Hi there,
First of all I’m currently not an openSUSE user. I’m a Ubuntu (more precisely Kubuntu) user that is thinking that in a next time that I have the time and patience to format my PC I might put openSUSE alongside Windows 8, instead of my current Windows 8 + Kubuntu setup. Even though Ubuntu seems to be more mainstream, which is good in terms of a bigger community and sometimes faster access to new software. However I sometimes feel that even using PPAs some upstream releases take too much time to be available (I know that I can just build stuff myself but I prefer to have repositories that deliver me the latest stuff). That’s why I’m thinking of switching to openSUSE Tumbleweed (or at the very least to a 12.2 with some extra repositories). I really like your software search website (software.opensuse.org: Search) and if it was better integrated into YaST it would just be nearly perfect.
However there is stuff that still takes some time to get to Tumbleweed, for example newer GNOME and KDE releases. Or even Transmission that it’s at version 2.60. However there’s usually repositories with the latest stuff but many are only for normal releases and not for Tumbleweed. For example, GNOME:Apps which has the latest version of Transmission (2.76 as of this post) it’s only available for 12.2. Can/should I add this kind of repository to a Tumbleweed release, that uses the current stable release of openSUSE as basis (12.2 right now)? Would it, in principle, cause any problem? And what if later Tumbleweed moves to a 12.3 base? Would I have any problem? Couldn’t I just remove the old 12.2 repositories and eventually replace them with 12.3 ones (once they become available with newer stuff)?
So is this kind of use of Tumbleweed relatively safe and recommended? Or is it just better to stick with 12.2 and just add this repositories? And when if I do so how are these repositories dealt with when I upgrade from 12.2 to 12.3?
Sorry for the long post… just trying to know what’s the best way to use openSUSE to keep myself up to date and at the same time relatively stable. Any tips you can share?
Nothing is going to be more stable than sticking with the default openSUSE repositories with only the Packman one added. There is no substitute for the effort required to get an openSUSE release out the door with everything working. If you want to be on the bleeding edge and realize that a thing or two might be wrong when using Tumbleweed, then go for it. Read about how to use and upgrade to Tumbleweed here:
If you want the very latest KDE or GNOME desktop, you can always add in their dedicated repository and switch to it. You are always taking a chance when you do this, but it is done and more often than not, everything works out. What I see in the way of issues is that perhaps default icons might not be right, or perhaps drag and drop is not working properly. Seldom do problems blow up your installation, but if tiny details being wrong bother you, you need to stick with the openSUSE 12.2 mainline. Right now I use openSUSE 12.2 standard release, I have switched to/added the Printing repository over the default due to an issue with hplib, but otherwise I use the default with All of Packman added for Multimedia. I normally suggest adding in Packman with Tumbleweed as well as they include one for Tumbleweed.
Sure. I’m not expecting to have an experience as stable as vanilla openSUSE 12.2. It’s ok to have minor issues. I just want to know what’s the best approach to keep up to to date with the upstream projects I care the most and if using Tumbleweed as a base with 12.2 repos when no specific Tumbleweed repositories are available is a good idea or a very bad one?
Generally this is not a good idea.
First of all, Tumbleweed is not meant to be a “latest & greatest” repository, but a base for a rolling release.
Second, what’s the importance of a running system to you? This weekend I installed the KDE 4.10 RC2 packages on my Tumbleweed, and it works (on my laptop, with what already was installed on my laptop), but I’ve known enough sandboxing experiments that led to an unstable system. No issues in my case, there’s the backup SSD, but most of the time you will not be sandboxing, you want a properly running system.
Third, think about what you want from upstream, latest version numbers, testing, or features your versions don’t yet have?
My advice: install 12.2, get used to openSUSE.
So it’s probably better to use openSUSE 12.2 as a base and add extra repositories as desired, and later update to 12.3 when it’s released, than using Tumbleweed. Right?
My idea was that if some stuff is already on Tumbleweed I wouln’t need to add it as separate repository, however most of “official community” repositories I see (such as from the GNOME and KDE teams) are targeted to stable releases (12.2 and older) instead of Tumbleweed. Also, it would be cool to have a rolling distro a bit like Arch ;). But since some repositories would have to manually changed everytime Tumbleweed moves from one base release to another (right?) it would not be really rolling.
Ohh it’s probably better to stick with the base for which those repositories were developed once I install openSUSE on my system, even though Tumbleweed it’s basicly the latest stable release (12.2 right now) + extra packages.
As it openSUSE with its current 8 months release cycle rolls fast enough for me
So it’s probably better to use openSUSE 12.2 as a base and add extra repositories as desired, and later update to 12.3 when it’s released, than using Tumbleweed.Right
I would suggest that once you get used to zypper and YaST you may try out Tumbleweed. Tumbleweed piggybacks on current stable release. Hence it is a partial rolling release.
You would need to change the repos after each openSUSE release. For example when 12.3 comes out you need 12.3 repos along with Tumbelweed repos to get updates. Yes it is confusing.
