Evaluating Android’s Froyo
From statically analyzing more than 61 million lines of open-source code for integrity, 45% of the 11,201 defects discovered are considered high-risk, said Coverity in its annual report. The “Coverity SCAN 2010 Open Source Integrity Report,” which scanned 291 widely used open-source projects (including Apache, Linux and PHP), categorized high-risk defects as ones that can result in security breaches, data corruption, system or product crashes, etc.

The results also revealed little change from the 2008 and 2009 results in the type of defects found and the frequency in which they occur, indicating little has changed in the software development testing process, Coverity said.

In addition, Coverity focused specifically on open-source project Android kernel 2.6.32, also known as “Froyo.” Used in the HTC Droid Incredible smartphone, Froyo was found to have about half the defects that would be expected for similar software of the same size, the report said. Also, with one defect for every 1,000 lines of lines of code, Froyo was in line with industry standards for defect density.

However, 88 high-risk defects were discovered in Froyo, 25% of which could cause security vulnerabilities. Accountability for the software’s integrity is fragmented, though, since countless people contribute to the project, but this is a problem commonly seen across all open source, Coverity said. — Katie Serignese

Hurd herding Oracle
At first, he was co-president. Now he’s just president. Mark Hurd’s arrival at Oracle is a clear signal that the company intends to put all of its weight behind hardware.

Hurd is famous for being completely in-touch with his supply chain, and at HP, much of his job was streamlining the company so that he could remain in close contact with that chain. At Oracle, he may have to do that again, but as most of what he’ll be organizing is formerly Sun Microsystems, he’s got free rein to cut anything and everything that is extraneous, and to install new systems to take the place of anything even remotely legacy.

It’s like a blank canvas sitting next to a warehouse full of paints, pastels and pencils. Hurd and Ellison will make a dangerous combination, if you’re IBM, HP, SAP or Dell. They’re all going to have to watch Larry’s boat once it appears on the horizon. — Alex Handy

Ballmer’s risky(?) proposition
At the recent Gartner Symposium, Steve Ballmer announced that Microsoft will support HTML5 above Silverlight and Flash. “We’re dedicated to Silverlight, but with a little different concept on which it was born,” he said.

I can’t tell how his remarks were received either by the audience (consisting mainly of CIOs) or by the general public, but critics took them to mean that Microsoft is capitulating to Apple in the smartphone market. By emphasizing HTML5, Microsoft is losing a chance to lock customers into Windows Phone 7 by using Silverlight, which could mean less profits.

I’m not sure if this will make Windows Phone 7 more or less profitable, but speaking here as a general consumer, I think open standards should trump proprietary standards, all else being equal. Detractors indicated that Silverlight will work better than HTML5, but unless HTML5 turns out to be abysmal, I don’t think Microsoft will suffer too much for this.

Besides, Microsoft has bigger challenges to face when it comes to running up against the iPhone/iPad, anyway. — Adam LoBelia