14 DAY TRIAL // The wait is finally over, as the MATE 1.16 desktop environment is now available for those who use the Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system or later versions, such as 16.04.1.
After thoroughly testing them, Martin Wimpress and his team updated the PPA (Personal Package Archive) containing the MATE desktop packages for Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS, a long-term supported version of the officially recognized Ubuntu flavor built around the lightweight and customizable MATE desktop environment, to version 1.16.
MATE 1.16.1 is, in fact, the current version of the desktop environment included in said PPA for Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS users, which they can install as we speak by using the installation instructions provided in the next paragraphs, and it looks like it was derived from those prepared for the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" release.
"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," said Martin Wimpress.
Here's how to install MATE 1.16 in Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS
If you've been waiting so long to update your MATE desktop environment to version 1.16 in Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), now you finally can, and all you have to do is copy/paste the following two commands in the Terminal app. Once you've done that, please reboot your computer and, voilà, you're using the MATE 1.16 desktop.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/xenial-mate -y
sudo apt update sudo apt full-upgrade
Please note that, to ensure compatibility with the rest of the GTK+ 2 packages used in Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS, as well as many of the third-party MATE applets, extensions, and plugins, most of the MATE 1.16 packages contained in this PPA are built against the GTK+ 2 toolkit, though some of them have been transitioned to GTK+ 3.
These include the Engrampa file archiver, MATE Terminal terminal emulator, MATE Notification Daemon, MATE Session Manager, and MATE PolKit. Please also note that, during installation, the mate-netspeed packages will be removed, but you don't have to worry because the mate-applets package now includes the NetSpeed applet.