Are the MATE components of 21.3 Mint MATE supported until 2027

[oldguy327]

As the subject says, are the MATE components of 21.3 Linux Mint Mate supported until 2027? Ubuntu Mate only has two years of support from the Mate community so 22.04 is out. Ubuntu Mate 24.04 and Linux Mint Mate 22.3 both have a problem with Caja that posts errors at about 4KB every one or two seconds under certain circumstances. So the only viable options I can find are Mint Mate 21.3 and Ubuntu Mate 25.10 (runs out in mid 2026). Pasting Mate on top of Cinnamon 22.3 or LMDE 7 results in some tasks that require a file browser opening Nemo and some opening Caja. And LMDE 7/Mate has issues with managing user accounts as well.

[MiZoG]

Well Mate maintenance on Debian/Ubuntu has not been - to put mildly - in a very good state for a long time
but things are looking up with Mate 1.28 landing - at last - to Ubuntu repos.
I would expect nothing else than patching the most severe security vulnerabilities for Mate in currently supported distributions.
Waiting for Ubuntu LTS 26.04 / Mint 23.x I believe is your only option for everything else.

[Hoser Rob]

.... Pasting Mate on top of Cinnamon 22.3 or LMDE 7 results in some tasks that require a file browser opening Nemo and some opening Caja. ..

That's not a Mate problem per se. Installing more than one desktop environment tends to cause problems like that. They may not pop up immediately, which makes the problem worse. Diagnosing those problems is just about impossible so the only fix is a timeshift snapshot from before you messed up the system or a clean reinstall. Anyone who tells you that installing multiple DEs is safe doesn't have a clue about Linux.