency, but it will be always optional. We will keep always also console.kit because not all distribution uses systemd now.
We will add also support for the new Gstreamer release, for account service, the new Bluetooth specifications.
We will add a plugin system for the file manager because the current system of extensions means that you have to restart the file manager to enable new extensions. You can't disable the extensions now. If you have one extension installed, you will have it activated every time.
So, adding a plugin system, users will be able to enable or disable plugins at runtime. We will remove two of the latest useless forks,
and we will use known equivalents because now we started also a collaboration with the known developers. They realized that now Máté is an alternative, so we are working together to remove as much forks as possible
and use known equivalents, like the k-ring daemon, or libraries like gwidder or wnck, EL tools for the documentation. Some things on this list are already implemented in the unstable release of Máté,
like the removal of the forks or the initial support for gtk3. There will be also some new features in 1.8, like Windows mapping in the window manager.
Users will be able, with mouse, to maximize windows on the left, on the right, or full screen. We will add support for .epub format in the document viewer. We develop the new applets for the panel, like a command.
It shows the output of a command in the panel, or a new timer applet. We will improve the search mode in the file manager. We will fix the accessibility using Orca from GNOME.
And we will also implement a lot of small things that users are asking us in our tracker. You can check the status of the roadmap in our wiki.
We are also keeping alive the GNOME menu, that it was the default menu in OpenSUSE. The nice thing is that we are keeping it alive in the GNOME infrastructure, because this menu was left by GNOME, so we are developing it under the GNOME Git repository.
And it will be the default menu in the next open source release with Máté. To keep alive the full GNOME 2 experience in OpenSUSE.
Máté, like I told before, is also packaged for Raspberry. It runs very well. The Raspbian is the default distribution. It provides Máté already on the repositories.
LTSP, Linux Terminal Server Project, is also interested in Máté, because not all the hardware supports GNOME 3, GTK 3, so some developers from LTSP are helping us too.
You can check in this link the small presentation of LTSP with Máté. By LTSP developer.
Recently Máté was included in Libyan 2. This is interesting, it's the graph of popcorn, the stats of Libyan. We are running out of time, so if someone has a quick question maybe? I see questions. Thanks. Thank you for your presentation.
And if you have some other questions, you can chat with Stefano just outside.