First, let me be clear up front that I’m not promoting the idea that there should be one “universal” Linux distro. With all the various distros out there for consumers, there’s lots of discussion about Arch, Debian, and Fedora (and their various descendant projects), but I rarely see much talk about openSUSE.
Why might somebody choose that one over the others? What features or vision distinguishes it from the others?
Edit: I love all the answers! Great stuff. Thanks to everyone!
There are a bunch of software-related reasons why openSUSE is a good choice (snapper, zypper, yast, to name a few), although few are exclusive to openSUSE. I think the primary selling point of openSUSE (Tumbleweed) is that it is a rolling release distro that never crashes, never requires attention, and just works. One of the reasons people don’t talk about it is probably that it is boring. All packages are tested extensively. It never breaks. And even if it did break, the default btrfs file system and snapper ensure that the system doesn’t stay broken for longer than it takes to reboot.
If you want a distro that is up to date, easy to use, and dependable, openSUSE is a fantastic choice. It’s just not very exciting to have something that never requires attention; a lot of people use Linux because they like things requiring attention.
As an afterthought, I also think the fact that openSUSE and its users seem to be pathologically unable to create any logo or symbol for anything even tangentially related to the distribution that doesn’t look like absolute shit might be holding them back.
I think it’s mostly because a lot of users here are quite new. After a few years, you just want to do things with your system, not to it.
Back in the 90s I was all for breaking stuff and installing weird shit all the time (distributions were also much more rustic at the time). Nowadays, the less I notice my system, the better.
(So I run Tumbleweed)
That’s exactly why I am on Tumbleweed as well.
I am not German myself, but most of my colleagues are. Having gotten to know the German attitude towards technology, I feel I understand why life with openSUSE is as uneventful as it is. How anyone got them to adopt something as subversively radical as a rolling release model is something of a mystery to me, but I won’t complain.
As an afterthought, I also think the fact that openSUSE and its users seem to be pathologically unable to create any logo or symbol for anything even tangentially related to the distribution that doesn’t look like absolute shit might be holding them back.
As shallow as it might seem, good branding is really important, since it has the power to instantly convey vision or commitment to a project.
But to your point about low-maintenance distros, I wonder how the immutable landscape will look in the next five years!
Opensuse tumbleweed is probably the most stable rolling release, so you get the newest software without everything breaking. Also Yast is an amazing utility that allows you to administer your system entirely with a GUI
I used it a while ago in a VM, and I was impressed how it felt like everything just worked.
Plus, it’s just fun that the CLI system update command is
zypper upI think for TW it’s zypper dup. up is for leap.
Could be! I have no idea, since I used it many years ago.
How is it with running Steam and how is its bluetooth controller support for Xbox controllers?
No problems in my experience
Automated package testing before each update rolls out to users.
In the event that an update does break your system, you can roll back to the last snapshot from the grub menu (using the smart btrfs setup that is the installation default).
Also generally, maintained by very smart people, community is not toxic, corporate overlords more benign than most, IMO.
Tumbleweed is rock solid. I took out an old Intel based Macbook that has not been updated in two years (I stopped traveling for work and no longer needed a laptop so the software got outdated). OpenSuse Tumbleweed updated flawlessly. It switched to the newest gcc, switched over to pipewire, etc. without a single issue. I did not read the latest news as I used to do on Arch.
Also, OpenSuse is a family of distros. Choose what works for you. Tumbleweed is the main product and the base of all Suse offerings (and I recommend it).
- Tumbleweed rolls similarly to Arch but has more QA testing
- Slowroll is just snapshots of Tumbleweed that are updated less frequently. May replace Leap.
- Leap does traditional releases similar to other OSes such as Mac, Windows, and Ubuntu
- MicroOS (and its flavors) update the same way Android does; as a full image. You could pick a MicroOS flavor such as Aeon (Gnome) or Kalpa (KDE) and stick to Flatpaks which as a strategy works great on the Steamdeck but I have yet to try it on desktop.
As someone who has tried several Linux distributions what was important to me was how stable updates were. On that old Macbook, that I used for ten years; I mostly used Chakra, Arch, and Tumbleweed. That Tumbleweed install was at least six years old.
I did have one issue, but it was a kernel introduced bug. Long since fixed. Someone messed up Apple EFI boot; so I had to load the EFI menu when booting and then select my internal SSD to start the OS.
I’ve been using oS:TW for over a year now. It’s extremely stable for a rolling release distro. Plus if something does break, snapper rollbacks from the grub menu are set up by default. I’ve only had rollback once though due to a fucky Nvidia update.
Fucky Nvidia updates are the exact sort of thing I’m aiming to mitigate with my next OS choice. I use Bazzite on a spare laptop, and I’ve had to do rollbacks on that before; it’s extremely handy to have that capability out of the box!
Thanks for asking the question. Apparently I need to check out opensuse!
I’m also interested in openSUSE, but what held me back from Tumbleweed was the statement on their Wiki: “If you don’t know how to compile your own additional kernel modules and you don’t wish to learn or keep a very close eye on what is being updated, please don’t use Tumbleweed.” (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Tumbleweed)
But here people say it “just works” and it’s a great distro. I’m torn :), I’d like to try it, but I’m not sure I wanna follow all updates all the time to make sure it runs fine.
Tumbleweed user here. I have no idea how to compile additional kernel modules. I do keep track of what’s changed on every update, though, but that’s because I find it exciting. Seeing that update icon in the morning makes me happy. I am sure you don’t need to care as much about it as I do. You can upgrade every now and then without looking too close, and be very happy
Only community distro that has a fully a path to fully FOSS commercially supported Linux (no proprietary package repo like Ubuntu with snap, no EULA limiting your 4 software freedoms ala Redhat).
What up with the fedora EULA?
Fedoras is ok, but they don’t offer commercial support that is handled by RedHat with their derived commercial disttos.
but I rarely see much talk about openSUSE.
Probably because most of the openSUSE users talk in German elsewhere.
