Ubuntu MATE 17.04 Alpha 2

We are preparing Ubuntu MATE 17.04 (Zesty Zapus) for distribution on April 13th, 2017 With this Alpha pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next (stable) version.

What works?

People tell us that Ubuntu MATE is stable. You may, or may not, agree.

Ubuntu MATE Alpha Releases are NOT recommended for:

• Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues
• Anyone who needs a stable system
• Anyone uncomfortable running a possibly frequently broken system
• Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable

Ubuntu MATE Alpha Releases are recommended for:

• Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs
• Ubuntu MATE, MATE, and GTK+ developers

What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 16.10 final release?

This is what have been updated or added.

• Upgraded to MATE Desktop 1.17.2
  • The MATE Desktop 1.17 development snapshots are what will become the next stable release of MATE Desktop.
    • Caja and Eye of MATE are both still 1.16 in Alpha 2, newer versions should land via updates soon.
  • All the legacy GTK2+ code has been completely removed from the entire project.
  • Features full support for libinput, a modern library to handle input devices such as mice, trackpads and touch screens for Wayland and X11.
  • mate-panel now supports desktop actions.
  • Eye of MATE and Pluma have been ported to libpeas, which means all the plugins are back!
  • Many, many, bug fixes.
  • Translation updates.
• Upgraded to Ubuntu MATE Artwork 17.04.1
  • New folder icons contributed by Daniel Foré from elementary
  • Ambiant-MATE and Radiant-MATE fixes.
  • New pixel doubled assets contributed by Michael Tunnel from TuxDigitial
• Upgraded to Ubuntu MATE Welcome 17.04.1
  • Updated the Software Boutique for 17.04
  • Update the DVD playbackback install to support DVD and Blu-ray.
  • dconf-editor is no longer pre-installed but has been added to the Software Boutique.
  • Updated translations.
• Dropped PowerPC
  • Debian announced it is dropping PowerPC as a release architecture in October 2016.
  • Ubuntu Technical Board announced that Ubuntu is removing 32-bit powerpc architecture from future Ubuntu releases.
  • Consequently Ubuntu MATE will not be releasing PowerPC images anymore.
  • Ubuntu MATE 16.04 will continue to support PowerPC until 2019.
• The .iso images are approximately 200MB smaller.

Known Issues

Here are the known issues.

Ubuntu family issues

This is our known list of bugs that affect all flavours.

• grub fails to install bootloader for LVM with Encryption

You’ll also want to check the Ubuntu MATE bug tracker to see what has already been reported. These issues will be addressed in due course.

• Ubuntu MATE Bug Tracker

Feedback

Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please come and talk to us.