I wondered why gnome is blah in open suse, in ubuntu it is so much more alive and you can move around so much more easily? Is there a way to dress it up a bit more in open suse? 
What do you mean by āmove aroundā?
If you find it tough to use suse start menu (slab menu) you can replace it with the traditional one.
Right click on the gnome panel and choose āAdd to Panelā. Then choose āTraditional Main Menuā
Then you can right click on the slab menu and remove it.
Is there a way to put a toolbar up on the top along with the one on the bottom and have the menu items drop down from the top?
For a second there I thought someone had hacked my account 
Iāve heard this mentioned many times about GNOME in openSUSEā¦ but I guess it comes down to personal preference as Iām quite fond of the GNOME version in openSUSE.
The SLAB menu and the way the control center and YaST integrate make it very easy to find your way around. I found this a nicer DE to start off with when coming from Windowsā¦ Even though KDE is known for itās more advanced interface I still mainly stick to GNOME.
When working with Ubuntu (or Fedora) I always mis the openSUSE polish in GNOME and then wonder why others think there is such a BIG difference other than an other way of handling your menu and tools.
The biggest difference to me is YaST.
As far as estheticās goā¦ It would be nice if the default theme and panel would get some touching upā¦ but thatās easily fixed by setting your own themes -I have also read they are planning on pimping the theme up a bit.
To get some idea of possible themes:
GNOME: The Free Software Desktop Project
Eyecandy for your GNOME-Desktop - GNOME-Look.org
It can take a bit of searching for the right combination, but using the appearance applet you can drag a downloaded theme, icon set and other themed items onto the applet and then customize your desktop looks.
To add a new panel just right click on the existing panel to add and customize as you wish.
You can also drag your default panel to any sideā¦ you will first need to set it so you are āallowedā to move itā¦
lol! rotfl!
Thanks Magic and Freed 
You can add some eye candy and also useful stuff to Gnome in openSUSE.
I use cairo-dock (installed from YaST) for eyecandy and devilspie (installed from YaST) to put windows where I want them. Iāve got some nice widgets on my desktop using screenlets (installed from YaST).
Just three programs openSUSE provides that let you spiff up the Gnome desktop.
Sadly about the only thing openSUSE doesnāt provide is this fine desktop background.