List of Linux distributions based on Ubuntu GNU / Linux, officially recognized by Canonical, the project added Ubuntu MATE.
As you can guess by the name of the distribution, the main difference between Ubuntu MATE other editions based on Ubuntu (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.) – Use as a base MATE desktop environment. MATE – a fork of GNOME 2.x, the development of which began after the release of GNOME 3 interface with the new GNOME Shell, has angered a large number of users.
The adoption of Ubuntu MATE in the “family” of Ubuntu will change little for the end user – unless installation image will now be posted on the project site is not, and the primary server Ubuntu. At the same time, project developers get a lot of benefits associated with access to the infrastructure of Canonical. At the moment, the existing version of Ubuntu MATE (14.04 LTS and 14.10) do not have “official” status but the next release (15.04) will already have it.