The openSUSE Tumbleweed rolling-release distribution has published snapshot 20250630, which delivers a mix of core package updates and software enhancements, plus the debut of a significant new component: Myrlyn.
As you informed you earlier, openSUSE’s April 2025 Leap 16.0 beta announcement quietly confirmed a big shift: the traditional YaST stack has been retired in Leap and will enter maintenance-only mode in Tumbleweed, with Myrlyn stepping in as the graphical package-management front end.
Technically, the new tool already covers most of what users expect from YaST’s Software module. Although it also re-uses the longstanding libzypp solver used by YaST and zypper, Myrlyn is a standalone Qt 6/C++ application with no Ruby or YaST dependencies.
Moreover, it significantly improves speed, responsiveness, and overall usability. Myrlyn also introduces user-friendly enhancements, such as a read-only browsing mode and simplified handling of distribution upgrades, which YaST previously lacked.
But beyond all those benefits, there’s another big reason openSUSE is ready to retire the good old YaST, which the distro has depended on for over two decades: its outdated design and the growing effort needed to keep it running.
In short, Myrlyn has a leaner, more maintainable design. By eliminating the dependency on Ruby and consolidating all functionality into a single code repository, openSUSE developers can more easily manage updates, fix bugs, and add new features.
Moreover, this approach significantly reduces the distribution’s installation size and improves performance, especially on minimal and containerized environments.
The transition from YaST to Myrlyn is also closely aligned with other modernization initiatives within openSUSE, including adopting the new Agama installer and Cockpit web interface for system administration tasks.
While Myrlyn focuses solely on software management, configuration tasks previously handled by YaST—such as firewall management, networking, and user administration—will move to other dedicated tools.
So, the expectations are that YaST will gradually enter community-maintenance mode in Tumbleweed, while the upcoming Leap 16 release later this year will fully embrace Myrlyn by default.
For more information about the new openSUSE’s graphical software package and repositories manager, visit its GitHub repo.
