I should've specified that at every Leap release, packages are drawn from Tumbleweed, not constantly rolling in from Tumbleweed in between releases. Sorry for any confusion.

OK, I misunderstood you. Nonetheless, since openSuse is the distro I usually recommend to newbies I will give this a try once it is released. I like the concept of being in sync with the enterprise release for stability.

Amen on it being a good intro distro, although it's really good for everyone. I was able to fumble through YaST's help button the first time I installed it 8 years ago, and it still suits my needs as a moderately skilled power user today.

Since 32-bit support is dropped, i find the usability for OpenSUSE as a general mainstream Linux distribution quite insufficient.

OpenSUSE has for me been a distribution i can install on much about everything being an x86 32 or 64 bit computer. A powerful multiprocessor server as well as an old laptop that will get a prolonged life as a Linux laptop. Both big and small.

Dropping 32-bit support is going in the other direction than what i want.
Ideally, linux should work on at least a 486 as well as a spanking fresh 4x12 core 64-bit server.
It should also be able to work on ARM cpu's, and if i may wish, also Sparc.
I want to have it in my phone. Well i have CyanoGenMOD.

32-bit X86 has such a long inheritance, and many applications do not actually need to be 64-bit.
It is not so long ago "Slackers" wanted to have 64-bit support in Slackware. Many with me abandoned the main Slackware to go for SlaMD64 - Which basically was slackware reworked with 64-bit libs et cetera.
This was such a success that it got incorporated into Slackware. But there are still some 32-bit hardware running out there.
I feel it is way to early to drop 32-bit.
Maybe it is my age and wisdom making me not clearly see the beauty in scrapping things just because it is not bleeding edge?

I have had some grief with OpenSUSE 12 until 12.3 got released, and then came 13.1. Both of theese are usable, but with some caveats. Maybe the biggest being systemd? I thought 13.2 would be even better than 13.1. But looking at available packages, it lacks some compared to 13.1. And there are some really strange bugs around systemd that does not seem to be adressed. I have been reverting back to using 13.1 instead of 13.2, eagerly waiting for a 13.4 that would sort out all the issues and give a rather good and reliable release.

Now this LEAP came along.
I don't think i want to take this leap.
I will probably be standing here, at the edge of a cliff/chasm, waving goodbye to all the pioneers taking a brave leap out into the air.

Please try to convert me. Let me see the light!
I want to be convinced that things are going in the right direction with OpenSUSE. But i feel the door is closing on OpenSUSE. I feel it is turning into a toy which can be used to demo new shiny desktop features that nobody wanted, and that require specialized spanking new hardware to (erh) run.

Well, OpenSUSE isn't alone. It is in good company with it's comrades Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Bye bye.

for me dropping of the 32 bit support is fine

years ago opensuse 11.2 NEVER worked well on the Pentium4 box with 1 gig ram

it literally would take 20 to 30 SECONDS to open the home folder from the desktop
and it took 5+ min to boot

usable ???? NO!!!
but
fedora 4,5,6,7,8 all ran fine on this same computer

There are plenty of distros aimed at older hardware that provide 32 bit versions. If openSuse decides to go for 64 bit only that is fine with me, nowadays even low end machines are 64 bit capable (AMD introduced x86-64 in 2003, Intel in 2004).

sometimes you have to make decisions, maybe Ubuntu is what you want

for openSUSE something like this https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:ARM is much more important than supporting machines that basically do not exist any more.
and I am not sure about openSUSE on a phone ....

I did see somewhere that there was talk about doing another port project (akin to the CentOS 32-bit port) for 32-bit in openSUSE Leap. Plus Tumbleweed still does 32-bit, for now.

one of the issues for 32 bit support is NOT the CPU
but the the hardware

old 32 bit ATI and Nvidia cards are not supported on some OS's

just try to use opensuse on a Gforce5 ( 173 or 96 nvidia driver )or older

if Nouveau dose not work you are S.O.L
and those old MOBO's might not have a thermometer on them
if not the nouveau driver will cause it to OVER HEAT!!!!

Is there a 32 bit Windows 7 ?
Is there a 32 bit Windows 8 ?
Is there a 32 bit Windows 10 ?

Yes, yes and yes.

Personally I think it's foolish to drop 32-bit support, as now openSUSE has a limited legacy and architecture support than Wingdows, but since I'm mostly on 64-bit hardware I don't really care. I also think loosing Live CDs is a fairly bad regression.