MATE Desktop 1.16 for Ubuntu MATE 16.04

The Ubuntu MATE Patrons have already received this information, but here’s an update for everyone.

A popular question in the Ubuntu MATE community among the 16.04 users is:

When can I get MATE Desktop 1.16 for Ubuntu MATE 16.04?

The answer is, now. Right now.

We’ve published a PPA containing MATE 1.16 that is designed to work with Ubuntu MATE 16.04. You can find out what changed in MATE Desktop 1.16 from the upstream release announcement.

You might be wondering why it has taken several months to release this PPA? Here’s why; they’ve been well tested.

The packages in this PPA are derived from the MATE Desktop 1.16 packages that have been prepared for the upcoming Debian 9 (Stretch) release. Issues encountered in Debian have been fixed and we also waited for the all the MATE Desktop bugfix releases, so what you are getting today is actually MATE Desktop 1.16.1.

Upgrade to MATE Desktop 1.16.x

To upgrade Ubuntu MATE 16.04 to MATE Desktop 1.16.x do the following:

Open a terminal using CRTL + ALT + t.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/xenial-mate
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

Now restart your computer and you’re running MATE Desktop 1.16.x :-)

Notes

Upgrading to MATE Desktop 1.16 will remove the mate-netspeed packages, but don’t be alarmed, the NetSpeed applet is now included in the mate-applets package. You won’t loose any functionality.

If you see the following prompt during the upgrade, then press Enter to accept [default=N]:

Configuration file '/etc/xdg/autostart/mate-volume-control-applet.desktop'
 ==> Deleted (by you or by a script) since installation.
 ==> Package distributor has shipped an updated version.
   What would you like to do about it ?  Your options are:
    Y or I  : install the package maintainer's version
    N or O  : keep your currently-installed version
      D     : show the differences between the versions
      Z     : start a shell to examine the situation
 The default action is to keep your current version.
*** mate-volume-control-applet.desktop (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?

The version of MATE Desktop 1.16 in this PPA is mostly built against GTK2+ to ensure compatibility with Ubuntu MATE 16.04 and all the 3rd party MATE applets, plugins and extensions.

That said some applications have been transitioned to GTK3+ such as:

• Engrampa
• MATE Notification Daemon
• MATE PolKit
• MATE Session Manager
• MATE Terminal

We hope you enjoy using MATE Desktop 1.16 on Ubuntu MATE 16.04!