I should like to know a bit more about when openSUSE Leap 42.2 official repositories follow “outside” updates for important apps.
I trust Firefox is kept current at all times.
Oracle VirtualBox: Happy to see v 5.1.18 (March '17) in the repo. When will Leap usually follow Oracle, who published 5.1.20 this April?
KDE Krusader: To me the best OFM following Windows’ TotalCommander. With v 2.5.0, Krusader went from KDE 4 to KDE 5 after lengthy development. This April, there is Krusader 2.6.0 following quite quickly, which is an important bug fix release. Any prospects for it to reach Leap 42.2?
I do understand quite well what a task it is to keep repos updated. But anyway, I - and hopefully others - do consider apps like the ones mentioned “important”.
You talk about “official” repos. That is only OSS, non-OSS, Update and Update non-OSS.
The first two (where the distribution is on), are normally NOT changed during the lifetime of the version.
The Update repos are for Security and Recommended paches. That includes e.g. security patches that may be offered for newer versions of a package then the one that officialy belongs to the particular openSUSE version (and that is in the OSS repo). Such a patch will be backported to the official version ad that patch will be offered to you in the Update repo.
Thus is is very normal that a security patch that is created upstream for a newer version (and not created upstream for the version that is in openSUSE) is nevertheless in your installed version.
When you do zypper patch (or similar) on a regular base, you will be rather secure.
Whether there is what looks somewhat like an automated or semi-automated way of accepting updated source
Where packaging is done, sometimes it appears that some packages might be at least partially assembled before openSUSE/SUSE sees the updates
Whether people associated with SUSE or with a strong interest in SUSE are working upstream in the channel or not (actively submit updates to openSUSE/SUSE from elsewhere)
Whether a person (or multiple assigned persons) “sit” on that particular project or not.
If no one is actively monitoring that particular project, whether <you> (The community of Users) submit update requests to bugzilla or not.
That last one is one where every User in these Forums can actively contribute with little technical ability (although in many cases can be helpful). If anyone runs into an application which isn’t up to date and have verified it’s not available not only in the default OSS but also in any special repositories (search https://software.opensuse.org and maybe search https://download.opensuse.org/repositories), then a feature request to package the newer version should be submitted so that not only you, but everyone who follows you can benefit.
Thank you, Henk and TSU, for your helpful comments. In the meantime, I have familiarized myself more with the concepts of openSUSE and the repos. What I did now is install Leap 42.2 and Tumbleweed (and actually also Linux Mint) in a multi-boot setting. I do like openSUSE with the KDE desktop / app collection MOST of all Linux distros I tested. And having Tumbleweed besides Leap gives me the chance to check out newer versions of any software.
PS: Fortunately, my machine (HP EliteBook 8560w from the Windows-7 era) does well with openSUSE. It actually is very stubborn regarding UEFI booting in general and multi-booting with Windows (10) in particular, but I had managed that before. For all comrades with such a or similar machine, head on over to the Linux Mint forum for both BIOS/GPT and UEFI solutions.