Review – Ubuntu MATE 25.04
by Adam Hunt
Ubuntu MATE is celebrating an anniversary! It has been ten years since it became an official Ubuntu flavor with the release of Ubuntu MATE 15.04.
Ubuntu MATE is a continuation of the GNOME 2 desktop that mainstream Ubuntu itself used from its inception in 2004 until it moved to the Unity interface in 2011. Today, Ubuntu MATE appeals to people who still like that vintage desktop or who are looking for a simple, easy-to-use, lightweight Linux distribution. One of its stated aims is to “recreate the halcyon days of Ubuntu for users who prefer a traditional desktop metaphor.”
The latest version, Ubuntu MATE 25.04, came out on 17 April, 2025, the same day as the other Ubuntu 25.04 flavors. This is the 23rd overall Ubuntu MATE release. As an interim release, it is supported for nine months, until January 2026.
This is the middle of the three interim releases in this development cycle which will lead to the next LTS version, Ubuntu MATE 26.04 LTS, due out in April 2026.
Installation
I downloaded the ISO file via BitTorrent from the official website using Transmission. After shrinking in size for the last release, the ISO file size has now grown 200 MB, from 3.5 GB to 3.7 GB. It is still half the size of mainstream Ubuntu’s ISO file, though.
Once I had the file downloaded, I carried out the usual command line SHA256 sum check to make sure the download was good. This is always a good practice as it saves issues later on.
I dropped the ISO file onto a USB stick equipped with Ventoy 1.1.05 and booted it up. Ubuntu MATE is listed as officially supported by Ventoy and it ran without any issues.
System requirements
The listed the minimum hardware has been increased slightly over the last release and is now: Core 2 Duo processor 64-bit 2 GB of RAM (up from 1 GB) 10 GB of disk space (up from 8 GB) Display 1024 X 768 pixels
The recommended hardware is: Core i3 processor 64-bit 4 GB of RAM 20 GB of disk space (up from 16 GB) Display 1440 x 900 pixels or higher (with graphics acceleration)
As well, Raspberry Pi B models are supported, including Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 3+ and 4 (all memory sizes).
New
The focus of Ubuntu MATE is preserving a classic desktop and thus avoiding any change. After all, it was created to keep the GNOME 2 desktop going after the switch to GNOME 3 happened in 2011. As a result, new releases of Ubuntu MATE keep changes to a minimum. If nothing else, this flattens the learning curve for users upgrading from one release to another.
In this release, all the changes incorporated are inherited from upstream projects. The biggest one is from Ubuntu 25.04: the installer now supports better dual-booting with encrypted BitLocker-enabled Windows partitions.
As with the other Ubuntu 25.04 flavors, the provided Linux kernel has been upgraded to version 6.14 and the initialization system is now systemd version 257.4. Ubuntu MATE has been using systemd since its first official flavor status over ten years and 21 releases, with no noted problems.
One thing that has not changed in this release is the MATE 1.26.2 desktop, which is the same version used in the last two versions, Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS and 24.10. The MATE 1.28 desktop has actually been released, but it apparently has some bugs that need addressing prior to its arrival in the Ubuntu repositories. As of the previous 24.10 release, MATE 1.28 was still expected to be introduced later in this development cycle, in time for inclusion in the next LTS, but it was not mentioned in the 25.04 release notes. I guess we will see what happens in the next release, Ubuntu MATE 25.10, which is due out on 9 October, 2025.
Another thing that is not new is that Ubuntu MATE still mounts external drives in live sessions unlike some other Ubuntu flavors that are now blocking them (including Lubuntu 25.04, Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 & Xubuntu 25.04). Keeping this feature facilitates doing screenshots and reviews, so something I personally appreciate. It also makes it easy to use Ubuntu MATE as a rescue disk.
Settings
Since “keeping everything as close to the same as possible” is considered a virtue in Ubuntu MATE, this new release retains the long-used default green-colored theme Yaru-MATE-Light, and the same green default wallpaper. It still comes with 23 window color themes but this time has 33 wallpapers provided, five more than the last release. More wallpaper choices will be popular with any users who are not keen on that default hue of green.
Since Ubuntu MATE 18.04 LTS, the default menu system used on Ubuntu MATE has been the single Brisk menu. Brisk works well and includes a modern menu search feature. The panel options include several other menus, which are easy to install, including the original GNOME 2 triple menu. The GNOME 2 menu system is nostalgic, of course, and is still really easy to use. It does not have menu searching so you have to navigate the menu to find what you are looking for. Not everything is where you expect it to be, either!
It is worth noting that not all Linux distributions shipping with the MATE desktop use the Brisk menu. For instance, AlmaLinux MATE, CentOS Stream MATE, and Debian MATE all use the GNOME 2 triple menu by default.
As in past releases, if you like launchers or desktop docks, the Plank dock is already installed, although not activated. It can easily be turned on by opening it from the menu. It is also just as easy to turn off: right click “quit” on it and it disappears. As desktop docks go, Plank is fairly unobtrusive and hides whenever a window touches it.
Ubuntu MATE comes with the default MATE desktop's dual panel set-up, one at the top and one at the bottom of the screen. It is straight-forward to change to a single panel, just add the top panel icons to the bottom one, including the menu button, and then delete the top panel. If you don't like the result, reset them all back to the default two-panel configuration with just one click.
The MATE desktop does not include a “large text” feature, desktop zoom or scaling control. This has been identified as an issue if you have a laptop with a small, high resolution screen, as many come with 14 inch 1920 X 1080 pixel screens these days. MATE does however have the ability to adjust system fonts at Control Center - Appearance - Fonts, and this actually solves the problem reasonably well. You will need to increase all the font sizes from the 11 point defaults to 14 or 16, and then set the default zoom in Firefox to 133%, LibreOffice Writer to 160%, plus increase the font for the Pluma text editor to 16 pt or so, and it all works fine.
Applications
Some of the applications included with Ubuntu MATE 25.04 are: Atril 1.26.2 PDF viewer* Caja 1.26.3 file manager* Celluloid 0.27 video player* CUPS 2.4.12 printing system Document Scanner (Simple Scan) 46.0 optical scanner* Engrampa 1.26.2 file archiver* Evolution 3.56.0 email client Eye of MATE 1.26.1 image viewer* Firefox 137.0.2 web browser GDebi 0.9.5.8 package installer GNOME Disks 46.1 disk manager* GNOME Maps 48.1 maps GNOME Weather 48.0 weather Gparted 1.6.0 partition editor GUFW 24.04.0 firewall controller* MATE Calculator 1.26.0 calculator* MATE Control Center 1.26.1 settings manager* MATE Disk Usage Analyzer 1.26.1 (baobab) disk display* MATE System Monitor 1.26.3 system resource monitor* MATE Terminal 1.26.1 terminal emulator* LibreOffice 25.2.2.2 office suite Pipewire 1.2.7 audio controller Plank 0.11.89 desktop dock* Pluma 1.26.1 text editor* Redshift 1.12 screen color temperature adjuster* Rhythmbox 3.4.8 music player Shotwell 0.32.10 photo manager Systemd 257.4 init system Transmission 4.0.6 bit torrent client* Ubuntu App Center 1.0.0 package management system Webcamoid 9.2.3 web cam
* indicates same application version as used in Ubuntu MATE 24.10 ** supplied as a snap, so version depends on the upstream package manager
There is not much new here in the applications, either. There has been no change to the mix of applications provided and very few of them have been updated, as can be seen by the number of asterisks.
The file browser remains the MATE desktop's native Caja file manager. Caja is an earlier fork of Nautilus (now called GNOME Files) from before version 3.6 removed a lot of features in the name of simplification. Caja reinstates some of those removed features like the “up one level” button, and adds some other useful features like bulk file renaming.
Ubuntu MATE 25.04 also includes the LibreOffice office suite, complete except for the database program, LibreOffice Base. This is probably the least-used part of LibreOffice, but it can be installed if needed.
The default suite of applications provided is fairly complete and includes most of what an average desktop user would need, at least to get started. Obvious additions would be an image editor and video editor. It is probably also worth removing anything you don’t use, just to reduce menu clutter, especially if you opt to use the GNOME 2 triple menu.
Conclusions
Who likes Ubuntu MATE? Users who thought GNOME 2 was the pinnacle of the Linux desktop, plus anyone else looking for a simple, lightweight distribution with no glitz or bling. Ubuntu MATE is certainly quick to learn and easy to use.
Ubuntu MATE 25.04 is a good, solid release with no obvious vices. There is probably no reason for most users to install it over the last LTS version, unless they are dual-booting with an encrypted Windows installation or need the latest hardware support that Linux kernel 6.14 brings.
I’ll be reviewing the last interim release in this cycle, Ubuntu MATE 25.10, due out on 9 October 2025, and then we’ll take a look at the next LTS version, 26.04 LTS, when it arrives in April, 2026.
External links
Official website: https://ubuntu-mate.org/
Biography:
Adam Hunt started using Ubuntu in 2007. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in a house with no Windows.