Evaluating openSUSE as My Secondary Linux Distro #openSUSE #Linux #Computing #Shorts

This article is a transcript of a video that you can watch by clicking the thumbnail below. Hence, certain statements may not make sense in this text form, and watching the video instead is recommended.

Transcript

If you may have been watching my earlier videos, you know how I evaluated Nobara Linux for a secondary setup on my ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 but failed to set it up the way I intended. The reason it didn't work for me was most likely a combination of the dnf package manager and systemd as an init system.

Now I really enjoyed Gnome shell for how far it has come from where most of us were critic about it a few years ago. So a logical next step would be to look another distro with Gnome shell but with a different base.

Basically, I needed a Linux distribution with:

1. A graphical stack optimized for touchscreens
2. An init system that is easy to work with
3. Software repos to cover at least the ones I could with Void Linux
4. A package manager that wouldn't leave to the issue I encountered with Fedora's DNF

I narrowed down my options to four:

1. Pop!_OS could have been an option, but for the fun of it, I thought I'd keep it last.
2. I was also looking at Solus, but the lack of software packages stopped me from moving in that direction once again.
3. CachyOS was a great choice being Arch-based and AUR in the picture.

I decided to finally give openSUSE a try and between Leap and Tumbleweed, I chose the latter for most up-to-date experience.

Again, adapting my dotfiles for a new Linux distribution isn't much of a deal. What can potentially make a difference is how the system reacts to my preferred software packages and my method of installation that involves setting everything from start to end, all at once.

I did have to make updates to forge and crater in order to familiarize them with openSUSE.

Starting from a fresh install and following through my entire setup process, I was happy to find no issues at all unlike how I did with Nobara. I'll continue to monitor and run tests on this setup, but I'm most certain this is going to be my travel setup going forward.

So while Void Linux still remains my primary Linux distribution across most of my computers, and Pop!_OS helps me work with hybrid graphics better on the T15g Gen 2, openSUSE becomes my travel distro that not only comes with everything I need, but also brings in promise of a robust and reliable computing that wouldn't break when I'm away from my basement for days or weeks.