I came across a raddit discussion that speculated on the end of traditional openSUSE Leap releases, with Leap 15.5 being the final desktop release. Is this true?
I’ve been using Leap for a long time and prefer it over Debian or other Debian-based distributions because I like the installer and the user control it provides. The ALP concept is not suitable for my needs.
The OpenSUSE weekly report stated that 15.6 will start after 15.5 is released.
I too, do not like ALP. I do not like btrfs and do not like Gnome and KDE. I like ext4 file systems and MATE (gnome 2). MATE because it looks like Windows XP. I am old and dislike change for the sake of change that many Linux versions have headed toward.
SLES users (which pay for most of what becomes OpenSUSE) have wanted ALP for decades. They think rollback is the solution for bad testing and eliminating backups. ALP does make some sense for servers behind close doors, but most OpenSUSE users are not running servers but have abandoned Microsoft Windows for various reasons. (I disliked VIsta and left and never looked back, I do have a Windows 10 and Windows 11 VirtualBox machine because many of my friends still need help on Windows).
Rollbacks to not solve failed disks and proper testing with Alpha, Beta and Gold for rollouts were created because things go wrong that were not thought or understood.
My 2 cents. I also may be wrong.
My worry is that the rpm packaging requirements discourage relocatable packages, and you can’t do much in an immutable /usr. I’ve tried btrfs on Tumbleweed LVM; there are performance advantages, but the LVM has its own downsides, such as irrecoverable data. SUSE has characteristics that other distributions lack, and I hope Leap remains relevant in the future.
@larryr AFAIK it would likely be an XFCE setup (See the Factory Mailing List thread). It’s about 18 months in to the process (my first time playing with ALP/MicroOS ). I have some minor issues with spinning up vagrant images (with the change from wicked to NetworkManager), got my head around both ignition and combustion to configure before going read-only. My needs are simple from a server prospective and at this point when Leap 15.5 finishes should be good to go with either MicroOS or Tumbleweed.
Home laptop runs MicroOS Aeon, works fine with flatpaks for those needs and pretty much zero input from me since it’s been installed…
Suggest you look at Tumbleweed for me it’s been rock solid…
@coldboot step up and go offer to help the folks that wish to make this happen…?
What do you mean can’t do anything in /usr? Have you tried MicroOS?
I can install rpms, I can install run files, I have k3s running, serving up a Rancher instance.
Ideally one should deploy podman workloads, but that’s WiP 
since there is still lots of time for testing…
I use Tumbleweed as well, but there are occasions when NVIDIA has serious issues following a major kernel release. Also, due to Nokogiri warnings and such, I frequently need to run applications with a redirect for standard output and standard error. The warnings doesn’t hurt but distorts the prompt. For the sake of stability, I truly hope Leap gets a new lease on life.
@coldboot I use the run file here for Tumbleweed, never misses a beat…
inxi -Gz
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA TU117GLM [Quadro T400 Mobile] driver: nvidia v: 535.43.02
Device-2: NVIDIA GP104GL [Tesla P4] driver: nvidia v: 535.43.02
Display: server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 23.1.1 driver: X:
loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
2: 1920x1080~60Hz 3: 1920x1080~60Hz 4: N/A
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.43.02 renderer: NVIDIA T400/PCIe/SSE2
switcherooctl inxi -Gz
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA TU117GLM [Quadro T400 Mobile] driver: nvidia v: 535.43.02
Device-2: NVIDIA GP104GL [Tesla P4] driver: nvidia v: 535.43.02
Display: server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 23.1.1 driver: X:
loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
2: 1920x1080~60Hz 3: 1920x1080~60Hz 4: N/A
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.43.02 renderer: Tesla P4/PCIe/SSE2
I am willing to assist if someone informs me what needs to be done; I will make time and participate. I tried MicroOS, however it does not meet my requirements. There is a lot of conjecture on social media about ALP being immutable and only /home and /var being writable, but there is no clear indication as to whether this is true or not. I understand the podman concept and have used it for building RPM and web applications, however it adds complexity. I believe the project’s developers intend to dockerize everything, but it is not appropriate for someone who builds products using machines.
I did it before the Debian installer nuked my Tumbleweed btrfs LVM, and I might do it again. Thanks for the tip.
@coldboot distrobox is there to run anything you want as your user…
Nice, I will set that up now. Thank you.
@coldboot also see this thread: https://forums.opensuse.org/t/the-future-of-leap/166123 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKYLF1tA4Ik
What Leap (or Leap’s Successor) is going to look like is still up in the air, it’s in active development, and ultimately, it’s going to be what the people putting in the work make of it.
It’s as simple as that.
SUSE is moving to basing SLE on the the ALP structure. To the best of my knowledge, SUSE has no financial reason to be putting resources into Leap/Leap Successor, and the community has to decide what to do with the Sources/Structure that SUSE is providing. It could theoretically look like what Leap currently is, it could look more like MicroOS, those decisions haven’t been made.
Please keep in mind, SUSE the corporation != openSUSE. There is no group within SUSE that says “Leap will be $X” That’s not how it works, and to some extent I would say the corporation, in large part, doesn’t care one way or the other about Leap.
The current discussion about the future of Leap is happening on the -Factory mailing list:
openSUSE ALP: Call for Volunteers
Disclaimer: I am not a SUSE employee (nor have I ever been), nor do I have any special insider knowledge. These are my own personal observations, informed by being around the project for a number of years. It’s entirely possible that my observations are limited in scope, or even flat out wrong.
When attempting to install MicroOS in KVM, there is no wicked package. Dealing with NetworkManager is a chore.
@coldboot it’s just a simple text file… you can create in situ, scp over however you want it
cat /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/enp1s0.nmconnection
[connection]
id=enp1s0
permissions=
interface-name=enp1s0
type=ethernet
[ipv4]
method=manual
address1=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/24
gateway=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
dns=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx;xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Combustion deployment called static.ip.nmconnection;
[connection]
id=static-ip
type=ethernet
interface-name=enp1s0
[ipv4]
address1=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/24,xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx <<this is the gateway address
dns=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx;xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx;
dns-search=example.com;
method=manual
[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
method=disabled
Okay, I’ll give it a go.
@coldboot start a new thread in the technical forums if you have further questions
My thanks to malcomlewis for taking the time to send me an email addressing this same topic. Unfortunately I am not as zealous as he enough to track it down and properly thank him there lol.
15.6 announce here
When opensuse leap 15 6 will be the final version i will move to linux mint.