It’s been a while since I have upgraded my system, I’m still running 15.3 and it runs perfect so always been hesitant to mess with success, but I know things are way out of date at this point.
I have always opted to do a fresh install rather than an update since I have my system partioned that I can format O/S and root without impacting any of my specific data.
My question at this point I guess is more of an opinion, should I do a fresh install of the current 15.6 and all the pain a fresh install entails or just wait at this point for 16.0 due out later 2025.
I’ll be brief, cause this subject is mostly opinion, but there are technical aspects.
We always run the most current release of an OS and software running on it. This ensures the most current versions are running. Plus, there are security reasons for staying up to date.
It took us about 15-20 minutes to install 15.6 afresh on all our machines. (they were all previously running Tumbleweed). No “pain” involved or experienced.
When 16 is released, we’ll install afresh to all machines. (currently running 16-alpha in a VirtualBox VM).
Everyone has their own tolerance level regarding what they are comfortable using. (sidenote: retired software engineer here, plus a retired software manager - both of us are more comfortable running current software).
As you are still on 15.3, I would say upgrade to 15.6 because the ‘leap’ to 16.0 will be bigger as it will include Plasma6 (if you use Plasma 5 that will be some difference). I find that I check how a new leap version behaves in a virtual machine before I deploy it. Leap i use for servers only Tumbleweed as my daily driver.
As @myswtest says it is mostly subjective however you need to keep in mind that 15.3 has been End Of Life for some time now. So if the system is hooked to the internet it could feel as working perfectly but with no updates it would pose a problem sooner or later. This of course in a certain sense also subjective but I feel it has some objectivity as well.
No scheduled LTS releases yet. If distributions find LTS releases useful, we will schedule those in close cooperation with the corresponding distributions.
I am using Leap 15.6 since a week after it had been released with Gnome.
Experiences so far:
Very robust and reliable;
Via Flatpak all software desired by me is easy to install;
On installation upgrades failed and i was forced to a full installation including format of all(!) my partitions involved in the installation including $Home - so better having private data on third partitions for being mounted after installation into $Home.
If you want that your (open-)SUSE Linux still receive security updates in 2026 you must change to Leap 16.0 (or to an other linux distribution) or you pay money for a SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop standard subscription (SLED 15.7).
Dream on. SUSE will stop at 2025-12-31 to deliver any security update for the shared codebase.
Are you patching in future (2026) free of charge all known security holes in the shared codebase of Leap 15.6?
I took the plunge and updated to 15.6 as a clean formatted install. Went well overall except Wayland sucks (running KDE Plasma Desktop) and it was a little struggle getting the system to use the NVIDIA proprietary, definitely not as easy as prior releases on that. Everything else is good so far.
Thanks to you and all for the insights and opinions. I’ve been using SuSE since version 4 (I dunno, 1994?)
