I also use MATE, and often issue direct text based commands in the 
standard Linux CLI, bash (that has enough csh and korn shell features to 
make it useful).  I do install a number of KDE GUI utilities as some of 
the KDE programs do what I need.  Now that Ubuntu 20 LTS is in 
production, I shall be updating my wife's Ubuntu 18 LTS machine to 
Ubuntu 20 LTS; my understanding is that unlike EL for which a major 
release upgrade requires a new install (for which the simplest thing in 
most machines is to install a new "fresh" harddrive, install EL N++ from 
media -- typically a bootable USB "thumb drive", and then using the old 
drive, recursively copy /home and other non-systems directories onto the 
new system drive for a laptop, I use an external USB "drive holder" to 
access the drive), LTS allows one to upgrade from major release N to 
major release N++ (e.g., 18 to 20) in place.  A number of LTS users have 
informed me that they routinely do this with no ill consequences.

Ubuntu (Canonical) advertises:  Canonical is the publisher of Ubuntu, 
the OS for most public cloud workloads as well as the emerging 
categories of smart gateways, self-driving cars and advanced robots.  Is 
this advert factual?  If so, why is HEP staying with EL -- is it inertia 
or are there significant stability advantages to EL over LTS?

Yasha Karant

On 5/19/20 10:23 PM, Konstantin Olchanski wrote:
> Metoo. I use the MATE desktop, as the least annoying of all
> desktops available on all three of el6, el7 and Ubuntu LTS 18.04.
>
> As for el8, officially everything except some gnome is removed,
> KDE was never available, probably still not available, so meh.
>
> FWIW, I am evaluating el8 and ubuntu LTS 20.04 in parallel, so far,
> el8/ubuntu package versions: python 3.6/3.8, gcc 8.x/9.x, php 7.2/7.4;
> Ubuntu can boot from zfs (18.04 you have to follow a check list, 20.04
> supposedly the installer can install straight to ZFS). On el8 I will not even try
> boot from ZFS, for sure there is some systemd bogosity that will
> prevent it from working (like systemd refused to boot from degraded btrfs).
>
> Sorry to bring this up again, but other than for nostalgia and inertia,
> there is not much point to el8.
>
> K.O.
>
>
> On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 09:48:28PM -0700, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
>> On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 4:45 PM Keith Lofstrom <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> I've done my feeble best to compile Mate for CentOS 8; my
>>> result is not completely broken, but not ready for use.
>>> Some of the graphics fails.  "Mate8" seems to leak memory.
>> On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 05:08:34PM -0700, Akemi Yagi wrote:
>>> There is a thread on the CentOS mailing list about Mate for el8 that you
>>> may want to take a look:
>>>
>>> lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2020-May/350284.html
>> Thanks for that;  about six messages down that thread is
>> a pointer to a webpage discussing compiled packages:
>>
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__copr.fedoracloud.org_coprs_stenstorp_MATE&d=DwIBAg&c=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA&r=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A&m=Q6LCVHs6caad7nOhlIGsnO-ZZUhyem88W6GHqfhenh8&s=7XyJM3wNZhcVzu5ozYZvc9sKtl4zp0lRlr7HMXiXXP8&e=
>>
>> I will copy my borked home compilations to backups, then
>> install that version of MATE.  Many of us are installing
>> MATE; I probably made my clumsy attempts prematurely.
>>
>> ----
>>
>> To others who suggest alternate ways to use linux ... thanks,
>> but I'm an old dog, and a gnome2 user since it was a puppy.
>> MATE comes closest.
>>
>> My "new trick" schedule is overloaded with math and physics
>> skills that I hope to learn soon, skills that would have
>> been much easier to learn 50 years ago.
>>
>> -----
>>
>> Finding the gnome3 text rendering flaw will be more difficult.
>> That flaw is why my subnotebooks still run SL6.
>>
>>
>> Keith
>>
>> -- 
>> Keith Lofstrom          [log in to unmask]