In what could be called as a major blow to the GNOME foundation, The Fedora Linux team has decided to get rid of GNOME 3 in the upcoming Fedora 18 linux OS. GNOME 3 will be replaced by a new Desktop Environment (DE) called the MATE. However, users need not worry much about this new Desktop Environment - MATE as it happens to be a fork of the original GNOME project.

MATE Desktop

On the Fedora Features list page MATE desktop has been listed as a 40% complete feature which means there is a good chance we will be able to see MATE on Fedora 18. MATE is already a very famous desktop environment thanks to Linux Mint which offers this DE as one of the available options to users.

From Installer perspective, the main dependencies of the MATE desktop are python, GTK2, automake, libtool, gettext and pkgconfig. However, as this DE will be pre-installed so you need not worry about the dependencies. Some of the applications on MATE are Caja - the file manager, Pluma - the text editor and Engrampa - the archive manager. More details about the inclusion of MATE on Fedora Linux can be found here - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MATE-Desktop