Leap roadmap details released

The second milestone for openSUSE’s newest distribution Leap is scheduled for release Sept. 4.

The release of the milestone will start to align Leap 42.1 with SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 Service Pack (SP) 1, which recently had a similar roadmap release. The source code from SP 1 will be included in the newest milestone because Leap and SLE share a common core. Future releases of Leap will align with future SUSE service packs.

“Milestone 2 is really the release everyone should test,” said release manager Stephan “Coolo” Kulow.

Leap’s Beta release will follow Milestone 2 on Sept. 24, which will freeze the version and only major, critical and blocker bugfixes will be allowed.

“If someone is missing a package or a version update, now is a good time to see what needs to be done,” Kulow said. “After mid-September, Leap is basically frozen.”

An important date people should be aware of is Sept. 20 because that is the freeze point for items to be included in the Beta and Leap.

Developers wanting to include their packages in Leap should ensure their Factory packages are releasable by Sept. 20.

“We have to sync with Factory changes and SLE 12 SP 1 changes,” Kulow said about the roadmap for Leap. “We will not be able to align with SP1 completely. We will have to release maintenance updates.”

Most of the things SUSE does for polishing its SPs will need to be released as an online update because SLE SP1 has a different schedule than Leap, he said.

“People can start producing maintenance updates for Leap” in the form of patches beginning Oct. 1, said Richard Brown, chairman for openSUSE.

Artwork for Leap like Grub, Plymouth and other items should also be submitted through github Sept. 20. Those who want to contribute to this effort should clone the Leap-42.1 branch in openSUSE branding and submit a pull request to @sysrich. A branch was also started for Tumbleweed, which provides openSUSE a significant opportunity to advance the visual appearance of both distributions.. Anyone wanting to clean up items in these branch is welcome, but please note that the items are also in the script.

Oct. 1 is the cut off date for allowing packages to change because of licenses and legal reviews.

The RC1 release will be Oct. 15 and the Goldmaster is scheduled for Oct. 30, so translations, release notes and localization of the release should be completed by Oct. 30.

Leap is scheduled to be released at 14:00 UTC during SUSECon in Amsterdam on Nov. 4.

Media should email ddemaio@suse.com for more information.