I have been away for a while, and I want to return. I see that SlowRoll is still labeled ‘experimental’. Is that because OpenSuse has not decided to commit to it or because it is not yet reliable? I am interested in SlowRoll and I’d like to know whether many people (any people?) are using it as their main OS.
You can find the answer searching the forum:
I’ve just started using Slowroll on a laptop that previously had Windows 10 installed — I finally ditched it a few weeks ago. On my other machines, including dual-boot setups and some running as VM guests, I’d stuck with Leap. What I like about Slowroll is its relatively sane rolling upgrade frequency compared to Tumbleweed. The more deliberate upgrade cadence aligns well with my comfort zone. It still provides reasonably up-to-date openSUSE packages, while benefiting from the QA and stabilization work already done in Tumbleweed.
IMHO, I’d recommend it over Tumbleweed for new users.
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What is the best strategy to switch to SlowRoll? With TW I normally have newer apps than on SR. Sometimes this could lead into some problems with settings. Should I stop doing updates until the next version of SR is published?
Slowroll is great. Been using it for some time now on my work laptop and I can’t complain with anything really. Super stable and perfect for fewer updates compared to tumbleweed.
Since I only use it for work, I mostly don’t need too many applications on it, so I can’t really comment on the availability (or lack thereof) for some applications. I read somewhere, that not every app is supported by slowroll, but I have yet to encounter one for myself.
You might consider the openSUSE Migration Tool - more info here:
This seams not to be an option. From known issues:
Migration from Tumbleweed (rolling) to any point release is not possible as it's effectively a downgrade.
Slowroll is no point release but also a (slower rolling) rolling release. From the support page:
Intended supported scenarios
Leap -> Leap n+1, Leap -> SLES, Leap -> Tumbleweed, Leap -> Slowroll
Leap Micro -> Leap Micro n+1, Leap Micro -> MicroOS
Slowroll -> Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed -> Slowroll
Did you read the section:
Intended supported scenarios
( snipped other choices … )
Slowroll → Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed → Slowroll
… end quote
The last scenario seems appropriate 
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Oh, sorry, my mistake. What exactly does this tool do?
The problem is probably mainly with KDE apps. If TW has already installed a new KDE version but SL hasn’t, there will be problems. Or with apps like Firefox and Thunderbird. I tried it once, and there were problems with the Thunderbird profile.
So my idea was to not install any updates for TW for a few weeks until SL gets a new update.
Well, the website I provided describes its purpose 
It’s used to migrate from one “distro” to another. To quote from another webpage:
“As part of Hackweek 24, the opensuse-migration-tool was introduced. This tool supports both standard release upgrades and cross-distribution migrations (e.g. from Leap to SLES or Leap to Slowroll or Tumbleweed).”
I used it to migrate a Leap 15.6 install to Leap 16 Beta, because the new installer (agama) is lacking and buggy.
The “other” webpage:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade#Upgrade_using_opensuse-migration-tool
Tumbleweed is my main OS.
I have Slowroll separately installed to an external and bootable USB solid state drive, using kernel-longterm. I’ve been using it since Slowroll was first introduced. I’m pleased with it.
Sorry, English is not my first language. I have read the description. But how does the tool work? I mean, switching to an older version of an app is problematic.
There is an official instruction to switch from TW to SL (change repositories and so on). What does the tool in addition?
I tested the dry-run:
Would execute: echo Migrating to openSUSE Tumbleweed-Slowroll
Would execute: zypper addrepo -f https://download.opensuse.org/slowroll/repo/oss/ tmp-migration-tool-repo
Would execute: zypper in -y --from tmp-migration-tool-repo openSUSE-repos-Slowroll
Would execute: zypper removerepo tmp-migration-tool-repo
Would execute: zypper refs
Would execute: zypper dup -y --force-resolution --allow-vendor-change --download in-advance
Migration process completed. A reboot is recommended.
So, there is no real benefit using this tool.
As described in the linked SDB:
It installs the appropriate repository definitions from the target release and then executes zypper dup to perform the upgrade.
As some users even struggle to setup the correct repos, this tool does exactly this…
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Ok, that doesn’t answer my original question: best strategy to switch to SlowRoll to prevent problems with newer settings for older apps.
I just tested this again, this time I had problems with kwallet. So I rollback my system.
Maybe I should test my strategy: Don’t update the next few weeks until there is a new SL-Release.
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IMHO that would be a good approach, if that makes you feel more comfortable. Given the cadence I see on the mailing list, Id say a month would be a fair amount of time.
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