openSUSE Leap 15.4 Enters Release Candidate Phase

The openSUSE Project has entered the Release Candidate phase for the next minor release version of the openSUSE Leap distribution.

The upcoming release of Leap 15.4 transitioned from its Beta phase to Release Candidate phase after Build 230.2 passed openQA quality assurance testing.

“Test results look pretty solid as you’d expect from RC,” wrote release manager Lubos Kocman in an email on the openSUSE Factory mailing list yesterday. “My original ETA was Wednesday, but we managed to get (the) build finished and tested sooner.”

The new phase also changes the new offering of Leap Micro, which is a modern lightweight operating system ideal for host-container and virtualized workloads, into its Release Candidate phase.

The RC signals the package freeze for software that will make it into the distribution, which is used on servers, workstations, desktops and for virtualization and container use.

The Leap 15.4 Gold Master (GM) build is currently scheduled for May 27, according to Kocman, which is expected to give time for SUSE Linux Enterprise changes and its Services Pack 4 GM acceptance; this will allow for the pulling in of any translation updates and finish pending tasks such as another security audit.

Kocman recommends Beta and RC testers use the “zypper dup” command in the terminal when upgrading to the General Availability (GA) once it’s released.

During the development stage of Leap versions, contributors, packagers and the release team use a rolling development method that are categorized into phases rather than a single milestone release; snapshots are released with minor version software updates once passing automated testing until the final release of the GM. At that point, the distribution shifts from a rolling development method into a supported release cycle where it receives updates until its End of Life (EOL). View the openSUSE Roadmap for more details on public availability of the release.

The community is supportive and engages with people who use older versions of Leap through community channels like the mailing lists, Matrix, Discord, Telegram, and Facebook. Visit the wiki to find out more about openSUSE community’s communication channels.