OpenSUSE Leap 16.0 advances to Release Candidate stage
openSUSE Leap 16.0 Release Candidate is now available, marking a significant departure from previous versions and most other Linux distributions. Here's a rundown of the key features and changes in this release.
Goodbye YaST, Hello Cockpit and Myrlyn
Leap 16 replaces the familiar SUSE YaST tool with the Red Hat-sponsored Cockpit project, and introduces a new package called Myrlyn as the replacement for the graphical software-package management interface.
A New Era of Immutability and Containerization
openSUSE Leap 16.0 is 64-bit only and requires CPUs capable of x86-64-v2. SUSE is moving towards an immutability strategy with Leap 16.0, leveraging the advanced snapshot capabilities of Btrfs. This approach is designed to improve the stability and security of the system, making it more suitable for containerized and virtualized workloads.
Modernizing Core Components
Leap 16.0 focuses on modernizing core components such as display server support with Wayland and Xfce, improving package management efficiency through repository restructuring and parallel downloads, enhancing security defaults, and adapting to upstream SUSE Linux Enterprise changes like dropping native 32-bit execution support.
Xfce on Wayland (Experimental)
openSUSE Leap 16.0 is one of the first distributions to offer Xfce running on Wayland as an experimental preview, though it still has known issues due to Wayland support in Xfce being immature.
Login Manager Changes
Introduction of greetd and gtkgreet as replacements for LightDM, better suited for Wayland environments.
New Installer
The Agama installer is used for both online and offline installations in Leap 16.0.
Repository Restructuring
Leap 16.0 consolidates updates and packages into a single repository called containing both community and SLES packages and their updates, replacing the separate update repositories used in Leap 15.6. It also introduces separate repodata per architecture and enables parallel downloads in the package manager Zypper for faster performance.
32-bit Support Dropped in SLES 16.0 with Workarounds in Leap 16.0
The underlying SUSE Linux Enterprise 16.0 no longer supports 32-bit binary execution. Leap 16.0 users can re-enable 32-bit support by installing and passing a kernel parameter .
Other Notable Changes
- SUSE is moving towards SELinux as the default security module, replacing AppArmor.
- Leap 16.0 comes with useful new migration scripts, including those to enable 32-bit binary execution, migrate PulseAudio to PipeWire, and select between AppArmor and SELinux.
- openSUSE Leap 16.0 Micro is a minimal immutable distro, built for containerized and virtualized workloads.
- Leap 16.0 RC offers a limited set of Wayland-capable desktops: GNOME, KDE Plasma, and an experimental version of Xfce.
- Some older software can be installed as optional extras in Leap 16.0 RC.
As Leap 16.0 is still in the release candidate phase, users should expect further refinements and updates before the final release, scheduled for October 2025.
- This release of openSUSE Leap 16.0 adopts the open source Cockpit project, replacing the traditional YaST tool, and introduces a new graphical software-package management interface called Myrlyn.
- To improve system security and stability, openSUSE Leap 16.0 shifts towards an immutability strategy, utilizing advanced snapshot capabilities of Btrfs, and is tailored for containerized and virtualized workloads.
- openSUSE Leap 16.0 also incorporates SUSE Linux Enterprise changes such as dropping native 32-bit execution support and adopts SELinux as the default security module, replacing AppArmor.
