Ubuntu MATE seeking maintainers as the creator looks to move on

By Liam Dawe - 30 Mar 2026 at 4:07 pm UTC

Developer Martin Wimpress has announced their intention to move on from Ubuntu MATE, and so the distribution is looking for fresh faces.

What is Ubuntu MATE? It's an official flavour of the Ubuntu family. Using Ubuntu as the base of the packages but it comes with the retro MATE desktop environment which is the continuation of the old GNOME 2.

In a post on the official Ubuntu Discourse forum, Wimpress said:

Hey

I created Ubuntu MATE back in 2014, and my involvement in the project is coming to a close. Perhaps you can help?

As another development cycle passes, I find myself lacking the time I once had to work on Ubuntu MATE. And, to be frank, I don’t have the passion for the project that I once had. When I have time to tinker, my interests are elsewhere.

With that in mind, I’m interested in handing over the reins to contributors who do have the time and energy to work on Ubuntu MATE.

If you are an Ubuntu contributor with experience maintaining packages in the Ubuntu archive and are interested in working on Ubuntu MATE, let me know. I’ve posted a similar message in the Ubuntu Flavours channel on Matrix.

Looking forward to hearing from passionate Ubuntu contributors

Hopefully some other developers will step forwards to continue it on. If not, there's always Linux Mint that has a MATE edition if the old desktop style is really what you're after.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.

Tags: Distro News, Misc, Open Source, Ubuntu

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About the author - Liam Dawe

I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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tuubi 2 hours ago

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Quoting: Caldathras[...] some definite QoL improvements, like autodetecting WiFi printers.

I'm sure Cinnamon gets lots of polish, being Mint's primary DE, but I don't think this one counts. In fact, all three Mint desktop variants handle printers in exactly the same way. Maybe you simply changed over just when it started working on Mint in general? I think Mint 21 switched to CUPS "Driverless Printing" / IPP as the default, so that's probably when it happened.

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