When comparing Ubuntu MATE vs Funtoo, the Slant community recommends Funtoo for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for desktops?” Funtoo is ranked 32nd while Ubuntu MATE is ranked 73rd. The most important reason people chose Funtoo is:
The profile system improves portage's usability without losing the soul of Gentoo.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Simplicity of Gnome with the power of Ubuntu
Debian was good to use but has limited documentation and is difficult to pick up. Ubuntu MATE brings the ease of design and logic of the Gnome 2 style desktop so it's easy to get around coupled with the vast documentation, forums and ease of learning/using the Ubuntu system.
Pro Works great on old laptops
It does not have a lot of system requirements so it works pretty well even on older laptops.
Pro Perfect for people who like Gnome 2
The goal of MATE is to maintain the look and feel of Gnome 2, while maintaining compatibility with Gnome 3. To that end, it has also forked and renamed many of Gnome's core applications. It benefits from the years of work and polish that have gone into the Gnome project.
Pro Highly configurable
Comes with an option to configure as Windows-like, Mac-like, Gnome-like, etc. in a single click. Wonderful to get you started without having to learn it all from scratch.
Pro Behaves like Ubuntu with Unity - after Ubuntu-Gnome transformation
No better place to continue Unity experience with Ubuntu (Left-side panel, HUD) and not as awkward as Gnome.
Pro Based on Ubuntu
Pro Like Gentoo but more streamlined
The profile system improves portage's usability without losing the soul of Gentoo.
Pro Use flags that are suitable for a task or environment are grouped into Profiles
It allows selecting, for example, gnome or desktop profile with most of the sane use flags enabled inside the profile.
Pro Portage tree split into kits
This allows more fine-grained control over package updates, and packages can be now tied together inside the kit to minimize dependency breakage while upgrading.
Pro `boot-update` to take care of bootloader configuration
A tool to update your grub config.
Pro Funtoo Linux offers a variety of stage3 builds
Customized to a variety of CPU microarchitecture variants from AMD, ARM, and Intel.
Pro Stage3 sources are built using the Funtoo Linux tool 'metro'
It's a sophisticated replacement for Gentoo's build tool 'catalyst'.
Pro Uses GIt instead of Rsync
THis makes updates so much faster!
Pro Stage3 archive coming with pre-compiled kernel based on Debian's kernel
Pro Simpler template-based network configuration
Cons
Con No very good Software Center by default
The Software Boutique is not good. You can install Gnome Software from it.
Con Too much bloat included by default
Con Redundant
There is absolutely no reason to install it, since it uses the same package repositories as Ubuntu and you can transform any Ubuntu install into a Ubuntu MATE install.
Con Not bleeding edge
Users who want the latest and greatest software would be happier using Arch Linux, Antergos or another rolling release distro. However, because Ubuntu MATE is based on Ubuntu, users still have access to a large repository of recent software.