Beta testing of the openSUSE Leap 16 distribution has begun. It is based on the technologies of the next significant branch of the commercial SLES 16 distribution, which is moving to the new SLFO (SUSE Linux Framework One) platform, previously known as ALP (Adaptable Linux Platform). openSUSE Leap 16 will retain the features of a classic distribution using traditional packages, and for those who need an atomically updated system with basic filling in read-only mode, the openSUSE Leap Micro edition should be used. Builds for x86_64, ARM64, s390x and PowerPC architectures are available for testing. The release is scheduled for October 2025.
Key features of openSUSE Leap 16:
- The new Agama installer is used, which is notable for separating the user interface from the internal YaST components and providing a frontend for managing the installation via a web interface.
- Instead of the traditional YaST stack, the Cockpit package is used to manage the system, and Myrlyn is offered instead of the YaST Software GUI.
- SELinux mandatory access control is enabled by default. AppArmor support is retained as an option.
- It was decided to ship only Wayland-based graphical sessions (separate X.org components will remain for now).
- Support for the SysV init system has been discontinued. Only systemd can be used.
- Support for the x86-64-v1 architecture has been discontinued. Work is only possible on x86 systems with the x86_64-v2 architecture, which is supported by processors since about 2009 (starting with Intel Nehalem) and is distinguished by the presence of such extensions as SSE3, SSE4_2, SSSE3, POPCNT, LAHF-SAHF and CMPXCHG16B.
- Updated versions: Linux kernel 6.12, GNOME 48, KDE Plasma 6.3.4, AppArmor 4.1, GIMP 3.0, Cockpit 334.1.
- A service based on the RIS (Repository Index Service) protocol is used to manage repositories. To reduce the size of metadata, repositories are separated for each supported architecture. Experimental support for parallel download of packages has been added.
Source: opennet.ru
