I have been wondering about a thing here. Why leap for regular desktop usage? Why not use debian? Can you do the regular essentials of desktop usage, the usual say… libreoffice, OBS, image editing with gimp, use proton with steam to play windows games reasonably well? The repo packages do not need to be the most up to date but they do need to work reliably. But at that point it seems debian wins by having a huge repo compared to rpm.
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Answers are likely to be subjective, but to start with - openSUSE Leap shares much of its core with SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE). That means large parts of the base system are enterprise-tested and maintained for production environments. Also, openSUSE has the Open Build Service ecosystem, which allows community packages to be built and distributed easily, so that effectively expands the available software beyond the official repos.
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RPM is a package format, not a distribution. 
The openSUSE repos have a lot in them, and through trusted repos like Packman, you get even more. The official repos go through an OpenQA process as well, so the builds are generally well-tested (I don’t know how other distros handle this, and I’m not saying that the Debian or other distros’ repos are unreliable).
Leap is fine for the things you asked about - yes, all of these things should work just fine regardless of distribution, really.
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Why not? Using Leap (and forerunners) for years on end for just “normal” desktop usage in the family. Debian? I do not know. Why should I even go and test it? Like I do not run around and visit car dealers to test brands of cars. I have a car and it fulfills my needs.
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I am using Leap and its predecessors as a desktop system (window managers, no desktop environment though) exclusively since nearly 20 years for everything I need to do (I am not interested in gaming). Works fine. Slightly more difficult in recent years, but the two problems which occurred (graphics, S4) were solvable with a little effort eventually.
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BTW, this not asking for technical help, it should be in Open chat IMO.
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It combines the best of three worlds:
*n*x-inspired power 
, open-source tool chains, and daily work (email, web, office)
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Adding OBS and plain directory repo is easy.
Snapper can provide an extra layer of protection if you tweaks a lot.
And Debian has the weird behavior of starting a service right after installation, before I configure it.
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Hello. I think this is one of the main reasons for using openSUSE Leap. For production environments, you have a distribution that shares its code with SLE.
I use Leap on my work PC for that reason. However, on my home PCs, I use Tumbleweed because it is stable enough to use the latest versions of the programmes I use and because I prefer to use applications that have been optimised for use with openSUSE and I prefer not to use flatpak-type applications over which the openSUSE developers have no control to optimise them in the distribution.
Best regards
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If GNOME == DE then Leap.
If KDE Plasma == DE and, the e-Mail Client being used is KMail, then Tumbleweed (current situation … 
)
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Exactly how production environments preferring Leap which are using KDevelop are affected by the KDE Plasma version delay – no idea – my main problem was the Kontact suite crashes and, the constant reminder that the installed version was more than 6 months old …
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For the case of photography, KDE Plasma and digiKam is yet another Use Case where the Leap version delay can be a real work-flow issue …
Hello. I use distributions based on objectives, not on the chosen desktop.
I use Leap for my work PC because it has SLE code.
I use Tumbleweed for my home PC because I don’t want to give up the new features that programmes offer me.
In both cases, I use Gnome.
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openSUSE Leap 16.0 shares much of its core with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). SUSE just discontinued Desktop version, so there is no SLED anymore. You can check that here, version 15SP7 is the last one: https://www.suse.com/download/sled/
While limited Gnome package set is part of the SLES, it still means that large parts of the desktop system are not enterprise tested and maintained for production environment anymore.
SLED being discontinued doesn’t really change the architecture of Leap. Leap 16 still inherits its base system from SLE 16, meaning the kernel, toolchain, core libraries, and system stack come from the same sources used to build SLES.
Leap has always been a hybrid model anyway. SLE base with openSUSE packages layered on top. Even when SLED existed, many desktop components (especially KDE) were maintained on the openSUSE side rather than coming from SLE. So the fundamental model hasn’t really changed.
Leap 16.0 builds on its hybrid approach of combining source from SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) with community developments, delivering a level of stability unmatched by other Linux distributions. With a newly extended support period of 24 months, Leap gives users, developers, and sysadmins one of the best and most reliable Linux experiences available.
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For me one advantage of SUSE generally is the quality of the forums.
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Yeah, i notice the discourse is a lot better than say reddit (flooded) or 4chan (flooded with sh*t). I prefer it here regarding this niche topic.
In 1997 I was curious to Linux and the bookstore sold a box with 5 CD’s, it was Suse 5.1 
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