Possible move to Tumbleweed: installer concerns, and its future move to Myrlyn and Cockpit

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Hi everyone, I’m new to the forum, but I’ve been using Linux exclusively for about a couple of years.

Like many before me, I’ve done a lot of distro-hopping, even trying Tumbleweed, which I have to say isn’t bad at all, but I’ve stuck with Arch and Debian.

For my computer usage and skills, Tumbleweed seems perfect: normal use, movies, videos, internet browsing, gaming via Steam or Lutris and Heroic, but not technical or power user use.

Let’s be clear: I can create an ISO file on a USB stick, I can assemble a PC myself, and I can almost always solve the most common problems myself, but I’m not a hardware or software expert.

I use Linux to be free from Windows, but I don’t want to be a “slave” to the hyper-skill required to manage a distro. In addition to a stable distro like Debian, I’d also like a rolling release, and Tumbleweed seems perfect for that: it’s a rolling release and is tailored for a regular user.

But here’s the crux of the post and my doubts:

  • I hope Tumbleweed still has Yast as the installer in its offline ISO. I tried Agama on a secondary computer running Leap 16, and honestly, I didn’t understand much, so I gave up on installing it. As an installer, I’d definitely prefer Yast or Calamares. What kind of installer does the Tumbleweed ISO have? From my research, it seems to still have Yast as the installer, do you agree?

  • If they switch to a modern graphical package manager like Myrlyn for package management, perhaps it will be easier to manage them. I hope it doesn’t add any difficulties, but it shouldn’t. What concerns me most is the move to Cockpit for system configuration (network, users, services): I wouldn’t want it to add the complexity, bugs, or configuration issues that I’m trying to avoid. As it is, Tumbleweed seems very convenient and not cumbersome to use; I doubt it could become too complex (at least not on my part).

In short, if Tumbleweed is great for the average user today, will it be the same in the future?

How will integrations be managed? I wouldn’t want to find myself having to troubleshoot a distro I’ve rarely used and don’t know well.

Thanks to everyone who replies.

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Welcome to the Forums!
The current Tumbleweed images still use the YaST installer (both the offline image and the net version).
You can download an Agama image that can be used to install Tumbleweed (and MicroOS…) but that is not what you get from get.opensuse.org .
Leap 16.0 uses an early version of Agama that was far from user friendly, but things are changing fast (Agama 22 to be released in the next few weeks?)

Myrlyn is basically a rewritten YaST Software Manager and has all the features needed to manage Tumbleweed and Leap.
Many YaST modules are still available in Tumbleweed, but some use old standards (for instance User management, Network, Firewall, AppArmor…) and are not recommended on a fresh install.
Cockpit is not cumbersome in my experience, maybe you are not aware of the new launcher; please see new-launcher-aims-to-simplify-cockpit-installations

I’m not sure to understand your other concerns, but maybe others know better…

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Thanks for the reply!

So, since those Yast modules are deprecated and will be replaced, should I basically skip a clean install of the system for now?

So, should I wait to install Tumbleweed?

My main concerns are that these new features that will be integrated could cause problems that I would struggle to solve, since for now it is a distribution that I have never used in depth and is foreign to me.

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May I suggest you install Tumbleweed in a Virtual Machine using your current distribution as host. Then, take your time to evaluate it.
Try to forget about YaST. Use Myrlyn and Cockpit to get familiar with the tools.

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No, just don’t rely too much on the YaST modules after the system is up and running.
The YaST installer basically uses the Partitioner, the Software Manager and possibly the Bootloader modules and several configuration scripts that you will not see; those three modules are still usable for system maintenance as well, but IMHO Myrlyn+Cockpit offer equivalent or better options.

Don’t confuse the “Installer” that you will use once (hopefully) with the daily maintenance tools.

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Okay, thanks for the clarification.

But will the new Myrlyn and Cockpit maintenance systems be present after installation, or will I have to install them myself?

Or will I have to, or can I, simply wait for them to be integrated into the system with future updates?

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If something is not installed, but available in the repos, you can install it anytime you want. There is no difference between distributions in this field…