14 DAY TRIAL // openSUSE has just announced today, May 16, the immediate availability of the KDE Plasma 5.3 as the default desktop environment in Tumbleweed, along with the KDE Applications 15.04.1 software suite.
openSUSE Tumbleweed is a rolling-release version of the famous OpenSuSE Linux operating system, where all the latest Linux technologies are being deployed but declared stable enough to be used on a daily basis on production machines. KDE Plasma 5.3 now replaces the old KDE4 desktop in the Tumbleweed edition of openSUSE.
In addition to the KDE Plasma 5.3 and KDE Applications 15.04.1 updates, the latest openSUSE Tumbleweed now includes KDE Workspaces 4.11.18, but the fact of the matter is that the openSUSE KDE team will remove all the KDE Workspaces 4.x packages from Tumbleweed in the near future, so users should get used to the KDE Plasma 5 desktop.
"At the time of writing this, the openQA servers were busily running tests and, by the time we publish this article, they should be done," says Jos Poortvliet. "What was being tested? A massive amount of changes, bringing not only the latest Plasma 5.3 and Applications 15.04.1 to Tumbleweed, but also marking the switch to Plasma 5 as the default desktop!"
Here's what you need to know to move to Tumbleweed
Those of you who are interesting in switching to the Tumbleweed version of the openSUSE Linux operating system should check out the Tumbleweed portal, where they will find detailed installation instructions and everything else they need to know about the rolling-release edition of openSUSE.
The openSUSE team instructs current Tumbleweed users about the fact that the patterns have changed, which means that, if they have the KDE Applications pattern installed, it will start to fetch all of the Frameworks 5 based applications, but the desktop environment will remain intact for the time being. Only new installations will get the new KDE Plasma 5 desktop.