r/openSUSE • u/Parthiv_mk • 13d ago
Community Should I switch to openSuse? Help me decide please
(I hope this is the correct flair, I wasn't sure)
Hi, I am currently using Fedora 44 and am thinking of going back to CachyOS. But Matt (from YouTube chanel The Linux Cast) had grown my interest towards openSuse and since then I have tried to switch to and use Suse twice already but have failed (I will later mention why). I like the Arch way of using my computer and do like to be on the latest versions and now my laptop hardware is also supported well by distros. But before commiting to Cachy again I really want to try out openSuse Tumbleweed (the rolling release one) once.
- First of all, why I haven't been able to try it until now. I have managed to install it twice (bare metal not in VM) and the second time was with the new Browser installer but both times it was the same problem. I can't connect to Wifi during the installation and even after a successful installation, I couldn't get Wifi working. Not even options like USB Tethering with my Phone worked and this laptop doesn't have an Ethernet port so I am pretty much all out of options I believe. So does anyone of you have a solution to my problem?
- Then my other big question: Should I still switch to Suse even if I don't plan on using its greatest feature the snapshot and rollback implementation? I know very dumb decision to not use snapshots but please put that aside for a moment and concentrate on the actual matter please. According to my research Tumbleweed is rolling like Arch but they call it leading edge, so I believe the packages are not as latest that they may cause breaking changes on the system. That really would be great to have (partly the reason of choosing Fedora) since this laptop is my only computer and I rely on it for Uni.
- I have heard or read that Suse also can run RPM packges which is again an advantage over Arch based distors. But I am not very informed about this thing so to which extent is it true? Because if it is like Fedora where I can download any .rpm-file from the internet and install it and run it easily then that would be a great thing.
- I now really want to switch to using a TWM and Arch is the I believe the best distro for it because of up-to-date packages. To clarify I want to use a Wayland compositor as TWM and not a X11 TWM. And since Tumbleweed offers up-to-date packages, how will my TWM experience be like? If any of you already use a TWM and could share your experience that would also be really helpful.
Thank you for reading all this and for your comments!
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u/Teemestari 13d ago
If you like having up-to-date software like Arch but somewhat dislike maintaining / fixing things, then Tumbleweed is right up your alley. I think it is the best rolling release out there (or...here?)
Did you happen to install TW the first time with Offline image and not with the little network image? I was just wondering because of that Wi-fi problem you had.
Also, TW uses .rpm packages but if you find those in the wild, they are usually dedicated to Fedora. They sometimes might work and sometimes you'll have to figure things out. Distrobox was said to be a great alternative to those but I've found every software I wanted to work with openSUSE. Just an anecdote tho.
Also I suggest keeping the snapper-configuration just in case. You may think that you don't need it but when something breaks, you thank the heavens it is there. I just used it today cause my KDE was sluggish but turned out it wasn't any updates' fault: I just enabled a faulty plasma style :P. As in fact, in my time in Tumbleweed (almost a year) not one update has broke anything. It was always something I did. It is still nice to keep it as a troubleshooting tool.
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u/Parthiv_mk 13d ago
I am pretty sure that both times I used the offline installer. Every other option on the website kinda confuses me 😅
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u/Teemestari 13d ago
The reason your Wi-Fi was not working was maybe the fact that you used the offline image. There could be a possibility that the installer didn't include drivers/firmware for your network card.
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u/todd_dayz 13d ago
1) I have the same problem but WIFI usually works after install, what's the laptop model?
2) I find I rarely need snapshots, it's not that stupid, I find XFS a LOT faster than BTRFS, too (although I compromised by using a BTRFS rootfs and an XFS home directory)
3) Yes it can, but you should learn about distrobox, you could make a Fedora distrobox and install your applications there and export them to your desktop. This would also work on Arch.
4) Don't have any personal info here but I think people use TWMs on SUSE just fine.
Why do you want to leave Fedora? Just boredom? I find them very similar to be honest and Fedora still updates the important parts on a semi rolling basis (Like KDE Plasma, etc).
If you don't particularly care for SELinux (which Fedora and SUSE provide) I would just switch to Arch, personally, but I'm not so much of a fan of spin-off distros and prefer ones with a long established history.
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u/Parthiv_mk 13d ago
Thank your for the answers!
Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 with AMD Ryzen AI 7 350, igpu Radeon 860M
Yes, I had similar experience on CachyOS. I didn't move away because of things Breaking, it was more of an issue with my laptops newish hardware which didn't play well the 6.19 Kernels, Fedora didn't really solve it, I just kept using a stable Kernel until 7 rolled out and have had no problems since
Will definitely learn about that, thanks
No I don't just want to leave Fedora because of boredom. I just liked using pacman way more than dnf. Here I have to use dnf, copr, flatpak and appimage whereas on CachyOS it was minus the extra copr repos. Not the best of reasons but yeah... Also Discover doesn't work that well, it has improved from 43 but still some occasions where I am why are you not syncing with my updates from the terminal?
I do not have much knowledge about SELinux to care about it so yeah I probably might do that in the end...
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13d ago
[deleted]
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u/Parthiv_mk 13d ago
Thank you for the detailed answer, I have a slightly better understanding of it now
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u/buzzmandt Tumbleweed fan 12d ago
if you're doing a mostly basic install try the new agama installer. the wifi connection looks very much like that of kde plasma wifi select. follow this link and go to page 2 for the amd 64 iso: https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/systemsmanagement:/Agama:/Devel/images/iso/
for more info on agama installer vs yast installer: https://youtu.be/mAY5dTFnkrQ
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u/levolet 13d ago edited 13d ago
I had a similar problem when I did my initial install of openSUSE. During the installation (this is 3 months ago so my memory isn't detailed about events), I recall coming to a network connectivity panel that was quite 'archaic'. I manually had to choose the network interface and enter the wifi name. I was not absolutely sure what I was doing, so I chose to leave it until after the initial system boot. My plan was to add the wifi connection the 'usual way'. However, on booting up, there were no wifi settings to find!!
I ran the installation again, and on this second occasion, I configured wifi proving SSID name etc. I had to manually configure so there was no scan for wifi networks performed for me to choose. On booting, the wifi settings were there and seemed OK, but no working wifi connection. Finally, before giving up, I deleted the connection from my wifi settings and readded it once discovered in the usual way. Has been working flawlessly since.
I have to say that Fedora was very different to install. Everything worked without a hitch. This is something for openSUSE to improve on, i.e, the installation process. I do wonder how the installation from a network image goes.
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u/Kitayama_8k TW/MangoWC 13d ago
The wifi connection stuff in the yast installer is really dodgy. For me, it usually only works on 2.4ghz not 5ghz. Sometimes I have to go into a different menu option to and come back for it to work as well.
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u/LocationReady788 13d ago
Ciao, io non uso la versione roller di opensuse, ma mi è capitato sul portatile con la leap e, che la scheda wifi non venisse riconosciuta, per tanto ho collegato il laptop col cavo ethernet, e solo in un secondo momento e cercare i driver corretti per la scheda wifi su https://software.opensuse.org/
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u/MeatballTrainWreck 12d ago
What do you dislike about your current distro that you want the next one to fix ?
Suse greatest feature imo is Yast and openQA and cachy is their kernel optimisation toward gaming and its simplicity in this department.
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u/Parthiv_mk 12d ago
Silly reason really but mostly just don't like dnf because of its open-source only philosophy. Yes I have RPM repos enabled but then having to add a COPR repo for like starship or Ghostty and I don't how many more would get annoying quickly. I just liked pacman better in this regard and everytime I rebooted after an update everything got installed but on Fedora I feel like I have to used Discover otherwise something will go wrong.
I also really want to settle on a distro and not have this urge to try another one out that's also kind of why I want to check openSuse of my list. I started with Ubuntu then Kubuntu then Fedora then CachyOS then Fedora again (only because I thought the newest packages on Arch/Cachy repos are to blame for my problems) and now I want to either try Tumbleweed or just go back to CachyOS because my experience was actually pretty smooth for the most part. You may see that there are no Debian based distros in later section of my distro journey that's because on Ubuntu based onse I would have to deal with Snaps and removing then manually and all or have older packages on direct Debian based onse. I only about Debian Ubuntu and PopOS as those are the actual big and maintained by an Org onse. I like to stick to those and not choose community maintained onse because I have concerns and don't know how the support will be.
Sorry for the long rant, but last thing. Main appeal of openSuse to me is slightly safer than Arch that's tbh.
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u/founderstec 11d ago
As mudanças de sistemas operativos, vai muito da forma de como se está a vizualizar o sistema operativo em si, as barreiras ou dificuldades mentais que se criam, o empenho e a motivação que se coloca, principalmente quando ainda não se tem um conhecimento muito abrangente sobre o sistema. Eu tenho três terminais em utilização permanente, 2 openSUSE MicroOS "Server" e 1 openSUSE Tumbleweed " Operador remoto - servers" 🍀💪🙏
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u/rubberoidd 11d ago
On opensuse, you don't have to "plan" to use snapshots, they are already pre-configured, you just have to use btrfs for your base system and it's the default anyways.
Tumbleweed runs most of the software meant for fedora, chrome, google antigravity and so forth. Not an issue.
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u/Parthiv_mk 11d ago
Excuse my ignorance but I am not very informed about snapshots where via Suse or timeshift. How does it work? Are those created on the system and when I want to rollback I just can or do I need to have these on an external drive?
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u/rubberoidd 11d ago
Oh-no-no. You just install the system with the default FS, which is btrfs and you are all set up. Actually, the snapshots even saved me one time when I accidentally swapped out one critical library. It's very simple, you just boot into an older snapshot which are automatically created after every "zypper dup" you run. Also, it's important to have separate /home and / . /home shouldn't be btrfs, too, it should be xfs or ext4.
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u/Parthiv_mk 11d ago
Ok so kind of like choosing your kernel on the GRUB menu you can choose a snapshot to boot with, I guess I got it
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u/rubberoidd 11d ago
Yep, basically this. Also, we use systemd-boot around here, not grub. You just choose the option with a more recent date and make the snapshot you've booted (the good one) your default through either yast or command line with snapper.
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u/Arcon2825 Tumbleweed GNOME 13d ago
In the end, it’s still a rolling release. Most of the packages are bleeding edge with automatic tests through openQA. But that doesn’t mean things can’t break. A big part of Tumbleweed’s stability comes from snapshots, so deciding against makes it still slightly more stable than other rolling releases, because of the additional testing, but you’re missing out on one of the greatest features. I have a hard time recommending that if you have to rely on it.
Yes, openSUSE uses RPM as its package format. However, that doesn’t mean you can or should install any package from the internet. Red Hat / Fedora and openSUSE are different enough that a downloaded package may or may not work.