[fffrantz]

The default way zypper (the package manager) updates installed patterns is to include every recommended package in the pattern.

For example, if you update the pattern "gnome", it will by default reinstall cheese, even if you uninstalled it before.

Thankfully, they thought about this and there is a flag you can use (--no-recommends) to avoid reinstalling all recommended packages. It really is a minor annoyance, but I understand it could be annoying for new and inexperienced users.