Webkit everywhere
Mozilla Foundation's Gecko used to be "the" choice for embedding a HTML renderer into any application. Having the very popular Firefox web browser as its main success case, the Gecko engine seems to provide quite efficient web content rendering times. However, what the KDE project started as their own web content rendering engine (KHTML and friends) was transformed by Apple into Webkit, the engine used in their Safari web browser.
After porting Safari (and also Webkit, consequently) to Windows, it is pretty clear that the engine released by Apple is actually extremely portable. Additionally, Alp Toker just showed in Bossa Conference 2008 that Webkit's performance is excellent, while also keeping a small memory footprint.
Web 2.0-ready
Toker stressed the point of asynchronous operation support, that must be available in future mobile devices. It is really a requirement, because users should be able to close (or lose) their connections at any time and keep working on the web apps they were using, eventually re-syncing when connection is restablished.
Webkit can play HTML5 videos without any proprietary plug-ins, with GStreamer. Also, it can reverse the current concept of GUIs with small web portions, into full GUIs designed with HTML5 forms. These GUIs would look exactly like the graphics toolkit used, as Alp showed in his speak at the event, with "perfectly native widget styling".
Webkit is still under heavy development – which isn't all bad news. It has been experiencing a lot of "project-wide refactoring", which is currently encouraged, according to the developer. Among its not-so-usual ports are OpenMoko – quite a recurring word in this edition of Bossa Conference – and, tentatively, the OLPC and the iLiad e-paper.
Issue 43_SI: LibreOffice Expert/Special Editions
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
EndeavorOS 21.4 Has Arrived
Arch-based EndeavorOS 21.4 is finally available for download with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
NixOS 21.11 Now Available for Download
NixOS “Porcupine” has been made available for installation and includes numerous improvements.
-
KDE Plasma Developers Introduce a GNOME-Like Overview
A new overview effect makes it easier for users to interact with both Plasma Activities and Virtual Desktops.
-
Rocky Linux 8.5 Now Available with Secure Boot Support
The latest iteration of CentOS alternative, Rocky Linux has arrived and includes numerous updates as well as support for Secure Boot.
-
System76 Developing a New Desktop Environment
The makers of Pop!_OS are currently in the early stages of creating a brand new, non-GNOME, desktop environment.
-
Hetzner Opens New Location in the USA
The Hetzner cost-effective Cloud solution has arrived in the United States to offer cloud servers that offer solid performance without a high price.
-
KDE Plasma 5.24 Introduces Fingerprint Reader Support
The next release of the KDE Plasma desktop environment will include support for fingerprint readers for session authentication and more.
-
Ubuntu 21.10 Released and Finally Includes Gnome 40
The most anticipated update to Ubuntu is finally here and the workflow couldn't be better.
-
Linux Can Now Run on Apple’s M1 Chipset
Linux users looking to take advantage of Apple Silicon are about to get their wish with the M1 chipset.
-
MX Linux 21 RC Candidate Available For Testing
The MX Linux development team has released the RC images for MX Linux 21 for testing purposes.