14 DAY TRIAL // Martin Wimpress has announced that Ubuntu MATE 15.10 Alpha 2 (Wily Werewolf) has been released, and it comes with some pretty interesting changes. The biggest one is the removal of the Ubuntu Software Center.
Ubuntu MATE 15.10 Alpha 2 (Wily Werewolf) is a big update, and it packs quite a few improvements and changes, but most people will probably focus on the removal of the Ubuntu Software Center. It's been getting all the attention these past few days, and it's bound to be the highlight, at least for this Alpha release. There is still a long way to go for Ubuntu MATE until the stable version is released in October.
That being said, it is good to remember that Ubuntu 15.10 and all the members of the family won't be supported for long. If it's not an LTS version, Ubuntu gets only nine months of support, so it's not like these versions will be around. You can think about these intermediary versions as a playground for developers.
What's new in Ubuntu MATE 15.10 Alpha 2
"We are preparing Ubuntu MATE Wily Werewolf (15.10) for distribution on October 22nd, 2015 With this Alpha 2 pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next (stable) version," Martin Wimpress wrote in the official announcement.
According to the changelog, two community-contributed wallpapers have been added, the Ubuntu MATE Plymouth boot animation has been updated, the new Ubuntu MATE Welcome 1.0.1 has been added, MATE Tweak has been updated to version 3.5.0, the Ubuntu Software Center has been removed, and the shutdown/restart of the live session in VirtualBox guests has been fixed as well.
Martin Wimpress also explained why MATE 1.10 hasn't been integrated just yet. The short answer is that some important changes are coming and upgrading as this point would mean that developers will have to do double the work. Make sure that you check the official announcement for the distro.
In any case, you can download the Ubuntu MATE 15.10 Alpha 2 ISO images from Softpedia and give them a spin. Please keep in mind that it's a development release, and it's not intended for production machines.