The openSUSE Release Team says openSUSE Leap 16.1 is close to its Release Candidate (RC) stage, with general availability planned for November.

Leap Release Manager Luboš Kocman told the openSUSE project mailing list that the next build was expected to qualify as the RC. He said it should reach openQA, which is openSUSE’s automated testing system soon.

Kocman said recent changes merged into SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 16.1 had caused an additional delay.

The RC build is expect to arrive this week.

Testers can help by grabbing the latest image from get.opensuse.org/testing, picking a test from the Leap 16.1 manual test plan (high-priority and untried tests help most), and recording their result with their openSUSE username and build number; participants will receive an openSUSE Kudos badge as a thank-you.

The official roadmap had the RC build set for Sept. 16. The build is now running about a week behind that date.

The team plans to produce about one build per week during the RC phase to find and fix any remaining release blockers.

The release team says testing matters most at this stage. Users and contributors can help by:

• Running their usual workflows on the RC builds and reporting critical issues to openSUSE Bugzilla.
• Checking the non-blocking bug list for items assigned to them.

Saved bug queries and known issues are on the openSUSE Known Bugs 16.1 wiki page, and the full schedule is on the openSUSE Roadmap.

Leap 16.1 and SLES 16.1 will launch on the same day because of feedback from the Leap 16.0 release retrospective. Shipping together means Leap users won’t face a gap between the release and the first maintenance updates. Those updates arrive with the SLES 16.1 GA and flow directly to Leap.

What’s New: Notable Package Updates

Leap 16.1 brings a range of desktop, developer, and server updates compared with Leap 16.0:

Package	Leap 16.0	Leap 16.1
KDE Plasma	6.4.2	6.6.4
KDE Frameworks	6.16.0	6.25.0
Qt	6.9.1	6.11.0
GNOME Shell	48.4	48.8
LibreOffice	25.2.5	26.2.5
PipeWire	1.4.6	1.6.8
NetworkManager	1.52.0	1.54.3
GRUB	2.12	2.14
QEMU	10.0.13	11.0.3
Podman	5.4.2	5.8.2
LLVM	19	21
PHP	8.4.24	8.5.8
MariaDB	11.8.8	12.3.2
Samba	4.22.11	4.23.10
Git	2.51.0	2.53.0

KDE users get the biggest jump: two Plasma feature releases and nine Frameworks releases, built on a newer Qt 6.11. On the server and virtualization side, QEMU moves to a new major version, MariaDB jumps to the 12 series, and PHP moves to 8.5.

There are currently no known release blockers.

The original announcement and follow-up are in the openSUSE project mailing list thread.

therealthings.com hat dem Pool ein Foto hinzugefügt:

Some photographs are carefully planned, but the moments that make them special are often the ones you couldn't have planned for.
During my latest trip to Japan, I had a small alley on my photography wishlist where the Tokyo Skytree was perfectly framed between the surrounding buildings. I knew the location offered an interesting perspective, and I was quietly hoping someone would walk through the alley to add a human element to the composition.
After setting up my tripod and getting everything ready, something rather unexpected happened. A chef from one of the restaurants along the alley stepped out through the back door to have a quick cigarette break. Pretty much exactly what I had been hoping for!
He immediately apologized for getting in the way of my shot. Meanwhile, I was desperately trying to explain, using a combination of hand gestures and whatever little communication we could manage, that I was actually very happy he was there. I even asked if he minded me taking a photograph of him.
To my surprise, he seemed perfectly happy with the idea and even offered to pose for the shot. I told him there was no need for that and that he should simply carry on with his cigarette break as he normally would.
He took a few quick drags, gave me a deep bow, and disappeared through the back door into the restaurant kitchen. Just like that, the moment was over.
I was delighted to have captured the scene I had imagined, although the unexpected encounter made the photograph much more interesting than I had anticipated. I hope I didn't startle the poor guy too much with my enthusiasm!
It's these little, unscripted moments that I enjoy so much about street photography. You can plan your location, composition, and camera settings, but you never know who might walk into your frame. Sometimes, all you need is a little patience and a bit of luck.