14 DAY TRIAL // A longer term release version has been made available for Ubuntu MATE, a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that's using the MATE desktop environment.
It might seem a little bit odd to get Ubuntu MATE 14.04.1 LTS after Ubuntu 14.10, but in this case, it makes perfect sense, if you ignore the version number and just focus on the LTS part. Ubuntu releases (and flavors) have a very simple version scheme using the year and the month of their launch. This means that 14.10 is 2014, October, and 14.04 represents 2014, April.
The first Ubuntu MATE release was 14.10, which meant that the devs had missed the 14.04 LTS window. The LTS is an important branch because the developers can provide support for many years. The base system, Ubuntu, has five years of support and other flavors are doing the same or offer at least three years. Now, Ubuntu MATE can provide the same kind of extended support to its users, making it a much more appealing distro.
Ubuntu MATE 14.04.1 LTS is an evolution
Even if the version number indicates an older release, the developers took this opportunity to integrate many of the improvements from Ubuntu MATE 14.10. So, in many ways, it's actually an upgrade. The new release will receive security updates until 2019.
"This release is unusual in that it is based on Ubuntu MATE 14.10 but adds a number of new features and fixes many bugs. Although this is a 14.04 release you can consider it a newer version than 14.10 but many of the changes outlined below have already been released to Ubuntu MATE 14.10 via updates," writes Martin Wimpress, one of the Ubuntu MATE developers.
There are quite a few changes and improvements in the new version, some more visible than others. For example, support has been added for indicators, the panel layouts have been updated as well, a lot of accessibility features have been implemented, including the latest Orca 3.14, the system themes have been updated, and a lot of packages have been synced with newer versions from Debian.
The Ubuntu MATE release has been a very successful one and a lot of users have been adopting the new operating system, and with the new LTS plan it's bound to attract even more attention.
As usual, you can download Ubuntu MATE 14.04.1 LTS from Softpedia. This is a Live CD (and a hybrid one at that), so users can give it a spin before installing it.
