Alpha Releases of openSUSE Leap 15.3 are Available for Testing

Alpha images of openSUSE’s next stable fixed release openSUSE Leap 15.3 are now available for testing at software.opensuse.org/distributions/testing.

Release Manager Luboš Kocman announced the availability of the Alpha images yesterday in an email to developers on the openSUSE Factory mailing list.

“I’d like to inform you that you can already find openSUSE Leap 15.3 testing images on software.opensuse.org,” Kocman wrote. “You may notice that Installation images for all arches can be now found in the Installation tabs, and the tab Ports no longer exist. This new structure corresponds with the way how we build images in 15.3.”

openSUSE Leap 15.3 is based on the Jump concept that was developed over the past several months, which makes it and SUSE Linux Enterprise compatible. openSUSE Leap aligns with SLE and its Service Packs (SP), which keeps the system updated, stable and patched. Upon General Availability of this release, there will be a whole new level of harmony between Leap 15.3 and SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP3.

The end of CentOS 8 announced last week aligns well for those users who are ready to move away from RedHat’s community enterprise release to a release model with openSUSE Leap, which has a life cycle of about 18 months of maintenance and security updates per minor release.

The point release of Leap 15.3 enters its Alpha build phase. During the Alpha phase, regular Alpha images will be built on a rolling basis until mid-February, when it is scheduled to transition to a Beta build phase. The beta submission deadline is February 12. The Beta phase has a similar model until the General Availability of the release; at GA, the rolling builds stop and Leap transitions into a maintenance and security update phase.

“Any update request to existing packages should be simply submitted against openSUSE:Leap:15.3 and OBS will determine where to redirect the request either to SLE or openSUSE Backports,” the email states. “Please note that new packages need to be currently submitted against openSUSE:Backports:SLE-15-SP3.opensuse-factory@ We know it’s inconvenient and we’ll work with the Autobuild team to make it a default destination place for any new package submission for openSUSE Leap 15.3.”

Distro hoppers, hobbyists, users and tech enthusiasts can download the current builds and help test the releases at software.opensuse.org/distributions/testing.

Users of openSUSE Leap 15.1 have until January of 2021 before it reaches its End of Live and users need to update to Leap 15.2. The Public Availability of Leap 15.3 is scheduled to be released in July, 2021, according to the releases roadmap Users of Leap 15.2 will need to update to the newer version within six months of the release of Leap 15.3.