PackageKit is a service that hangs out and checks for updates. On openSUSE is a SystemD service so it runs in the background. This is a nice, neat automated solution to ensure that your system stays up to date.
You can read more about it here from Wikipedia
For some, this does not work well and can just hang. If you don’t want the service running and would prefer to do updates manually, stop and disable PackageKit
If this annoys you feel free to stop PackageKit.
sudo systemctl stop packagekit
Then disable PackageKit if you wish it to not start up again. Keep in mind that this will make Discover mostly unusable.
sudo systemctl disable packagekit
Should you decide that you miss it and long for the return of the notifications on your desktop it is just as easy to start it.
sudo systemctl start packagekit
And if you have determined that your disabling of PackageKit was a mistake, enable it once again:
sudo systemctl enable packagekit
Further Reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PackageKit