14 DAY TRIAL // The Ubuntu MATE project is now one year old, although it seems a lot more than that if we take a look at what the developers have achieved in such a short amount of time.
The first mention of current Ubuntu MATE was made by Martin Wimpress on Google+ back in June 2014. It was just a screenshot, but it got a lot of attention from the community and some great feedback. Interestingly enough, this was not the first Ubuntu MATE proposal. In November 2013, a guy named Ben Tinner wanted to build Ubuntu MATE Remix and get it ready in time for the 14.04 LTS launch window. Nothing came of it, but it was worth mentioning.
Some users questioned the opportunity of a new MATE-powered distro based on Ubuntu, especially since there was already Linux Mint Mate in the wild for some time. As you well know, Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu as well, but the Ubuntu MATE devs showed that their project is unique, and they gathered quite a following since then.
Ubuntu MATE is getting all the glory
New Ubuntu flavors always get most of the attention when it's time for a new release, but Ubuntu MATE did more than just conform to a schedule. They managed to bring major new features with each new release, keeping the distro fresh and interesting, and they even published a 14.04 LTS version sometime after all other flavors did their thing.
It feels like Ubuntu MATE has been around for years, but that's just because of the fervent activity around the project. The developers are always doing some new, like bringing four different window managers to a single distro or just implementing a welcome screen.
We can only hope they manage to keep this rhythm for as long as possible, and we wish them a happy birthday, with lots of free beer.