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Oracle Solaris vs openSUSE Leap comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

openSUSE Leap
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
13th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Solaris
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
15th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of openSUSE Leap is 5.7%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Solaris is 2.0%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
openSUSE Leap5.7%
Oracle Solaris2.0%
Other92.3%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

NK
Senior Manager at Cognizant
Provides BTRFS file system, which allows you to take snapshots
I only use the tool for testing purposes on my team, but multiple people use it. We don't make a team effort to install the solution. When it comes to maintenance, we ask our company to buy SUSE Linux Enterprise. My team consists of 13 people. We are currently integrating the solution with Ansible to do some coding. Although not a full-fledged automation, we are integrating the solution with Ansible and executing a couple of playbooks connected to openSUSE Leap. I would recommend the solution to other users looking for an open-source solution. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Shafiq Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of IT at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Long-term server platform has supported secure banking operations and simplified virtualization
Oracle Solaris is a very good operating system. Most of the time, we do not need to change or replace any configuration. If at any point in time we need to change something, it is really simple and a user-friendly environment. Although it is a CLI, Oracle introduced a GUI environment with Solaris 11.5. Currently, 11.5 has the operating system GUI as well as the CLI. The technical persons working on the operating system most of the time prefer to work on the CLI. It is actually really good and easy to use. As it is a server-level operating system, most of the time you do not need any extra features in the operating system because you are not using the operating system on home machines, desktops, or laptop machines. The extra features are not needed if we are talking about the enterprise level or an official operating system.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature by far has been the virtualization capabilities of the operating system."
"The solution is very stable after it is configured. It is hard to have a panel slow, a problem, misconfiguration, or any kind of loss function."
"openSUSE Leap has helped me with using containers in Podman."
"Stable - it just runs without the necessity to reboot."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the BTRFS file system, which allows you to take snapshots."
"The solution is easy for me to use because the backend is derived from FreeBSD and this is something I have been using for over 20 years."
"Oracle Solaris has a graphical interface that is user-friendly, especially with its use of dark colors."
"We use the solution as an internal operating system."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of setup."
"The ability to manipulate the zones and the files within the zones from a global OS provides us flexibility that no other virtualization can match."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"Oracle Solaris provides an ease of use."
"It stands out for its exceptional stability."
"Oracle Solaris's operating system is good."
 

Cons

"Somehow the change from OS12.x via 13.x to Leap was a bit bumpy and some old issues seemed to reappear."
"Like most Linux-based operating systems, the biggest challenge Leap faces is the GUI."
"There is room for improvement in the console."
"It would be helpful if we could easily switch from openSUSE Leap for testing to SUSE Linux Enterprise for production."
"In the future, the Active Directory could improve."
"I would like openSUSE Leap to have better link integration with Windows."
"The solution is pricey and can be improved by lowering the cost."
"Oracle is going to discontinue it, so I do not think any improvement is possible in Oracle Solaris."
"It would be helpful if the solution offered backend management. In the 11.4 version, Oracle added a management console. It would be great if we maybe had a user management tool to go with it."
"They could also enable Oracle OEM for x86 architecture as well."
"When we switch over to Solaris it was not easy because we had some troubles with the performance. Solaris is from Oracle and you would expect that it would run flawlessly, but we had some issues in sizing the previous Linux environment to the Solaris environment."
"Patching without downtime would be nice."
"The Solaris code is open, and the documentation is accessible to all, not only to registered users. Also, the documentation does not support some solutions, and there are no other options."
"If it could support other file systems, it would be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is open-source."
"openSUSE Leap is an open-source solution that is free of cost."
"The cost of this solution was reasonable and it was within our budget."
"This is an open-source operating system that can be used free of charge."
"There is no OS licensing cost if you use their hardware and purchase hardware maintenance."
"The product is inexpensive."
"It is more expensive, but very complete and worth enacting."
"The price is not good and needs to improve."
"If you buy Oracle hardware it's supported free with the hardware. If you're putting it on non-Oracle hardware, that is when you buy the support license, which is also very reasonable. It is $1000 dollars per year, so it's not overly expensive."
"This solution needs a license to use it."
"Its licensing is on a yearly basis."
"We don't use an authorized license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
19%
Educational Organization
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise32
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with openSUSE Leap?
Both openSUSE Leap and the SUSE Enterprise version use the same kernel. Suppose I have a lower environment where I can run openSUSE to test all my products. It would be helpful if I could easily sw...
What is your primary use case for openSUSE Leap?
I use openSUSE Leap for testing purposes. Before officially using any server in our office, we test it using the solution. My office usually uses production servers on the SUSE Linux enterprise ver...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for openSUSE Leap?
openSUSE Leap is an open-source solution that is free of cost.
How does Oracle Linux compare with Solaris?
When comparing Oracle Linux and Solaris, I believe that Linux is more secure and more flexible. It is also very suitable for enterprises that are already Oracle solution users. I found Linux to be ...
What do you like most about Oracle Solaris?
We use the solution as an internal operating system.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Solaris?
I find the pricing of Oracle Solaris to be affordable compared to competitors like Windows.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Solaris 11, Solaris
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Siemens, IVV
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Solaris vs. openSUSE Leap and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.