I am aware your porting work and I appreciate it. But it is upstream's liability to make their software (for a person with the skills) as easy as possible to build and run from their official source tarballs - without depending on someone else. Developers think nowadays, that community distributions with hundreds of volunteers are the norm, so they can ignore this issue. But once you integrate software into your own commercial distribution, you have to deliver security updates in a timely manner without depending on volunteers doing the work for you.

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Well, it's not kikinovak's fault
It's more like MSB policy of only supporting 1 Slackware/MATE release
So whenever a new Slackware/MATE gets released, we will discontinue older version

Currently 14.1 and 1.8 are the supported version
When 1.10 gets released, we will support 14.1 and 1.10 and make 1.8 discontinued, but we will leave the branch open, so you can update it by yourself. Most of the case, it would be simply change the VERSION line

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I really like MATE and think it is a nice possible addition to Slackware. However, I agree with willysr in that I would not want to greatly increase Pat's work load. I am happy to leave software choices with our Slackware Team.

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You can use MATE 1.6 shipping with MLED 14.0. Works nice too.

I am changing the direction of the discussion, but I feel like XFCE in Slackware is a bit "poor" when compared to the KDE packages. If adding another GTK desktop environment is too much, how about including more goodies in the XFCE series in stead?

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Slackware as it I has grown to be fairly sizeable, so adding packages would not be a prime idea. In truth, Slackware could use a trim here and there.

Xfce is already the flexible desktop solution, so adding MATE would be a bit redundant. I soul however support adding more of the Xfce extras to give Xfce a more rounded feel.

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I've recently switched to MATE from XFCE using MSB packages. I really like having an integrated desktop with applications for everyday use (simple text editor: pluma, archive manager: engrampa, pdf viewer: atril, etc..) just like KDE and that runs smoothly on my 9 year-old computer.

Obviously as a user, I can only wish for MATE to be included in official Slackware but I understand the constraints that this would incur and that have been discussed in this thread (increased workload, risk of dependency hell...).

I believe that a decision to include MATE would be taken over time depending on many factors such as:

- Sustained development of the upstream MATE desktop project
- Commitment of the current MATE packagers Chess and Willysr (I have personally no doubt about it) with maybe new packagers joining to help spread the workload of maintaining MATE in Slackware
- Slackware users who actually use MATE (otherwise what's the point)
- Slowed-down development of other DE/WM upstream projects that are currently included in Slackware (this is something that one should not wish but it could happen)

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Yes, of course, but I want to use 1.8.

Several years ago we discussed Xfce with respect to the absence of ready-to-use apps. Adding apps to Xfce remains a user exercise. Mate includes several more apps than Xfce to create a fuller desktop, but not as many apps as KDE.

I have long thought that whatever GTK desktop is included in Slackware should be massaged into as complete a desktop as possible, to be more comparable to KDE.

I think this discussion about adding Mate is valid. Xfce became the default GTk desktop because GNOME was dropped, but before that GNOME and Xfce were both included in Slackware as well KDE. So why not include Mate?

I have shared several times that I think /extra is a good place for dedicated "third tier" Slackware package builders. Building packages from source is status quo for many Slackers but hardly all Slackers. Having a large collection of packages available in /extra would be a nice boost. In online reviews Slackware often is discredited for a lack of a large repository. /extra could grow into such a repository. Dropping /extra from the official ISO images would be sensible and /extra then would become just another repository, much like other distros. If /extra acquired this personality, package sets like Mate would be available there and almost all of the work required would be provided by trusted third parties rather than Pat. Just an idea.

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Actually you can use 14.1-mate-1.8 branch to build MATE 1.8 on your Slackware 14.0
You might want to install itstool, dconf, and gnome-themes-standard (these are definitely required) and probably at-spi2-atk, at-spi2-core, and harfbuzz that weren't in 14.0

I hope i got everything since i haven't really tried it yet
Worst case scenario is that you will hit the GLIB/GTK+2 minimum requirement and there's nothing you can do except upgrading them with the risk of some application might need to be re-tested again after upgrading those libraries.

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I just installed MLED 14.1 sporting MATE 1.8 on an empty PC. The whole procedure took a bit more than an hour, using a fast Internet connection.

Thank you, I appreciate that. I much appreciate everybody is trying to help.

When I mentioned I don't have the time to update to 14.1, I meant that I have a highly customized system that has evolved over many years. I have a 14.1 partition fully updated on my system but I currently lack the time to do anything further, which involves migrating and testing a lot of things I have done through the years. Updating Slackware usually takes me several days of methodical testing and even then typically I discover a broken script or cron job a week or two later. Not to forget rebuilding a lot of SBo packages too.

Oh, not to ignore that around here spring has finally arrived and after one of the harshist winters I can remember, I am ready to get outside, plant flowers, suck in a little sun. So 14.1 is not anywhere near the top of my priority list....

Yes, I can find time to download and install Mate 1.6. I might still do that. I could download the 1.8 packages for the 14.1 partition I haven't had time to finish, but as I don't use that partition yet in production mode, I would not be able to test in any meaningful manner. And I don't have time to create a new build environment, test, cuss, fix, test, cuss, fix....

I am using Mate 1.6 in an LMDE system. I admit to getting spoiled fast with the Debian package manager. No compiling. Just download and use the apps. Perhaps that really is the crux of my yearning for Mate 1.8 on 14.0. I am getting older and lazier.

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I would like to see Mate in the official Slackware tree. IMHO, it is a more stable and complete experience than XFCE.

I am also happy running:

slackpkg install msb

after setting up Mate with slackpkg+, for now.

I trust the Slackware team to make the best decision.

;^)

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Patrick,

Feel free to remove FVWM from the official Slackware. To download from FVWM site, compile and intall take less than a minute.

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@eloi: Sorry, but I have to disagree.

I personally have stopped using KDE 10 years ago and I am perfectly happy with FVWM all this time (and sporadically tried MATE and Xfce).

I would rather see the bloatware the KDE is disappear and make room for MATE instead of continuing to spend resources for it (KDE).

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As far as I know, PV removed gnome 2.x in 2005. Incorporating Mate seems like bringing back gnome 2.x to Slackware... because Mate is, after all a rebranded gnome 2.x port. Surely this would only happen if the reasons for removing gnome 2.x were no longer an issue?

I'm pretty sure that PV said previously that he was happy with the external efforts to provide gnome, so we could assume that the same goes for Mate or (anything else)?

I would say that Xfce is "good enough", much of the non included extra software (available at SBo) is still in alpha anyway. Including stuff like xfburn and quite a few plugins. Not everyone who installs Xfce wants everything and the kitchen sink installed, so it seems acceptable and easy enough to just build these.

//edit:

Regarding KDE - it's "upstream" as with all software in Slackware - yet it just works very well with minimal fuss. So presumably no one has had to spend vast amounts of time and effort "polishing" it. This is what happens with the other distros who provided gnome 2/3 or Xfce as their default desktop... to be usable for beginners/casual users on maintream e.g. debian or Red Hat based distros, xfce is usually tied up with gnome software.