OpenSUSE 15.01 Leap KDE

[crosscourt]

Just installed Leap and it took awhile as the installation only disk has 3.6gb of files but it really saves on having to download a lot of apps. The SUSE installer is easy to use but you do need to pay attention to the settings. I asked the installer to go with using the whole drive and instead of their file system choices i decided to go with ext4. Before installing it asks you what repos you want and I went with everything including testing to get what I needed.
The rest was easy and the install took about 45 minutes but no additional updates were needed upon boot. I added some additional apps,
HPLIP
Chromium
Audacious
Bleachbit
hardinfo
Thunderbird
Gkrellm
VLC
additional Gstreamer codecs

No issues with adding the apps and no issues with conflicts such as I saw with Gecko Linux(Leap clone).

Firefox is 60.2 ESR, Thunderbird 60 and Chromium 69. KDE 5.12.6 with the 4,12,14 kernel which surprised me but kernel security updates were present.
Has more of the KDE apps than Gecko but overall about the same. Visually the desktop looks very nice, polished, clean and very fast. Memory usage at GUI was 432mb and overall performance is faster than other RPM distros I use.

OpenSUSE has improved a lot since last time I used it and its far easier to get additional apps and features. Leap though has Discover which worked very well versus Gecko that doesnt use it. Its a great option for those who arent comfortable with Yast/Yast 2 for updating.
hardware detection was excellent but they didnt have HPLIP installed so it didnt see my printer. Installed HPLIP but still couldnt install using printer settings or HP device manager. As with Gecko you need to go to Yast, then click on printer and then click auto configuration and its installed in 2 minutes, then reboot.

My experience so far has been excellent and if you want to try it out they have a livecd you can use but you cannot install from that disk. You have to use the seperate iso which is 3.6gb so I hope you have a decent internet connection. They offer a wide range of DE's you can choose from other than KDE Plasma.

Im off to do some tests and Ill post back.

[crosscourt]

Ok some things worked and others didnt so, looks like we have to install the Packman repos to get the codecs we need.

To do that go here and follow the directions, http://opensuse-guide.org/codecs.php

I used the one click feature and it worked fine but be aware once you do it, you will see many warnings of conflicts with packages. Always select the packman version and there will be quite a few but it does work.
I retested and all is working fine. Thats the advantage of Gecko Linux as they do all that for you and pre-configure the OS.

So now that I know Packman repos will be needed(similar to rpm fusion repos with Fedora) Ill do it ahead of time with my next install.

Will be back once I use it more to see if any issues crop up.

[crosscourt]

It appears everything is working fine and the switch to the Packman repos went fine. Definitely worth a look for experienced users.

[crosscourt]

Looks like all multimedia/videos are working fine as I tried a wide array, as well as a few simple games. Tried a few websites that can be problematic but were fine. Did some personal work and tried LibreOffice 6.0.5 no issues. Releases memory pretty well once back at GUI which for older systems is a must.
It runs reallt well on my E6400 which isnt a new system with only 4gb of ram and a 5400rpm laptop drive.

[crosscourt]

Heres a video that covers 5 reasons why OpenSUSE is a good choice for many as well as a considered choice for others. It reflects my perspective on OpenSUSE. I first began using OpenSUSE 12, years ago.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oonm2GCCMo

Just wanted to make one comment. In this video he mentions wicked service is a pain to use and Netwrok Manager isnt offered which isnt the case. OpenSUSE defaults to Network Manager but can disable it and use wicked service if you like by going to Yast- system-network settings.

[tlmiller]

At some point I do want to try out opensuse again. I've had historically BAD success with using it, however. Multimedia and *Suse just hasn't treated me well in the past.

I'm considering trying it on my Yoga 3 Pro though.

[tlmiller]

Took me 2 tries to boot. When I booted to "install" it just hung. I had to boot to "test media" and then I was able to get into the installer.

Installation went without issue. First boot went smoothly, although HUNDREDS of updates. Adding packman repos and switching packages over to packman that exist in base and packman went smooth.

And that's where it sets because I went to bed after getting that far.

[crosscourt]

Its improved hugely and Im considering making it my main distro, given all the features,improvements and excellent support info.
Support cycle is one minor version every 12 months and a major version change every 36-48 months. Thats very reasonable and the amazing number of up to date repos really floored me since I first tried it back in 2012.

Gecko installs even quicker and has all the repos installed by default. I prefer OpenSUSE though because of the many extras and polish.

Ill be curious to see what you think,

[crosscourt]

I always initially hate Yast, then I start using it for awhile and realize how good it is and how much I can do. Stability is excellent and I found their forums also very good along with their support page. Ive tried a variety of things with the system and no problems whatsoever. Just the fact that it runs this well on an old Dell laptop speaks volumes and the features set,backlit keyboard and dock all work with my Dell E6400 ATG laptop.
I want to install it on my main desktop with my Nvidia 1050 video card and see how it goes.

I was surprised at a couple of reviews as they noted issues that so far i havent experienced but granted, many of those reviews cam from when it initially was launched.

[tlmiller]

So far, hasn't been too bad. I've gotten everything installed, although I have had to do --no-gpg-check to install a few things (fceux and vivaldi).

It soft-blocked bluetooth by default, so took longer than it should have to get that working, but once i realized it was just soft-blocked it was easy enough to unblock and get paired. Paired with my speakers first try.

After installing gstreamer plugins have been able to play mp3's without issue over bluetooth. Haven't tried any video yet.

Performance seems right in line with Debian, so definitely an improvement from what I remember on that front.

This laptop hates suspending. Didn't work on Debian, didn't work on Fedora, and doens't work on OpenSUSE (haven't installed Arch to try).

Touchpad fully works out of the box. Congratulations on that, i know some distro's get it wrong.

Able to add the softmaker repositories without issue and install freeoffice. Haven't tested that it actually works, but installed without errors.