Hi there!
So I was interested in trying MATE desktop over pixel, and I noted that when I switched over my Wifi and bluetooth icons were missing in my system tray. Does anyone know how to get these items back?
Update: Running sudo apt install network-manager-gnome seems to give you the network icon, but it says devices not ready. Still not sure about Bluetooth. I also noted that half the screen (after it’s rotated) seems to not update correctly. Not sure what’s up with that. 
Update 2: Running sudo systemctl disable dhcpcd and sudo /etc/init.d/dhcpcd stop takes care of network manager I think. But it’s still a deal breaker considering half the screen seems to have refresh issues.
i was interested in running MATE, it sounds like gnome 2 is a bit much for the videocore VI… Xfce seems like the best thing… did you try to OC the gpu?
I didn’t try overclocking anything yet. Do you know how you can install stock XFCE? I was hoping that maybe the default XFCE skin is a bit more pretty than the stock PIXEL one. But of course, MATE would be ideal 
well, bring up terminal and…
basic
sudo apt-get install xfce4
xubuntu
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
should work for you if you got the wifi back up…
or if you have mate running… you should have the ubuntu app store… and xfce is right in it…
or “package manager” if you want…
there are quite a few ways to do things based on setup…
also… stock videocore VI is like 500mhz… you can crank it to like 700mhz…
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/overclocking-raspberry-pi-compute-module-4
just remember you have passive cooling… so don’t fry things…
Edit: OR you can just customize the “look” yourself of the original debian pixel desktop by editing all the aspects of the desktop… custom images… like themes are all available… it aint a mac… you can change ANYTHING… what your enviroment does is just effect how the windows stack and act…
edit2: problably good to just follow these step by step