> I am guessing that because CentOS releases only every 3-5 years, > people forget how much work is done at the beginning of every release. > First there is a lack of packages available. Then there is the > complaining that the OS is useless because it doesn't have ABC. Then > there is finding the people who are challenged enough by the lack of > packages to go learn how to package up stuff and make it available. > Then there is a section where packages get uniform and together. Then > things pretty much stay at that until the next CentOS major release... > people either decide they want to skip to the next or just wait it > out. > > So currently we are in the finding out the lack of packages and the > complaining stage. The real challenge will be finding the people who > see that as a challenge versus a show-stopper and do the next steps. > Surely this is exactly what the SIGs and CentOS Stream are for: developing and contributing to the forthcoming releases of RHEL/CentOS. If Mate or whatever is so important to you, then get involved in the relevant SIG - which in this case is probably https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AlternativeDesktop personally, and I know this seems a bit heretic around here, but I actually like Gnome. P.