Welcome and Boutique missing in 24.10

[Brian Bogdan]

noticed that Welcome and Software boutigue are both not installed by default? I did run the snap install on both yet they will not launch. Below is the test output from caja for Welcome:

mickee@mickee-VirtualBox:~$ ubuntu-mate-welcome
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/snap/ubuntu-mate-welcome/726/usr/bin/ubuntu-mate-welcome", line 30, in <module>
    gi.require_version("WebKit2", "4.0")
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/__init__.py", line 125, in require_version
    raise ValueError('Namespace %s not available for version %s' %
ValueError: Namespace WebKit2 not available for version 4.0

here is the output of the boutique:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/snap/ubuntu-mate-welcome/726/usr/bin/ubuntu-mate-welcome", line 30, in <module>
    gi.require_version("WebKit2", "4.0")
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/__init__.py", line 125, in require_version
    raise ValueError('Namespace %s not available for version %s' %
ValueError: Namespace WebKit2 not available for version 4.0

did they discontinue these 2 applications?

[Ricardo Dias Marques (ricmarques)]

Hi, Brian Bogdan.

According to what I've found in the Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS ("Noble Numbat") Release Notes, the "Ubuntu MATE Welcome" app has been retired and the "Software Boutique" has been replaced by the "App Center", so I wouldn't expect them to appear or to work in the future Ubuntu MATE 24.10 ("Oracular Oriole") version (or in later versions of Ubuntu MATE).

From:

https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-noble-numbat-release-notes/

"
(...)
- Added App Center, that replaces Software Boutique.
- Retired Ubuntu MATE Welcome; although it is still available for Ubuntu MATE 23.10 and earlier."