5 ms·

Two questions: Is Safari the only user of WebKit now? Is some Blink development ported to WebKit?

Klonoar 8y ago
GTK/Qt have Webkit builds that aren't KHTML I believe. Now, if you're talking about browsers on operating systems that matter... yeah, it's pretty much the last WebKit user.
- abrowne 8y ago
  WebKitGTK+ is active. QtWebKit was replaced by an embedded Chromium (Qt Web Engine) sometime after Nokia sold Qt. There are attempts to revive QtWebKit, but I don't think it's up to date, even on security patches only.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
Someone 8y ago
Various browsers on iOS use WebKit because that’s the only way to ship a browser on iOS.
- akskos 8y ago
  Is it true for Firefox as well? I remember Firefox wasn't available for iOS long time ago because of this issue but these days it is.
  - orta 8y ago
    Yep, roughly speaking you can't compete on speed with your own rendering engine because you cannot do Just In Time style memory optimizations in the iOS sandbox. Only Apple can ship that type of code, so any browser from the App Store competes on features with Safari, not on memory/speed etc.
  - solarkraft 8y ago
    All browsers on iOS have to use Safari, so Firefox for iOS is just Safari with Firefox's UI and Sync.
  - kevin_b_er 8y ago
    It is still true for Firefox. Apple does not permit or approve applications that can execute their own code. Such a thing permits you to have "webapps" that are not under the purview of Apple and the walled garden. As a result, all browsers are just reskinning Apple's browser. They had to make a small exception for educational programming apps, but that isn't Firefox.
- bfred_it 8y ago
  Nitpick: They don't "use WebKit" but Safari itself. They can only offer "web views" (which are always just Safari) Edit: maybe this isn't entirely correct, Apple calls them WebKit APIs in their docs. Only the latest view is actually called `SFSafariViewController`
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    Most standalone browsers use WKWebView, which is a WebKit-based UI component that applications can interact with. SFSafariViewController is more appropriate for in-app browsers, because it provides UI and has very few customization points.
    - jeffbax 8y ago
      Most small apps have ditched the web view for safari due to speed, maintenance, and integration with things like password management and content blocker support - but the big guys like Google and FB which don't want to support an ad blocking vector or native share extensions still tend to use the WK framework.
      - untog 8y ago
        WkWebView is used a lot in apps to present content that isn't immediately obviously web content, rather it is just using HTML/CSS as a presentation layer. One example is the activity feed in Instagram - I only know this because once upon a time the page lost CSS on a reload and I got to see it in all its link-blue-bordered glory. The Safari controller is for when you're linking out to an external web site and want the user to behave the way they would in a normal browsing session.
        saagarjha 8y ago
        A notable reason to use UIWebView is that it allows for changing network requests (for example, to add special headers). WKWebView does not because it runs out-of-process. So some of the web views you're seeing might actually be UIWebViews, depending on the context you're seeing them in.
kalleboo 8y ago
I think the browsers in various game consoles (PS4, Switch) are usually WebKit (via Access NetFront NX)
- gsnedders 8y ago
  The PS4 isn't NetFront in any form: it's a Sony port of WebKit that's starting to get upstreamed. The Switch is indeed NetFront NX, though, AIUI.
mdasen 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers#WebKit-based https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers#WebKit-ba...

GTK/Qt have Webkit builds that aren't KHTML I believe. Now, if you're talking about browsers on operating systems that matter... yeah, it's pretty much the last WebKit user.

abrowne 8y ago
WebKitGTK+ is active. QtWebKit was replaced by an embedded Chromium (Qt Web Engine) sometime after Nokia sold Qt. There are attempts to revive QtWebKit, but I don't think it's up to date, even on security patches only.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

Someone 8y ago

Various browsers on iOS use WebKit because that’s the only way to ship a browser on iOS.

akskos 8y ago
Is it true for Firefox as well? I remember Firefox wasn't available for iOS long time ago because of this issue but these days it is.
- orta 8y ago
  Yep, roughly speaking you can't compete on speed with your own rendering engine because you cannot do Just In Time style memory optimizations in the iOS sandbox. Only Apple can ship that type of code, so any browser from the App Store competes on features with Safari, not on memory/speed etc.
- solarkraft 8y ago
  All browsers on iOS have to use Safari, so Firefox for iOS is just Safari with Firefox's UI and Sync.
- kevin_b_er 8y ago
  It is still true for Firefox. Apple does not permit or approve applications that can execute their own code. Such a thing permits you to have "webapps" that are not under the purview of Apple and the walled garden. As a result, all browsers are just reskinning Apple's browser. They had to make a small exception for educational programming apps, but that isn't Firefox.
bfred_it 8y ago
Nitpick: They don't "use WebKit" but Safari itself. They can only offer "web views" (which are always just Safari) Edit: maybe this isn't entirely correct, Apple calls them WebKit APIs in their docs. Only the latest view is actually called `SFSafariViewController`
- saagarjha 8y ago
  Most standalone browsers use WKWebView, which is a WebKit-based UI component that applications can interact with. SFSafariViewController is more appropriate for in-app browsers, because it provides UI and has very few customization points.
  - jeffbax 8y ago
    Most small apps have ditched the web view for safari due to speed, maintenance, and integration with things like password management and content blocker support - but the big guys like Google and FB which don't want to support an ad blocking vector or native share extensions still tend to use the WK framework.
    - untog 8y ago
      WkWebView is used a lot in apps to present content that isn't immediately obviously web content, rather it is just using HTML/CSS as a presentation layer. One example is the activity feed in Instagram - I only know this because once upon a time the page lost CSS on a reload and I got to see it in all its link-blue-bordered glory. The Safari controller is for when you're linking out to an external web site and want the user to behave the way they would in a normal browsing session.
      - saagarjha 8y ago
        A notable reason to use UIWebView is that it allows for changing network requests (for example, to add special headers). WKWebView does not because it runs out-of-process. So some of the web views you're seeing might actually be UIWebViews, depending on the context you're seeing them in.

kalleboo 8y ago

I think the browsers in various game consoles (PS4, Switch) are usually WebKit (via Access NetFront NX)

gsnedders 8y ago
The PS4 isn't NetFront in any form: it's a Sony port of WebKit that's starting to get upstreamed. The Switch is indeed NetFront NX, though, AIUI.

mdasen 8y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers#WebKit-based https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers#WebKit-ba...