Moving Towards KDE: Apple Opens WebKit for External Developers

Dec 11, 2007

Apple developer Maciej Stachowiak has announced a new policy for developers of the HTML rendering library Webkit. It will close the gap between Apple developers and external programmers.

The policy will give KDE community members and external developers access to the Webkit CVS. Webkit is a free HTML rendering engine which is maintained by Apple, and is based on the KDE project’s KHTML rendering engine. Apart from in Apple’s Safari browser and on the iPhone, the Webkit, which is available under the LGPL and in part under the BSD license, is used in various projects. Trolltech’s decision to integrate Webkit with QT prompted the KDE community to add new KHTML features to Webkit with a view of possibly porting Webkit.

The port is controversial because the KDE community needs some influence on the development of Webkit to achieve its aims. The KDE team has some doubts about the use of Webkit instead of KHTML, as Webkit depends on Apple’s commercial interests. Apple’ new policies removes these doubts and demonstrates Apple’s willingness to allow external developers to participate in the engine in future.

KDE developer Aaron Seigo welcomes the new policy in his blog, saying that this is a step in the right direction and that the KDE team encourage Apple and anyone with a business interest in Webkit to choose a strategy of trust.

Related content

  • 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.

    more »
  • Initial Qt 4.4 Release Candidate

    The new version includes Webkit and Phonon as part of the cross-platform library for graphical user interfaces. Trolltech has asked developers to test the RC.

    more »
  • New Browser for mobile Linux devices

    French software vendors, Pleyo have announced a web browser based on Apple's Webkit. The "Origyn Web Browser" (OWB) is mainly designed for use on mobile devices that run on Linux.

    more »
  • Roadmap: Gnome 2.24 with Webkit

    The Gnome project has published plans for 2.24 and future versions of its desktop environment.

    more »
  • GNOME 2.28 Switches to WebKit

    GNOME 2.28 provides a few new features and improvements to well-known functions and components. So the GNOME Epiphany browser now uses the sleak WebKit that makes apps such as Google Chrome work faster.

    more »
comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News

Tag Cloud

Administration Community Events Hardware Linux Linux Pro Magazine Mobile Programming Security Software Ubuntu Web Development Windows free software open source