I ran opensuse for several years. It's not a bad distro, probably what
I'd still be using if I hadn't discovered ubuntu. If you have the time,
it's always good to learn more than one flavor of linux. Ubuntu is deb
based, suse is rpm based, so you'd get some good exposure to the other side.

Suse is a lot heavier than ubuntu and installs a whole lot more stuff by
default. Try it and see.

I ran Suse for several weeks and wiped it out.
I tried CentOS and PCLinuxOS using an old graphics card (with my built-in
graphics card it is impossible):
sites.google.com/.../adsl-pppoe-configuration-und\
er-various-linux-distributions

and an older version of Knoppix:
sites.google.com/.../snapshots-of-knoppix-li\
nux-on-my-pc

As alternatives to Ubuntu on desktops I would recommend Mepis, Antix Mepis,
CentOS, Debian, PCLinuxOS, Dreamlinux (I used it but wiped it out), Fedora or
even Knoppix or Kanotix.
For very convinced Windows users I would recommend Slax, NimbleX, Knoppix,
Puppy or a puplet and Damn Small Linux.

Depends if you are running Gnome or KDE. I like it, but came back to Ubie

In OpenSUSE there is a good option for a good XFCE, also. It can be installed
quite easily (but slowly).

I hate openSUSE's KDE4
Sadly, the OpenSUSE repositories are poorer than those of Ubuntu.

By the way, for using XFCE in Ubuntu I do not recommend any more to

sudo aptitude install xubuntu-desktop

Rather than this, install an original, serious XFCE

sudo aptitude install xfce4

I have both K/Ubuntu 9.10 (and 10.04 alpha 3) and openSuSE 11.2 installed.

Both are very robust and complete, but different approaches. OpenSuSE has many
built in tools whether you use the KDE or GNOME version. Ubuntu (GNOME) and
Kubuntu (KDE) use the default GNOME and KDE tools. Canonical has said that it
does this out of support to the respective projects. Mint has stepped into the
breach and filled this void by adding tools of its own for those who want them.
I don't see the need. You can't beat Synaptic for a package manager and I have
never had a need for networking help and some of the other things that Mint
offers.

Problems that I have with openSuSE (and I have used it from before Novell bought
them) are package management, stability, control over the boot process and lack
of applications. Yast (package manager) just plain sucks, IMO. I am not a big
fan of RPMs in general. SuSE is one of the easier distros for me to break and
that is saying something as I install lots of distros and applications. SuSE
does not pick up many of my partitions and drives and automatically make boot
entries in the boot loader. If you want lots of applications then Ubuntu wins
hands down.

However, openSuSE is a good choice for many people. It has a good community and
lots of help from the parent Novell.

I have installed just about every main distro and used them over periods of
years. I keep on coming back to K/Ubuntu (I write it this way because I use both
KDE and GNOME). It just offers the best experience for me. It is aggressively
developed, it is well supported, has a large and great community, it has lots of
resources such as forums, RSS feeds and podcasts devoted to it, it has the best
package format (DEB), it has the most applications and it works great on my
hardware. However, Linux users should try out lots and find what works for them.
It is all about freedom and choice.