OpenSUSE Package Management Woes

As a OpenSUSE user at work, I am often confused by the many options I have for updating my system. With Ubuntu I generally just update using the Gnome Software Updater and it works pretty quickly. Software Updater on OpenSUSE takes about 45 minutes to resolve dependencies and is pretty much unusable.

For a newbie, it is impossible to figure out the difference between RUG, ZMD, Zypper, Smart, Apt4RPM, Software Updater, YAST, Libzypp, etc. However, one of the tech gurus here has recommended that I turn off the updater and use zypper. So, all I do is go to the command line and type “Zypper Update” and it works like magic.