Ubuntu MATE has attracted a lot of attention since it's first release. This was due to Linux users' fond for a classical desktop experience. Ubuntu MATE is actually a solace for all people who lost their traditional desktop environment when Ubuntu decided to switch to Unity Desktop by the release of Ubuntu 11.04.
Latest issue of distrowatch weekly(08/05/2016) has published a review of recently released Ubuntu MATE 16.04. In this review, reviewer has shared the difficulties faced by him due to hardware compatibility issues. However, he has got an over all positive impression of this distribution. He observes that, Ubuntu MATE 16.04 is smooth, responsive and yet lightweight. He also finds that Ubuntu MATE has nice selection of theme and wall paper which will help to dramatically reduce eye strain while using computer.
Latest issue of distrowatch weekly(08/05/2016) has published a review of recently released Ubuntu MATE 16.04. In this review, reviewer has shared the difficulties faced by him due to hardware compatibility issues. However, he has got an over all positive impression of this distribution. He observes that, Ubuntu MATE 16.04 is smooth, responsive and yet lightweight. He also finds that Ubuntu MATE has nice selection of theme and wall paper which will help to dramatically reduce eye strain while using computer.
The latest version of the distribution, Ubuntu MATE 16.04, includes several key software updates, including version 4.4 of the Linux kernel, MATE 1.12.1 and support for Snap packages. The distribution has also been working on Raspberry Pi support and can be run on Raspberry Pi 2 & 3 computers. Looking over the download options we find that, apart from Raspberry Pi images, the Ubuntu MATE project supplies us with downloads for 32-bit and 64-bit x86 computers and there are builds for PowerPC computers.Read complete review in distrowatch weekly.
Prior to downloading the distribution, I recommend looking over the list of known bugs, some of which affect the project's system installer. I did not see any major issues listed and so downloaded the 64-bit build of Ubuntu MATE which is 1.5GB in size.