14 DAY TRIAL // Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” MATE has been officially announced by its developer, Clement Lefebvre, even if the distribution is already available for download since yesterday.
The first two flavors for Linux Mint are always Cinnamon and MATE, so whenever a new version of this distribution is released, these two are inseparable. Unlike the Cinnamon flavor, MATE is a little more lightweight, but not by big margin.
Just like Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon, the MATE version is also based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and it will be supported for the next five years. Its developers say that it comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make the desktop experience more comfortable to use.
The MATE desktop environment has been updated and it comes with lots of changes. For example, Caja has received an option to use IEC units instead of SI units, a new "Open parent location" option in the search view context menu, Marco (window manager) has received side-by-side tiling, the logout dialog now features a progress bar, the image viewer can now shuffle pictures in slideshow mode, and the sreensaver now shows the date and time.
Also, clicking the middle mouse on the volume applet now toggles mute, the sticky note applet has been given the ability to "undo", a new "command" applet has been introduced, and more.
Numerous after aspects of the distribution have been enhanced and improved, like the Update Manager, which, according to the developers, shows more information, it looks better, it feels faster, and it gets less in your way.
Also, the Driver Manager is now able to install drivers without a connection to the Internet, MDM has been refined, the "Software Sources" configuration tool has received a few UI and usability improvements, the shutdown sequence has been fixed, Hexchat has replaced Xchat as the default IRC client, the MintMenu has received a huge amount of bug fixes, the MintMenu and the Mint-X theme have been adapted to respect mate-panel's transparency settings, and the background animation now has less CPU usage.
The system requirements for the operating system have remained largely the same. Users will need a regular x86 processor, 512 MB of RAM, 5 GB of disk space (20GB would be optimal), and a graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution.
Check the official announcement for more details about this release. You can download Linux Mint 17 MATE right now from Softpedia