openSUSE Leap 15.3 to Reach End-of-Life

Users of openSUSE Leap 15.3 will not be receiving security and maintenance updates once the version goes EOL (end of life) on the last day of 2022.

Marcus Meissner gave users advanced notice on the announcements mailing list on Nov. 30, but the lifecycle of Leap is frequently communicated to users.

An EOL ends updates for the operating system minor version and those who continue to use EOL versions will be exposed to vulnerabilities because these discontinued versions no longer receive security and maintenance updates. This is why users need to upgrade to the newer minor release; openSUSE Leap 15.4!

Users can upgrade from 15.3 to 15.4 by downloading the iso image or following the instructions on how to upgrade, which is found on https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade.

For new installations, download openSUSE Leap 15.4 images at https://get.opensuse.org/leap/. The Leap 15.4 release is expected to be maintained and supported with security patches until it reaches its EOL in November 2023. Leap 15.5 is expected to be released at the beginning of June 2023, according to the roadmap.

Users interested in changing from the point release version can look at moving to Tumbleweed, which has frequent updates, or to a next generation operating system like MicroOS.

Make sure to backup your /home directory and any configuration files you want to save.