MATE

In short: MATE is the continuation of the classic GNOME 2 desktop. It is plain, stable and resource-saving and appeals to users who like the traditional layout.

In more detail: Created in 2011 as a fork of GNOME 2. The name comes from mate tea. The programs often carry the GNOME originals’ functions under new names (Caja instead of Nautilus, Pluma instead of gedit).

In detail

• Layout: two panels (top and bottom), menu “Applications, Places, System”.
• Programs: Caja (files), Pluma (editor), Atril (documents), Eye of MATE (images).
• Resources: about 400 to 600 MB of RAM.
• Distributions: Ubuntu MATE, Linux Mint MATE, Debian, Fedora.
• Version: 1.28 with GTK3. Wayland support is limited.

See also: Cinnamon, Xfce