Improving YaST Software Management Performance
I noticed that ZMD runs for quite a while when your machine boots. ZMD is used to manage software through YaST. SUSE has its own software that works fine and does not appear to be such a machine hog as ZMD.
To shut of ZMD open a Konsole (ALT + F2 then type konsole) and enter the following.
chkconfig -s novell-zmd off
After running the command I no longer experienced the resource hogging that ZMD appears to have caused.
If the SUSE Updater does not start after you reboot then start it manual from the menus.
System->Desktop Applet->openSUSE Update Applet
If you haven’t installed SUSE yet I recommend this instead.