Voting Is Now Open for the openSUSE Board Election 2025
Voting for the 2025 openSUSE Board election starts today.
All openSUSE Members have the right to vote and should have received their personal ballot link by email yesterday. Please check your inbox (and your spam folder, just in case) and take a few minutes to cast your vote.
This year we are electing two Board seats, currently held by Simon Lees and Shawn W Dunn. Both Simon and Shawn have stepped forward and are seeking re-election. Joining them on the ballot are Ihno Krumreich and Soc Virnyl Estela.
Voting is open from March 1 until March 8, and we plan to announce the results on March 9.
Full details about the election process can be found here.
Although voting is taking place in 2026, this is officially the 2025 openSUSE Board Election due to a delayed start of the election cycle.
Meet the Candidates
Four members of our community have stepped forward to stand for election this year.
From left to right on the top picture: Shawn W Dunn, Simon Lees, Soc Virnyl Estela, Ihno Krumreich.
In addition to their individual platforms, Luboš Kocman asked all candidates two questions:
1. What is your opinion on the new governance proposal initiated by Jeff Mahoney, and how can the project help ensure the success of the proposed committees?
2. Do you plan to attend openSUSE Conference 2026 in person?
Below is a short overview of each candidate, along with links to their platforms and responses.
Ihno Krumreich (bigiron)
Ihno was nominated by Sarah Julia Kriesch, who described him as a knowledgeable and trusted member of the openSUSE community and part of the openSUSE zSystems Team. She highlighted his openness, experience, and ability to act as a bridge between SUSE and the broader openSUSE community.
The nomination can be read here.
Ihno recently retired after 25 years at SUSE, where he worked for more than 22 years as Project Manager for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for System z. His long experience with enterprise Linux and large-scale development brings deep historical and organizational insight to the project.
The questions addressed to Ihno can be found here.
Shawn W Dunn (sfalken)
Shawn has served on the openSUSE Board since 2024 and is seeking re-election.
In his candidacy announcement, he outlined several ongoing efforts he would like to continue supporting, including governance discussions, moderation policy alignment, questions about the project’s legal status, and representing the community during the transition to a git-based packaging and maintenance workflow.
More about Shawn and his background can be found here.
His responses to the governance and oSC2026 questions can be found here.
Simon Lees (simotek)
Simon has been part of the openSUSE community for more than 15 years and has served multiple terms on the Board. He is also running for re-election.
Simon has expressed strong support for the governance proposal, describing it as an important step toward empowering committees and enabling more contributors to take initiative. He emphasized the importance of trust in newly formed groups and clearer contribution pathways for community members.
His full platform is available here.
His responses to the governance and conference questions can be found here.
Soc Virnyl Estela (uncomfyhalomacro)
Soc, also known as uncomfyhalomacro, is a self-taught developer who began contributing to open source in 2019. He holds a degree in Biology (Major in Microbiology) and contributes to openSUSE as a packager and developer.
He maintains obs-service-cargo and roast, tools that help automate Rust software packaging in the openSUSE Build Service.
Soc views the governance proposal as an opportunity to diversify leadership and distribute responsibilities through new committees. He describes governance as something that evolves through change and experimentation.
His platform can be found here.
His responses to the governance and conference questions can be found here.
If you are an openSUSE Member, please participate and cast your vote before March 8.
If you are an active openSUSE member and haven’t received email with subject openSUSE 2025 Board Election please reach out to Election officials.
Serving on the Board is not an easy task. It requires commitment, thoughtful decision-making, and a steady hand during times of change. We truly appreciate the courage and dedication of all candidates who stepped forward, and we wish them the very best.
Lubos Kocman on behalf
of The Board Election Committee
election-officials@lists.opensuse.org
Member
Futureboy
Linux Saloon 190 | News Flight Night
Linux Saloon 189 | Early Edition
Tumbleweed – Review of the week 2026/9
Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,
This week looks like OBS was faster in building than I was in reviewing the QA results – at least two snapshots would have been releasable, but were replaced before the full tests were done. As a consequence, we have ‘only’ released four snapshots (0220, 0223, 0224, and 0226)
The most relevant changes shipped are:
- upower 1.91.1
- Linux kernel 6.19.3
- libupnp 1.18.0
- libzio 1.12
- pipewire 1.6.0
- poppler 26.02.0
- mdadm 4.5+43
- Mesa 26.0.1
- Mozilla Firefox 148.0
- qemu 10.2.1
- dnf 5.4.0
Things being worked on at the moment and being delivered as soon as QA passes:
- systemd 259.5
- KDE Plasma 6.6.1
- gettext 1.0
- Switch default bootloader on uefi systems to systemd-boot (aligning tumbleweed to microos)
- glibc 2.43: metabug: https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1257250
New toy: Installing Ubuntu on the HP Z2 Mini
The data sheet of my new AI focused mini workstation from HP mentions Ubuntu 24.04 as the supported Linux distribution. I have tried that, but I could not get the installer to run. However, 25.10 installed without any problems, even from an openSUSE branded USB stick :-)
Only the chameleon works with this machine:-)
I must admit that I’m not an Ubuntu fan, but installed it anyway, as Ubuntu is the “official” Linux distro for this machine. GNOME is heavily modified compared to other distros. For GUI apps the focus seems to be shifted to snaps from distro packages.
For now I did not test the in hardware AI support, just tried to collect some first impressions. I ended up installing a few 3D games and playing :-) Having AMD graphics has the advantage that everything works out of box. There is no need for binary only drivers, extra repositories, praying to the binary gods, etc. It just works. Fully open source.
SuperTuxKart :-)
This blog is part of a longer series about my adventures with my new machine and AI. You can reach me to discuss this blog on one of the contacts listed in the upper right corner. You can read the rest of the blogs under the toy tag.
Planet News Roundup
This is a roundup of articles from the openSUSE community listed on planet.opensuse.org.
The community blog feed aggregator lists the featured highlights below from Feb. 20 to 26.
Blogs this week highlight music and Saloons to NVIDIA GPUs and a Git workshop. Blogs also highlight Ubuntu and openSUSE installs on the HP Z2 Mini, KDE Plasma and Krita releases, syslog-ng 4.11’s new features, and openSUSE Tumbleweed’s latest snapshot updates.
Here is a summary and links for each post:
New Toy: Installing Ubuntu on the HP Z2 Mini
Peter Czánik’s Blog revisits and expands on a prior blog covered below about installing Ubuntu 24.04 as an officially supported Linux distribution for the Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395-powered HP Z2 Mini workstation. The 24.04 installer failed to run—while Ubuntu 25.10 installed successfully even from an openSUSE-branded USB stick.
How to Configure KDE Plasma’s “Only Icons” Taskbar Behavior
The KDE Blog explains how to switch the Plasma task manager to “Icons Only” mode for a minimalist desktop layout that displays application icons without window titles or progress indicators. The tutorial walks users through right-clicking the task manager panel, accessing Task Manager Settings, and selecting the “Icons Only” option under the Display Style dropdown.
Version 4.11.0 of syslog-ng Is Now Available
Peter Czánik’s Blog announces the release of syslog-ng 4.11.0 that now enables bidirectional integration with Kafka pipelines. The update introduces Elasticsearch/OpenSearch data stream support, OAuth2 authentication for cloud destinations including gRPC-based modules, load-balancer failover functionality, and more. Fedora 44/Rawhide and openSUSE Tumbleweed updates are expected shortly as the project maintains its commitment to broad platform accessibility.
Krita 5.3 and Krita 6.0 Betas Released
The KDE Blog announces the second beta releases of both Krita 5.3.0 and Krita 6.0.0, which features a completely rewritten text tool with direct canvas editing and OpenType support plus a new knife tool for splitting vector objects in the 5.3 branch. The 6.0 beta introduces foundational Qt6 migration with native Wayland support including color management, fractional scaling, and HDR on Linux.
First Update for Plasma 6.6 Released
The KDE Blog reports that the KDE Community delivered the first bugfix update for Plasma 6.6 one week after its release. The update builds upon Plasma 6.6’s flagship features including OCR text extraction in Spectacle, the redesigned Plasma Keyboard for touch devices, Plasma Setup assistant for post-install configuration and more.
New toy: Installing openSUSE Tumbleweed on the HP Z2 Mini
Peter Czánik’s Blog details his successful installation of openSUSE Tumbleweed on the compact HP Z2 Mini AI workstation after Ubuntu 24.04’s installer crashed and the machine’s finicky USB boot support rejected older flash drives, which requires a USB-C stick and BIOS adjustments including Secure Boot disablement before Linux would install. The Tumbleweed installer with its classic YaST interface worked flawlessly on the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395 hardware, though an unexpected snag emerged post-installation when GRUB2-BLS.
Git Workshop: The Premier Libre Collaboration Tool at LliureJam 2026 Valencia
The KDE Blog covers a Git workshop held at the LliureJAM 2026 event in Valencia, where participants learned about Git as a key free and collaborative version-control tool. The session taught fundamentals for software development, game creation, and documentation management. It was preceded by an install party offering GNU/Linux installation assistance, ad-blocking setup for mobile devices, and guidance on libre social networks.
Free Software Could Change the World of AI Music Overnight
The Assunto Nerd Blog discusses how open-source software is rapidly reshaping the landscape of AI-driven music generation. It highlights how combining open-source models like ACE-Step-1.5 with intuitive frontends such as ACE-Step UI, which allows users to generate full songs in seconds on consumer GPUs.
3 Native FPS Games for Linux
The KDE Blog highlights three free, open-source first-person shooters games available natively on Linux via Flathub. Total Chaos, Wolfenstein: Blade of Agony and The AMC Squad. All three titles offer substantial single-player campaigns with character progression systems while adhering to libre software principles.
Linux Saloon 188 | MX Linux 25.1 Distribution Exploration
The CubicleNate Blog highlights episode 188 of Linux Saloon. The discussion covered MX Linux’s unique positioning between traditional Debian stability and modern usability features, which includes MX Tools for system maintenance, snapshot capabilities via Timeshift, and seamless migration paths for former Windows users seeking a gentle Linux introduction. Participants also debated the distribution’s community-driven governance model and its pragmatic approach to balancing legacy hardware support with contemporary desktop expectations.
Installation of NVIDIA drivers on openSUSE and SLE (G07)
Stefan’s Blog explains how to install the G07 NVIDIA drivers on openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise, which covers both the Open and CUDA repository methods. Users on Tumbleweed, Leap 15.6/16.0, and all current SLE versions must continue using G06 drivers until G07 packages complete QA and become available through official update channels.
Plasma 6.6 Is Here – This Week in Plasma
The KDE Blog covers the official release of Plasma 6.6. The update delivers practical workflow enhancements including per-application volume control via task manager hover, emoji skin tone selection, QR code Wi‑Fi scanning, customizable global themes with automatic day/night switching, and four colorblind accessibility filters including a new grayscale mode. It also introduces smoother high-refresh-rate animations, expanded Wayland accessibility support, flexible virtual desktop options, and gaming improvements.
Librsvg Got Its First AI Slop Pull Request
The Federico’s Blog reports that the librsvg project received two so-called “AI slop” pull request on GitHub despite its code being developed in gitlab.gnome.org with the README warning not to send PRs to GitHub. Both PRs were closed by the submitter within minutes of creation. The author reported the submissions as spam.
openSUSE Tumbleweed Weekly Review – Week 8 of 2026
Victorhck and dimstar report on the six snapshots there were delivered. The review highlights updates including KDE Plasma 6.6’s official arrival in the repository, Mesa 26.0.0 final release, and glibc 2.43 integration—marking major milestones for graphics performance, desktop experience, and core system libraries.
What Windows Doesn’t Let You Do But Linux Does
introduces a video and discussion about capabilities that Linux offers which Windows typically restricts or complicates, aimed at users reconsidering Windows as support ends. The article highlights practical examples like replacing display servers, customizing window management behaviors down to the pixel level, packaging applications in multiple formats without vendor lock-in, and maintaining full control over when and how system updates are applied.
View more blogs or learn to publish your own on planet.opensuse.org.
Version 4.11.0 of syslog-ng is now available
Version 4.11.0 of syslog-ng is now available. The main attraction is the brand new Kafka source, but there are many other smaller features and improvements, as well.
Before you begin
If you happen to use Debian, Ubuntu or the RHEL family of operating systems (RHEL, CentOS, Rocky Linux, Alma Linux, Oracle Linux, etc.) then ready-to-use packages are already available as part of the release process. For details, check the README in the syslog-ng source code repository on GitHub: https://github.com/syslog-ng/syslog-ng/?tab=readme-ov-file#installation-from-binaries The syslog-ng container is also updated to this release: https://github.com/syslog-ng/syslog-ng/?tab=readme-ov-file#installation-from-binaries
I plan to update Fedora 44 and Rawhide soon, just like openSUSE Tumbleweed. For other distributions, you often need to wait a bit more or use third-party repositories. Our 3rd-party repo page has some pointers: https://www.syslog-ng.com/products/open-source-log-management/3rd-party-binaries.aspx
What is new?
The largest new feature is the Kafka source, which allows you to collect log messages from Kafka streams. For many years, syslog-ng had a Kafka destination, allowing you to send log messages to a Kafka-based data pipeline. The Kafka source enables syslog-ng to collect log messages from Kafka, parse and filter log messages, and route them to various destinations. You can learn more about the Kafka source from the syslog-ng documentation at https://syslog-ng.github.io/admin-guide/060_Sources/038_Kafka/README .
Support for Elasticsearch / OpenSearch data streams was also added: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/changes-in-the-syslog-ng-elasticsearch-destination
4.11 also includes many other interesting new features and bug fixes, including:
- OAuth2 support in the cloud-auth module, including gRPC-based destinations
- Failover support in the load-balancer
- Improved performance and lowered resource usage on macOS
- cmake support feature parity with autotools
For a complete list of changes, check the release notes on GitHub: https://github.com/syslog-ng/syslog-ng/releases/tag/syslog-ng-4.11.0
As usual, while we make every effort to make all features work everywhere, it is not always technically possible. For example, compilers and / or dependencies are too old to support gRPC-based modules in older RHEL, SUSE and Debian releases.
What is next?
As usual: feedback is very welcome. If you have any problems with the syslog-ng 4.11.0 release, open an issue on GitHub at https://github.com/syslog-ng/syslog-ng/issues Your report helps us to make syslog-ng better. Of course, we are also very happy about any positive feedback :-)
syslog-ng logo
Originally published at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/version-4-11-0-of-syslog-ng-is-now-available
New toy: Installing openSUSE Tumbleweed on the HP Z2 Mini
Last week I introduced you to my new toy at home: an AI focused mini workstation from HP. It arrived with Windows pre-installed, but of course I also wanted to have Linux on the box.
Documentation mentions that I have to disable secure boot and make a few more changes before installing Linux. I did all the suggested BIOS changes before installing Linux.
The data sheet mentions Ubuntu 24.04 as the supported Linux distribution. I have tried that, but I could not get the installer to run. Along the way I realized that the USB boot support is very picky on this box. Using my old USB sticks, which work perfectly in my laptop and old desktop, does not work at all. Also, changing the USB stick requires you to turn the machine off and on, a simple reboot is not enough. Finally I found a USB-C stick, and that almost worked with Ubuntu 24.04. It booted, but the installer crashed.
The USB sticks I tried
As I have been a S.u.S.E. / openSUSE user for the past 30 years, I did not mind this failure much. I downloaded the openSUSE Tumbleweed installer, and it worked like a charm. Best of all, unlike openSUSE Leap 16.0, Tumbleweed still has the good old YaST installer I used for decades. Installation was quick, easy and rock solid.
Surprise arrived when I rebooted the machine. Windows was not available in the boot menu. As it turned out, Tumbleweed used a new flavor of GRUB2 by default: grub2-bls, but that does not seem to boot other operating systems. There is no supported way to switch back to grub2-efi, so I reistalled openSUSE. Luckily it’s an easy job, and I did not have any data yet on the machine. So, it was just a few mouse clicks.
openSUSE is my daily driver, so I did not spend much time exploring the system. It seems to work just fine. Installing a few games and checking the in hardware AI support comes once I finished installing all operating systems on the machine. Next to Windows I plan to install openSUSE, Fedora and Ubuntu on the Linux side, and FreeBSD as well.
This blog is part of a longer series about my adventures with my new machine and AI. You can reach me to discuss this blog on one of the contacts listed in the upper right corner. You can read the rest of the blogs under the toy tag.
Linux Saloon 188 | MX Linux 25.1 Distribution Exploration
Installation of NVIDIA drivers on openSUSE and SLE (G07)
Important
This blogpost explained how to install the new G07 NVIDIA drivers. It was temporarily available as long as the content of the existing blogpost for installation of G06 NVIDIA drivers was still needed. The existing blogpost meanwhile has been updated to explain the installation of the new G07 drivers. So use that blogpost again from now on.