Release of the openSUSE Leap distribution 15.5

After a year of development, the openSUSE Leap 15 distribution was released.5. The release is based on a single set of binary packages with some user applications from the openSUSE Tumbleweed repository with SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP 5. Using the same binary packages in SUSE and openSUSE simplifies the transition between distributions, saves resources on package assembly, update distribution and testing, unifies differences in spec files and allows you to move away from diagnosing different package assemblies when parsing error messages. A universal 4 GB DVD build is available for download (x86_64, aarch64, ppc64les, 390x), a stripped-down installation image with downloading packages over the network (200 MB) and Live builds with KDE, GNOME and Xfce (~900 MB).

Updates for the openSUSE Leap 15.5 branch will be released before the end of 2024. Initially, it was expected that version 15.5 would be the last in the 15.x series, but the developers decided next year to form another release 15.6 before the planned transition to using the ALP (Adaptable Linux Platform) platform as the basis for openSUSE and SUSE Linux. The key difference between ALP is the separation of the basic framework of the distribution into two parts: a stripped-down "host OS" to work on top of the hardware and a layer for application support focused on running in containers and virtual machines. The formation of another functional release in the openSUSE Leap 15 branch next year will give developers additional time to bring the ALP platform to the desired appearance.

The main innovations:

Updated user environments: KDE Plasma 5.27.4 (previously shipped release 5.24.4), Xfce 4.18 (previously 4.16), Deepin 20.3 and LXQt 1.2. Updated graphics stack, Qt 6.4/5.15.8, Wayland 1.21 and Mesa 22.3.5 (previously shipped Mesa 21.2.4). The webkit2gtk3 and webkit2gtk4 browser engines have been updated to version 2.38.5. The GNOME version has not changed, as in the previous release GNOME 41 is offered. Versions Sway 1.6.1, Enlightenment 0.25.3, MATE 1.26 and Cinnamon 4.6.7 have not changed either.

The installation process of the H.264 codec has been simplified and the repository is enabled by default, where the download of the binary codec assembly from the Cisco website is organized. The H.264 codec assembly is formed by openSUSE developers, certified with the official digital signature of openSUSE and transmitted for distribution to Cisco, i.e. the formation of the entire package filling remains in the openSUSE area of responsibility and Cisco cannot make changes or replace the package. The download is carried out from the Cisco website since the right to use patented video compression technologies is transferred only for assemblies that are distributed by Cisco, which does not allow you to place packages with OpenH264 in the openSUSE repository.
Added the ability to quickly migrate to a new version from previous releases and provided a new toolkit for migrating from openSUSE to SUSE Linux.
Updated user applications Vim 9, KDE Gear 22.12.3 (previously shipped on 12/21/2011), LibreOffice 7.3.3, VLC 3.0.18, Firefox 102.11.0, Thunderbird 102.11.0, Wine 8.0.
Updated packages pipewire 0.3.49, AppArmor 3.0.4, mdadm 4.2, Flatpaks 1.14.4, fwupd 1.8.6, Ugrep 3.11.0, NetworkManager 1.38.6, podman 4.4.4, CRI-O 1.22.0, containerd 1.6.19, Grafana 8.5.22, ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange) 1.6, Prometheus 2.2.3, dpdk 19.11.10, Pagure 5.13.3, systemd 249.12, BlueZ 5.62, samba 4.15.8, QEMU 7.1, Xen 4.17, MariaDB 10.6, PostgreSQL 15, Rust 1.69.
The package includes packages for organizing the work of the client and the Tor anonymous network node (0.4.7.13).
The Linux kernel version has not changed (5.14.21), but fixes from newer kernel branches have been backported to the kernel package.
A new Python stack based on the Python 3.11 branch has been provided. Packages with the new Python version can be installed in parallel with the system Python based on the Python 3.6 branch.
The netavark 1.5 utility has been added to configure the network subsystem of containers.
The ability to boot from NVMe-oF (NVM Express over Fabrics) over TCP has been implemented, which can be used to create diskless clients in SAN environments based on NVMe-oF technology.