64-bit

OpenSUSE's development has always been closely tied to SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE). However, Leap 15.5 is the first release to use source packages from SLE. According to the openSUSE download page, this move is intended to increase the stability of this already mature distribution. The release will receive maintenance and security updates until the end of 2024. Those who require longer support can migrate to SLE commercial support.

Leap 15.5 continues openSUSE's practice of expanding its inclusion of recent technologies, such as containers, immutable systems, virtualization, and embedded development. On the desktop, the introduction of KDE Plasma 5.27 means a new welcome wizard, enhanced features for KRunner, the refinement of the color picker and the ark compression utility, the Kate editor, and the Kdenlive video editor. In addition, the new Flatpak version features enhanced security, while advanced users can explore a faster version of the Vim editor that introduces a new scripting language, as well as netavark, a tool for networking containers, and a new repository for Cisco's OpenH264 codec, whose packages are released under a BSD license. For all levels of users, Leap 15.5 is an incremental upgrade built on the stable base of a long history of development.