OpenSUSE seeks Leap replacement, will distro community rise to the challenge?
OpenSUSE seeks Leap replacement, will distro community rise to the challenge?
OpenSUSE, the community Linux distribution family from SUSE, finds itself at a crossroads. With SUSE’s transition from its traditional enterprise distribution to the Adaptable Linux Platform (ALP) container approach, the stable base of OpenSUSE Leap is set to disappear. This leaves the community with an important question: what’s next?
To understand the current situation, let’s take a step back. OpenSUSE Leap is a fixed-release Linux distro that offers new releases every few years. It’s a hybrid distribution, combining elements from SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) and newer packages. Leap aims to provide a stable and reliable desktop-oriented experience. On the other hand, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is a rolling release that is constantly updated.
The challenge lies in the fact that the ALP container-based approach is primarily designed for server workloads, containers, and confidential computing, rather than the desktop environment. While it is possible to have a container-based Linux desktop, like Fedora Silverblue, it seems that this is not the direction that the openSUSE community is heading towards.
A recent survey of openSUSE developers revealed conflicting opinions on the future of openSUSE Leap. Richard Brown, a SUSE software architect, analyzed the survey and noted that there are proposals to build two different distributions as potential replacements for Leap.
The first contender is Linarite, which would be a traditional release desktop distribution, albeit with a potentially smaller package selection compared to Leap. It is expected to be based on a SUSE project called “Granite,” which is believed to be the ALP product closest to a traditional enterprise server distribution.
The second contender is Slowroll, a rolling distribution derived from openSUSE Tumbleweed. The idea behind Slowroll is to provide a more stable version of Tumbleweed by incorporating only those packages that have proven their stability over time.
According to Brown, openSUSE users seem to overwhelmingly favor rolling releases, with 51%-64% expressing a preference for either Tumbleweed or Slowroll. Given these results, Brown suggests that if openSUSE is to build something to replace Leap, the community should focus on Slowroll.
However, implementing Slowroll or Linarite may not be an easy task. Leap’s most recent release had only 61 contributors, and the workload was relatively low due to code borrowing from SLE. Going forward, both Slowroll and Linarite would require much more packaging and maintenance effort. The question then arises: will there be enough developers to support the release of these new distributions?
Brown highlighted the fact that contributors tend to believe openSUSE should do certain things without being willing to contribute themselves. He emphasized that any replacement should primarily cater to desktop use cases since SUSE’s ALP products already cater to enterprise server needs. It would be redundant for openSUSE to spread its resources thin by trying to cater to both server and desktop environments.
As Brown stated, “For a Leap replacement to be viable, both to be made and then supported for years, I’m convinced we need a significant increase in folk rolling up their sleeves and working towards it.”
The future of openSUSE Leap is uncertain, and the community must decide if they are willing to rally resources and contributors to support any new direction. This is a crucial decision point for one of the oldest existing Linux distributions. As Jonathan Corbet, a Linux kernel developer and LWN.net editor-in-chief, pointed out, the project’s biggest challenge lies in attracting more contributors to expand its options for the future.
The ball is now in the community’s court, and their decision will shape the future of one of the oldest Linux distributions. Stay tuned for updates as openSUSE navigates this critical juncture.
