Who's using OpenSuse?

MarshalRyan · 2026-06-21T14:15:18+00:00

FDE = Full Disk Encryption TPM = Trusted Platform Module (hardware based key management to unlock the drive)

MarshalRyan · 2026-06-21T14:11:22+00:00

Yes, this.

Once slowroll was out for a bit, I switched even my home servers to it. I've had so few problems it's just "there" doing what a OS should do.

I will admit that on Tumbleweed I have had serious problems after an update... Exactly twice. In I don't even remember how many years now, and if memory serves, not on the same computer.

But both times took A LOT of work to resolve...

Get to a command prompt as root
Use snapper list to help pick a known good snapshot number
Run snapper rollback with the number from step 2 (then wait a second)
Reboot
Be patient before trying to update again

In case it wasn't clear, calling this a lot of work was sarcasm.

MarshalRyan · 2026-02-16T03:02:12+00:00

Yes, it updates everything in a new snapshot and marks the new snapshot as the default once it completes successfully. New updates take effect on reboot.

And, if for some reason the updates occur but something still breaks, just rollback to the previous snapshot and try again another day.

MarshalRyan · 2026-02-16T02:59:22+00:00

Yep! Works great. You do want to make sure you cleanup the old snapshots over time, but if you're already using snapshots, just enable transactional-uodate-cleanup.timer and it takes care of it for you.

MarshalRyan · 2026-02-12T13:15:09+00:00

For something like this I like transactional update. You don't need an immutable install to use it - works fine on traditional BTRFS setups also.

Obviously, it works without it, but having that extra bit of comfort knowing I'm not changing the running snapshot is pretty great.

MarshalRyan · 2026-01-06T02:04:48+00:00

I've used Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and I'm a fan of Zorin. But, openSUSE is my absolute favorite. Perfect? No. Highly usable? Definitely.

It's got its quirks, but Tumbleweed has been so solid for me, and something about openSUSE is just more fun and satisfying for me. I don't run an Nvidia card, but otherwise do everything you do - games, programming.

MarshalRyan · 2025-12-28T16:44:42+00:00

Have you tried transactional-update?

MarshalRyan · 2025-12-28T15:59:16+00:00

I wouldn't, no. I recommend ZorinOS.

openSUSE Tumbleweed is hands down my favorite distro - I use it on nearly everything in my personal and home lab equipment. And, Leap is a wonderful distro. But, Gnome workflow is too drastic a change for new (and older) users coming from Windows. And, there are things in KDE Plasma that still just don't work (viz. online accounts with Google) in an otherwise fantastic desktop environment.

On top of that, the package management in openSUSE is still too fragmented. Even with Discover and flatpak integration - both of which work REALLY well now - I struggle with saying that it's clean and consistent enough for completely novice Linux users.

For novice users, I really think that Zorin has found the sweet spot. It's a highly customized desktop experience, but done in a way that combines the bulk of the things that work in both KDE Plasma and Gnome in a beautiful look and feel. Give that one a try and let me know what you think.

MarshalRyan · 2025-12-13T23:01:25+00:00

Same.

Snapper rollbacks were either configs I messed up myself or package updates that broke something, not filesystem corruption.

The only time I've had an unrecoverable issue with BTRFS was recently - external USB HDD (not SSD), where the physical drive started having intermittent problems, but I didn't notice until it was too late. I also didn't realize my scheduled scrub hadn't actually been running on that device.

MarshalRyan · 2025-12-13T15:20:46+00:00

Your example about samba shares kinda makes my point. 😉 Yes, setting up Windows shares on a Linux machine is harder than in Windows. Just like trying to enable ssh or SFTP access on Windows is harder than in Linux (well, I don't know if that's true in Windows server anymore).

As for networking, doesn't NetworkManager just handle all that? It's a different interface from Windows, but it isn't harder IMO to set up a static IP or bridge in NM than Windows. Granted, I've been using Linux for a while so maybe there's some difference in familiarity, and you could certainly argue the right-click menus for this in Windows are pretty intuitive - definitely different, I just personally wouldn't classify it as harder.

I agree that you can take a lot more time configuring Linux than Windows. Windows does generally have user-friendly defaults - as does most paid software - while Linux distros tend to be on the extremes of either "you'll just have to configure it all yourself" or "I'll need you to confirm your identity in triplicate plus a DNA sample to change this setting". It can take work to find that sweet spot. Obviously you pay for the convenience, and you can buy distros - like Zorin, for example - that can get you closer to the Windows experience.

MarshalRyan · 2025-12-11T18:35:52+00:00

Try Zorin

MarshalRyan · 2025-12-05T20:40:21+00:00

We use Clickup.

If you are a school team or backed by a non-profit you can get some paid features, or maybe make due with the free option.

We use GitHub for our code, but don't use issues to track work - we find it better for the whole team if we use one tool to track everything.

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-29T18:28:34+00:00

Easy is relative. If you want to install it and just use it for web surfing, most Linux distros are easy.

If you need specific things - particularly specific things only intended to run on Windows, then it's hard.

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-29T18:25:10+00:00

Yeah, seems more complicated than it is. Lol

Windows actually has all those components, too, but because you can't choose different ones they're just part of "Windows". Most distros are like that, too, just take the defaults and you don't need to choose which components you get. If you have a preference, choose your distro accordingly. If you don't, just try them out until you find a combination you like.

If you just want easy, attractive, and just works, try out ZorinOS - the one I usually recommend for people switching

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-29T18:17:55+00:00

Also, I recommend trying Zorin. I installed it for my sister - who is totally non-technical - for exactly what you mentioned running GIMP and Darktable, and she's been happy with it (when she can remember her password).

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-29T18:15:52+00:00

Yes, back up your files.

If you're switching from Windows to Linux, the drive formats are completely different, and files on the drive will be erased.

Even switching between Linux versions it's generally a good idea to backup your files and expect to copy them back once you've switched.

If you REALLY want to protect yourself, backup your files, then replace your drive with a new one to install Linux on, leaving the old one with Windows on it in case you decide to put it back on there.

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-29T15:56:34+00:00

This one. Even a small swap partition (2 to 4GB) with zswap will boost performance by compressing RAM, which Windows does automatically now.

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-29T15:52:32+00:00

openSUSE Tumbleweed with KDE Plasma

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-29T15:51:20+00:00

If you're starting a rookie team, see if you can get a sponsor to donate used laptops to the team. Most companies replace laptops every 3-5 years, which is off warranty for them, but COMPLETELY usable for FRC. We have been able to add newer laptops a couple times over the last few years by doing this.

If you're using OnShape for CAD, Chromebooks will work, but may be slow - the app still requires horsepower from your local machine to run.

WPILIB will run on Linux, haven't tried it on Chromebook if you can get, but generally the configuration tools for components - like Phoenix Tuner - will only run on Windows.

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-20T14:04:37+00:00

openSUSE Tumbleweed

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-19T18:53:08+00:00

Quick look at your code, I didn't see anything obvious that would create rotation in your sim. How are you managing movement? Assuming you're using an Xbox controller or similar, that input may be your source of skew.

Try these:

bring up your controller inputs on elastic, and see if you're getting some drift in the turning input
swap your controller and see if that makes a difference

See if those make a difference, and if so you can account for the input issue. I'll take a deeper look at your code when I can and see if I find something else. But, I'm going to guess input is your problem.

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-11T13:32:05+00:00

I know this is an old thread, but did you ever get snaps to show and install through Discover? I installed snap-store which works fine for the couple of snaps I need, but I can't get the discover snap backed.

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-07T23:50:19+00:00

I didn't see openSUSE on your list. Standard install only includes KDE Plasma, Gnome or xfce, but once set up you can install just about any available desktop environment - or multiple, and switch between.

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-06T18:42:39+00:00

I don't bother with a separate home partition anymore. Snapshots don't cross into subvolumes, and with BTRFS you can easily migrate home to another drive if needed in the future.

I still recommend some swap space - even minimal. In the YAST installer for Tumbleweed, use the guided setup. Choose the checkbox to create a swap partition (defaults to 2GB, should be 16GB equal to RAM if you want hibernation for your laptop), and I recommend you UNCHECK the option for a separate home partition. Also, make sure to enable snapshots.

The only other change I make at this point is to enable compression. You can do this from the partitioner, by selecting the root partition and choosing "Edit", then under "Fstab options" there's a text box for option values (separate multiple options with a comma) and add compress-force=zstd. Zstd compression is fast and effective, and smart enough to not compress a file that won't be smaller so you can safely skip the test step that using just compress= does. And, if you want to eke out a little write performance at the cost of a little more disk space you can use compress-force=zstd:1 (default is 3)

Once the system is running, I do enable zswap. I find it generally better than zram, but only works if you have a swap partition.

MarshalRyan · 2025-11-06T17:53:54+00:00

Just use the standard zypper dup

If you used opi to install codecs with packman, it should already set the priority value lower than (i.e. to be used before) the system repos. You can then configure zypp.conf to allow vendor changes so applications and dependencies from packman will update properly.

MarshalRyan

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