I bit the bullet and I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon, first on my notebook (which I rarely use) for evaluation, then on my workstation at home and finally on my workstation at work.
I have been a loyal SuSE Linux user (later OpenSuse Leap) since 2003 but that has ended now.
I haven’t been an active forum member but I still want to thank you all for the assistance I received here during those years.
Best,
Teuniz
Sorry to see you go. I guess openSUSE, which I’ve been using since 2012, must have disappointed you.
It seems you’re not the only one who has recently decided to switch to another distribution.
Could you share your reasons with us, please?
Thank you.
Do we really need that? It’ll be more of the same: no YaST and so on. Just saying.
There is no more Yast in Mint than in Leap, so if that is the reason for Teuniz’s departure, then it would be nice if he explained how switching to Mint would improve his situation.
The only alternative to Yast is Cockpit, which is pretty good.
And it will surely improve, thanks to Yast, which is to serve as the basis for new features.
If it’s something else, then it would be good to let us know so that openSUSE can improve as a project, distribution and community.
I am still on Leap 15.6. I am afraid of upgrading to 16.0 very much. I have read and followed many news and such. And I guess most things would work OK. But I am really afraid of Leap 16 - Wann gibt es Updates?, i.e. Leap 16 - Wann gibt es Updates? - #11 by hui.
Why not test drive it in a VM first? I installed it as a VirtualBox guest - no showstoppers observed here. I also have Slowroll installed on a Dell laptop - that might also be a better fit for you?
I guess I would get a working upgrade, indeed, yes. But it seems, software is missing in 16.0 (that does exist in 15.6) or is more recent currently in 15.6 (than in 16.0). I will still wait a bit and see. If this issue gets solved, I try upgrading from 15.6 to 16.0. If not (the situation about existence or updates of software in 16.0 compared to 15.6), I might switch to Slowroll. Any way, I personally would like to stay with openSUSE and not completely switch. But right now, 16.0 does not seem appropriate (due to the issue mentioned above) to me, sorry. And I was of very high hopes, before. I am a bit disappointed, I must say.
It’s not just about Yast.
Why Linux Mint?
This is my personal opinion and I’m not asking anybody to agree with it.
Try Slowroll. IIRC there is even a migration path from Leap 15.6. Slowroll is a rolling distro like Tumbleweed, but it’s rolling a bit slower (delayed by 2-4 weeks or so), so the major problems that you might see in TW are already fixed by the updated packages reach Slowroll. I’ve been using it for almost a year now, and I am very impressed with its stability.
If you were running Aeon/Kalpa, it would be a flatpak (org.kicad.KiCad 9.0.6 is verified[org.kicad.KiCad/x86_64/stable]) so just use that on Leap?
Your not tied to btrfs, I run ext4 here on Tumbleweed… could use that on Leap if I felt the need, btrfs has lots of features?
So, now it’s released, folks get all grumpy, not like it’s been a long time in the making… Been using Cockpit here and a few command line tools, but that’s normal for me…
I don’t use Plasma, not my thing, too many bugs (based on Forum posts)? GNOME has been rock stable for me on Tumbleweed and Leap and on Wayland, but most of my Leap install are just multi-user… I posted a few screenshots of some test systems, still refining end use as just bringing online a Proliant ML150 Gen 9 to see what it’s like (it’s currently running GNOME for giggles on Nvidia even…)
It really depends on which YaST modules you are referring to. Many have become deprecated because they duplicated existing system tools, or became deprecated and no longer needed (like the old sound module), or have been replaced by modern upstream utilities. Other distros never had YaST at all, so Leap 16 is simply leaning on the same standard tools everyone else already uses rather than dropping functionality without alternatives.
That’s not openSUSE-specific — it’s an upstream KDE decision, and every distro inherits it.
The way I’m reading this, I don’t believe it true to any significant extent. Both Leap and Mint have minor releases. Mint typically has minors on intervals averaging 6 months, like Ubuntu, currently on a second minor version, 22.2. Its major versions are tied to Ubuntu LTS, which releases new major versions at 24 month intervals, every even year spring, so you can expect a new major 23.0 of Mint next mid to late summer, with a 22.3 expected some time in coming months. Full support for every Mint user is for two major versions, 4 years.
OTOH, Leap 15 had 6 minor versions at ~12 month intervals most times, so supported 7 years so far, with virtually 8 expected, from May 2018.
I know about SR. I have Leap as a regular system. And TW and SR for testing. I know the difference between TW/SR and Leap and the difference between TW and SR.
Well, I will wait a bit. See, what happens with Leap 16.0. Maybe, I would have to switch to SR then (rather that than TW).
…
I wanted to point out that it is not about YaST here with me… I loved YaST in the past. But I already tried Cockpit. And I read some news and forum posts about alternatives to YaST other than Cockpit. I also got notice about further changes of Leap 16.0. But I actually think, I really could get a “working” 16.0 system. — My point is the situation of existence or updates of software. Could be a reason to me for “Thank you and goodbye” (to SR at least, hopefully not leaving openSUSE fully).
For OpenSUSE, you need to perform the upgrade every 12 month to the next minor version in order to get the further support of the security/bug update. However, you don’t need to do this (upgrade to the next minor version) in Linux Mint to get the further support. That’s difference.
IME with 40+ installations on real hardware, for openSUSE, these operations have been relatively quick and simple upgrades. I rarely find fresh installations necessary, and always less convenient, even though YaST is clearly the best installer of any distro I’ve used.
This.
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Correct but it explains my decision to not go for a KDE/Plasma based distro.
Fair enough. Enjoy the choice.
So far, I prefer Apt over Zypper. And Linux Mint’s Software Manager is not bad. And Update Manager seems really nice, also for selecting alternative kernels. Added benefit with Linux Min/Ubuntu is that there are more and faster mirrors for repo’s and updates.
Leap 16 could have been released with a finished version of Myrlyn instead of cockpit if manpower should have been dedicated to Myrlyn instead of cockpit. This is one of the reasons I believe that SuSE doesn’t care much about desktop users anymore.
They want to duplicate Red Hat & Fedora, hence the name change for OpenSuse. They don’t want to be associated with amateurs/hobbyists/home users but they still need them as guinea pigs.
Hence the focus on tools that are usefull for server admins but no focus on tools for simple home or workstation use.
What don’t you like about this graphical software management utility?
