Noobie 1st openSUSE adventure / last week end

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Hi All

1st, congrats for the good work to all of you who have been maintaining openSUSE for a long time…

I’m near 60, been using computers / OSes / gadget since DOS LOL

Been an Apple evangelist then later on in my life security consultant in the Windows World

Last 20 years in the eMail security business and used Linux for I would guess at least 15 years.

Like most coming from the Mac, then Windows world, I tried a lot of Ubutu distros, Debians based distros and was using Arch Manjaro for at least 5 + years

Then came my son (1 week ago) who told me DAD you should give openSUSE a try, most people going to openSUSE are not coming back to their previous Linux OS.

Me : Isn’t it some linux distro for nerds and a bit complicated to manage ?

Him : no etc etc

MY QUESTION :
I 100% work from home or on the road, I need some reliable/Stable Laptop and desktop.

Is openSUSE TUmbleweed for very experienced LINUX guru or normal people ?

I moved both of my PC last week end to openSUSE and the upgrade process was a mess ( I know I know, bad timing). COuld not recover from it…

WHat happenned

  • 1st I installed Tumbleweed / KDE and add very few repos for missing app ( I’m a openSUSE noobie, may be I should have used FLatPak for what I "think " I was missing… )

  • some people here ( after I was able to access the forum, had problem with account creation) and on reddit told me “STOP you’re adding too many repos”, this one is dangerous ( MOzilla) etc. Installing missing codec for FIreFox to work is risky etc

  • I THEN decided to install a 2nd time both of my PCs as CLEAN AS POSSIBLE and install as less as possible extra repos. (may be 2 from what I remember)

Did a DUP upgrade onto my 2 new clean installs and BOOM, crashed both of my PC

My limited skills didn’t allowed me to come back from it

  • tried fixing errors during the update
  • as all know, the update process was stucked in a loop
  • tried to boot with Recovery options from GRUB

I needed both of my system to work on Monday so went back to manjaro.

IS THIS THE 1st time some Upgrade (DUP ) process mess up nooobie’s PC like this?

I would may be try to give it openSUSE again but want to try understand what happened, what was my mistake etc.

I tried may be 20 or more Linux OS (Debian, Arch etc) and never cashed my systems so fast and as bad as this…

Not complaint I know if’s a combination of lack of experience from my part, patience and bad timing …

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@yoda2025 What desktop environment are you using? If GNOME then suggest you give Aeon a try or if Plasma the Kalpa…

Yes, bad timing for a new install of Tubleweed…

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KDE is what I was using on Manjaro so went with it (Tumbleweed/KDE)

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@yoda2025 Then perhaps look at Kalpa then… Read-Only file system and use flatpaks. If staying with Tumbleweed, then I suggest flatpaks but only install as your user not system wide…

I use flatpaks mainly for multimedia needs like VLC and Handbrake.

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Welcome aboard @yoda2025 , even if temporarily :wink:
Tumbleweed is not for everybody, but with your background I would not be concerned (this is no ArchLinux :smiley: ). Using openSUSE/Leap/Tumbleweed for years here and no major incident in years, not even the mirror resync trouble that is heating up the Forums currently, been briefly on Ubuntu but came back as soon as my HW was supported.
You were very unlucky with your first “dup”, a major change to the zypper download strategy and a major outage with many mirrors not syncing, but that will sort out one way or another.
Then, coming from the Debian world, you should learn a few bits that are done differently here: don’t be afraid of asking here on the Forums, I bet you will be surprised by our community.
The main choice you have to make:

  • use Leap if you don’t need the bleeding edge and look for more stability (as in fewer updates, mainly security or bugfixes);
  • use Tumbleweed (or derivatives like Slowroll) if you like/need up to date packages, but be prepared to upgrade weekly and expect the occasional glitch, but as already written, no major incident here in years just using a bit of system discipline.
    Using a pretty standard Tumbleweed / Gnome with only a couple of proprietary video drivers and codecs here as my daily driver.
    Once we better understand your real needs we may be able to offer better guidance, as @malcolmlewis already tried.
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TKs for the complete and nice reply @OrsoBruno !

Your time is much appreciated.

Your nick name is funny, I’ve got a 2 years old grand son and have been reading to him some kid stories about " ORSO BRUNO " LOL Guessing orso is bear LOL ? (didn’t checked) in french the word orso sounds like " ours " (bear)

I tried different Desktop Environment on all the distros I tried along the years and for now, will stick to KDE/Tumbleweed. I must admit I always liked GNOME too

I am planning to reinstall Tumbleweed on my laptop 1st (my desktop is business critical to me) as soon as everything is good on the openSUSE side, and try again openSUSE Tumbleweed on the desktop after running it on the laptop for a while( this time :wink: not both at the same time)

Tks for mentioning Slowroll, I will read about it…

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Laptop first / business second looks as a sound strategy.
Tumbleweed / KDE is the most widespread in use here, so you will attract a lot of helpers if needed. Basically, Slowroll is a sibling to Tumbleweed that receives a major upgrade once a month or so, with only security fixes in between, while Tumbleweed might receive a major upgrade any day.
Then there are specialized versions like Kalpa or Leap Micro, with unique system features, but those have a smaller user base and a smaller base of helpers too, even if those few might be among the best in term of sysadmin experience.

And, BTW, “orso” is the Italian for “bear” and the “orso bruno” is the kind of bear that we may (very occasionally, thankfully) encounter in Northern Italy.

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