Update: The opensuse devs have confirmed now that Leap will continue in more or less it’s current form. The default install for Leap 16 and beyond will NOT be immutable but will have that option in the installer, much like with Leap 15.x. Read more here: Leap 16 confirmed.
It is official, and it is confirmed…. OpenSuse Leap will be discontinued after the 15.6 release in June 2024. The primary reason Leap is being discontinued is that Suse Linux Enterprise (SLE) is being replaced with Adaptable Linux Platform (ALP), a containerized Linux release focused on servers with no inherent desktop platform. SLE customers have been asking for something along the lines of ALP for years. Leap has drawn directly from SLE but the OpenSuse Leap developers believe it will be too difficult to create a continuation of Leap from ALP.
The replacement for Leap will be OpenSuse SlowRoll. I’m excited that this could be the next big thing in Linux. I’m excited to think that this could be a perfect replacement for the Kubuntu LTS that is currently on my mom’s computer, then there won’t be anymore giant release-upgrades from one LTS to another that sometimes just don’t work.
OpenSuse SlowRoll will pull from OpenSuse Tumbleweed with a focus on stability. They expect package upgrades to mostly happen once a month, except for bug fixes and CVE’s that will have more of a direct route.
Leap will have one more release being 15.6 around June of 2024. The good news is it will be supported for around 18 months after release, so as of writing this Leap users will have nearly 2 years to decide if SlowRoll will be right from them. The other good news is the OpenSuse developers will have a good solid year to make their Leap replacement the best it can be.
To install the preview/proof of concept for SlowRoll, follow the instructions listed here: https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Slowroll
