A typical Linux desktop user is a guy in his twenties who is computer savvy but may very well not be an IT professional. Those are some of the conclusions you can draw from the just-released openSUSE survey results.

The survey, published by OpenSUSE.org, was run for almost three months, and more than 27,000 users participated in it. Novell and the openSUSE group will be using the results to make openSUSE, and its commercial big brother SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) better.

Having viewed success from many angles, Robert J. Herbold now analyzes its perils. Herbold, a Ph.D. in computer science, served as senior vice president of advertising and information services worldwide during his 26-year tenure at Procter & Gamble, then as chief operating officer at Microsoft from 1994 to 2001. In his new book, Seduced by Success, he explores the pitfalls of corporate success: sticking with out-of-date business models and stale branding, allowing products to become outdated, and the triple threat of lethargy, timidity and confusion.

Hewlett Packard will chime in on Intel’s Centrino Pro launch with greater manageability for laptops using the new mobile processor technology.

HP worked early on with Intel to allow IT administrators to secure and manage notebook PCs across a variety of wireless devices, according to Lee Bailey, manager in the client manageability solutions group at HP, in Nashville, Tenn.

The enhanced HP Change and Configuration Center console can now use Centrino Pro technology "to do out of band management over wireless," he said.

Trend Micro is taking its antivirus and content security software and services to a new usage-based, software-as-a-service license model for North American VARs and will offer the program through IT distributor Tech Data.

The deal fits into Tech Data’s ultimate managed services architecture. The Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor announced two other service-based offerings to give VARs a head start into the managed services space last week at its TechSelect conference in Salt Lake City.

Rover Technology Fusions introduced a new data backup product for laptops and notebooks that uses solid-state Flash memory and IBM’s Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files software.

Rover SPARC (Secure Personal Automatic Replication Card) is a USB Flash card about the size of a credit card that offers an automatic backup for electronic files–including office documents, financials and emails. The 2GB-capacity card aims to deliver continuous real-time protection of files and minimize backup and recovery times for individuals and mobile work forces, IBM’s Chris Stakutis, creator of CDP for Files, told eWEEK.

Entitled Malware Evolution: January-March 2007, Kaspersky Lab’s latest report on information security threats, covering the first quarter of 2007, provides an overview of significant virus outbreaks, analyses of current trends in the malware world, and an examination of how malicious programs may continue to evolve.

The report includes details of the unprecedented long and widespread attacks that plagued the Internet late last year, leading up to the major threats of the past three months, including details of how organized groups of cyber criminals compete, as well as what lies ahead for the malware industry.

DYS Analytics debuted EmailTide.com, a blog on corporate email and IM management. With the flood of email and IM impacting productivity and eating into IT budgets, EmailTide.com helps organizations swim, not sink, in the rising tide of messaging overload, by implementing better messaging management practices.

The blog is moderated by Stefan Mehlhorn, CEO of DYS Analytics, who provides unbiased observations and insight based on his over 15 years of expertise in the field.

Lenovo Group has signed a deal with Microsoft to buy Windows, Office and other software suites for its personal computers in a deal worth as much as $1.3 billion.

The agreement emulates one inked in 2006, worth $1.2 billion over one year, to pre-install Microsoft’s Windows operating system software on Lenovo’s computers, deemed a major step in China’s efforts to combat piracy.

Amazon.com and IBM announced they have settled all patent lawsuits between the companies for an undisclosed amount of money paid to IBM and a long-term patent cross-license agreement.

Stampede Technologies announced its Stampede Application Acceleration Series–Mobile Edition, a family of solutions for accelerating and optimizing the performance of complex HTTP, SSL, AJAX and XML applications used by the growing population of mobile users. New features including Advanced Virtual Pipelining, Surge Protection and Persistent TCP Layer 5 Connections significantly accelerate performance and enhance usability for users of Windows Mobile and Linux based devices; from smartphones and PDAs to new application specific devices. Enterprises that deploy Stampede’s Application Acceleration Series–Mobile Edition can directly improve the response time of their Web-enabled applications, optimize the use of existing application servers, and significantly reduce bandwidth utilization to the mobile user.