openSUSE Tumbleweed is a rolling release Linux OS. It is general-use and is community-supported, and claims to be very easy to use. openSUSE is also available in a more traditional regular release version called Leap. The website for Tumbleweed states the following about its rolling release version:
Any user who wishes to have the newest packages that include, but are not limited to, the Linux kernel, SAMBA, git, desktops, office applications and many other packages, will want Tumbleweed. Tumbleweed appeals to Power Users, Software Developers and openSUSE Contributors. If you require the latest software stacks and Integrated Development Environment or need a stable platform closest to bleeding edge Linux, Tumbleweed is the best choice for you.
Downloading
Downloading Tumbleweed is simple enough, visiting https://get.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/#download shows just a few options for downloads, including an x86_64 and 32 bit version. Today, we will download the x86_64 version, which comes in at 4.2GiB.
We are also running Virtualbox 7.0.14.
Installation
Once launched, openSUSE will prompt us to select Boot from Hard Disk or Installation. Selecting Installation starts a visual installer.
The installer asked some basic questions like to enable online repositories and to enable OSS and non-OSS software. Then will prompt you for the desktop environment you would like to install, options include KDE Plasma, Gnome, XFCE, and an unknown “Generic Desktop” option.
Today we will select KDE Plasma. On the next page it will suggest 3 partitions, one for boot, one for /, and one for swap. Interesting to see that btrfs is used in place of the more common ext4.
After selecting our region and inputting our username, the actual installation begins.
Usage
Once rebooted, we are greeted with the login screen.
After logging in, we are greeted by the desktop. openSUSE uses a standard software selection to most Linux distributions, you will find Firefox, LibreOffice, VLC, and a few “k” games. Using the “Info Center” we can see that we are using KDE Plasma 6.0.3 and Xorg 21.1.12. Updating is as easy as using the “YaST Control Center” or using a couple commands.
sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper list-updates
sudo zypper update
Conclusion
If you are used to standard Linux software and KDE applications, you will feel right at home with openSUSE Tumbleweed. A couple of things in the installation I wouldn’t consider “beginner-friendly” but I feel the operating system itself is very easy to use for anybody once it is up and running. KDE is simple enough and feels great in the hands of a Windows user.