openSUSE Rolls Out 42.2 Leap
New release targets Linux professionals.
The openSUSE community has released the latest version of their desktop operating system, openSUSE 42.2 Leap. The latest release is a minor upgrade to the 42.x branch that comes with many new features.
Douglas DeMaio, of the openSUSE release team, wrote, “openSUSE Leap 42.2 is powered by the Linux 4.4 Long-Term-Support (LTS) kernel and is a secure, stable, and reliable server operating system for deploying IT services in physical, virtual, or cloud environments.’
openSUSE Leap 42.2 is based on SLE SP2, which was released a few weeks ago. According to DeMaio, Leap 42.2 gets some of its source code from SLE 12 Service Pack 2. “New technologies such as NVDIMM, OmniPATH, and the Data Plane Development Kit with Open vSwitch are backported for the release. XEN no longer requires its own kernel and is supported by the default kernel. Along with the shared SLE codebase, openSUSE Leap 42.2 gets packages, maintenance, and bug fixes from the openSUSE community and SUSE engineers. The 42 series of Leap achieves at a minimum 36 months of maintenance and security updates starting from 42.1.”
openSUSE 42.2 comes with KDE’s Plasma 5.8, the LTS version of Plasma that was created specifically for openSUSE. It also comes with Gnome 3.20.2, a bit older version of Gnome. OpenSUSE Leap is not positioned as a cutting edge distribution and is the most stable openSUSE experience, which means the developers are a bit conservative when it comes to packages. Packages go into Leap once they are fully tested. If you are looking for the latest packages, try the Tumbleweed rolling release edition.
In 2015, openSUSE moved the openSUSE base to SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) SP1, which brought the two distributions closer to each other. The openSUSE community also announced a rolling release distribution called Tumbleweed, in honor of Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman. Tumbleweed is now the upstream for openSUSE Leap and, in part, for SUSE Linux Enterprise. Every package that goes into openSUSE Leap or SUSE Linux Enterprise has to go through Tumbleweed, although enterprise customers can also work directly with SUSE Linux Enterprise teams to get those features in SLE directly.
openSUSE Leap 42.2 is available now for free download.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Armbian 24.11 Released with Expanded Hardware Support
If you've been waiting for Armbian to support OrangePi 5 Max and Radxa ROCK 5B+, the wait is over.
-
SUSE Renames Several Products for Better Name Recognition
SUSE has been a very powerful player in the European market, but it knows it must branch out to gain serious traction. Will a name change do the trick?
-
ESET Discovers New Linux Malware
WolfsBane is an all-in-one malware that has hit the Linux operating system and includes a dropper, a launcher, and a backdoor.
-
New Linux Kernel Patch Allows Forcing a CPU Mitigation
Even when CPU mitigations can consume precious CPU cycles, it might not be a bad idea to allow users to enable them, even if your machine isn't vulnerable.
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5 Released
Notify your friends, loved ones, and colleagues that the latest version of RHEL is available with plenty of enhancements.
-
Linux Sees Massive Performance Increase from a Single Line of Code
With one line of code, Intel was able to increase the performance of the Linux kernel by 4,000 percent.
-
Fedora KDE Approved as an Official Spin
If you prefer the Plasma desktop environment and the Fedora distribution, you're in luck because there's now an official spin that is listed on the same level as the Fedora Workstation edition.
-
New Steam Client Ups the Ante for Linux
The latest release from Steam has some pretty cool tricks up its sleeve.
-
Gnome OS Transitioning Toward a General-Purpose Distro
If you're looking for the perfectly vanilla take on the Gnome desktop, Gnome OS might be for you.
-
Fedora 41 Released with New Features
If you're a Fedora fan or just looking for a Linux distribution to help you migrate from Windows, Fedora 41 might be just the ticket.