This doesn’t look like the correct subforum, but I cannot find one that fits better:
I’ve been using opensuse for some times, always using the main release, regularly upgrading as new versions become available, but the roadmap page is no longer showing any info on any intention to make a new release, plus I’ve read in various forum posts that Tumbleweed is taking over. I’ve wondered about swapping to Tumbleweed, but one of my main uses of opensuse is for a TV recorder that I build automatically using kiwi. To do that, I rely on nvidia’s video drivers. I’ve read that I shouldn’t use Tumbleweed if I rely on propriatory drivers, so I’m wondering what I should do.
Perhaps there is a new fixed release in the pipeline and it’s just that the roadmap hasn’t been updated. Anyone know?
Yes, relying on proprietay drivers is not really recommended in Tumbleweed, unless you know what you are doing.
Because of the recent changes, you’ll have to reinstall the driver very often, and it’s not guaranteed at all that the driver works when a new kernel or Xorg is released. It might take some time until nvidia makes the driver compatible to the new versions.
Perhaps there is a new fixed release in the pipeline and it’s just that the roadmap hasn’t been updated. Anyone know?
Yes there is: openSUSE Leap 42.1, partly based on SLES12.
The release is planned for November.
There might also be a 13.3 release based on Tumbleweed (like 13.1 and 13.2) at some point, but that has not been decided yet.
OTOH, why not just stay with 13.2? That’s still supported and will be for about 1.5 years, or 13.1 which will be supported by Evergreen after its official support ends some time next year.
I have 13.2 and Tumbleweed and I can use Kaffeine and VLC for TV - Kaffeine will record. The TV program I mainly use (and it records well) is Myth. They all operate well with Nouveau. So I stopped using the Nvidia driver some time ago.
It’s not quite the same as you say you build your own recorder, but it may be worth a try if you want to go with Tumbleweed.
Thanks for the info wolfi323. I’m happy to stay on 13.2 for now. It was just thinking long term, worrying that 13.2 might be the end of the line for such releases.
Leap 42.1 might not work well for me. I use a git repo for the config of one of my machines and that works cleanly only because the changes from one version of opensuse to the next are not usually huge. I worry that the jump form 13.2 to Leap 42.1 might make my config reapply badly. I hope there will be a 13.3. I’d have thought it would be less work these days if based on Tumbleweed.
peteh100: I use MythTV too, but my frontend is a little Zotac zbox. They cannot decode HD without using the nvidia drivers.
Leap 42.1 might not work well for me. I use a git repo for the config of one of my machines and that works cleanly only because the changes from one version of opensuse to the next are not usually huge. I worry that the jump form 13.2 to Leap 42.1 might make my config reapply badly.
Why should the jump from 13.2 to Leap 42.1 be bigger than a jump to 13.3 would be?
Actually it will probably be smaller, as SLE12 contains older packages than current Tumbleweed.
Many (most?) packages of Leap 42.1 will come from Tumbleweed anyway.
I hope there will be a 13.3. I’d have thought it would be less work these days if based on Tumbleweed.
Yes, you’d basically just have to branch it. Not really different to the previous releases, but testing is much better now in Tumbleweed and it is supposed to be stable/working all the time so there shouldn’t be any problems, and you wouldn’t really need a Beta phase either I suppose.
But then, a big part of Leap 42.1 will be based on Tumbleweed too, and SLE is of course also based on Tumbleweed (just an older snapshot).