The first beta-release of the distribution openSUSE Leap 15.6 has been initiated. This release is based on a core set of packages from SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP 6 and includes select user applications from the openSUSE Tumbleweed repository. The universal DVD assembly for download is available, with a size of 4.3 GB (x86_64, AARCH64, PPC64le, 390x). The official release date for openSUSE Leap 15.6 is set for June 12, 2024.
This release is expected to be the final one in the 15.x series, with plans for openSUSE Leap 16 to be developed on the ALP platform in 2025.
Changes in openSUSE Leap 15.6 include updates to various components such as Linux kernel 6.4, Glibc 2.38, Systemd 254, Python 3.11, Dracut 059, Mesa 23.3.4, Pulseaudio 17.0, Pipewire 1.0.3, Podman 4.8, Xen 4.18, KVM 8.1.3, Libvirt 1.0, VIRT-Manager 4.1, DPDK 22.1, OpenVSWITCH 4, OpenSSL 3.1.4, Firewalld 2.0.1, Gnutls 3.8.0, OpenVPN 2.6, QT 5.15.12+KDE147 (QT 6.6.1 also available in the repository), KDE Frameworks 5.114.0, KDE Plasma 5.27.9 (with a transition to KDE branch 6 expected in the next release), and Gnome 45.