4 ms·
Firefox does not use WebKit (and at this point neither does anyone else), but they can look at patches to WebKit to understand how Apple improved Safari's perfo
by jefftk 6y ago
Firefox does not use WebKit (and at this point neither does anyone else), but they can look at patches to WebKit to understand how Apple improved Safari's performance. Because Apple produces the hardware, the OS, and the browser, the choices they make in the WebKit implementation are highly informative.
> it shows how being FOSS isn't enough
This is true for every app on iOS: even if you have the source code, you can't necessarily run a modified version, and so you're missing one of the main user freedoms that FOSS should guarantee. I wish Apple would rethink this, but Safari is still usefully open source.
- pjmlp 6y agoNo they cannot unless they want to contaminate their development, as far as I recall the licenses aren't compatible. It is true for any commercial application with source code available since there are computers. If the user freedoms were of any value as you mention, WebKit and Bink would use copyleft licenses.
- jefftk 6y agoJust because you can't literally copy the code from one place to another doesn't mean you can't learn from it. I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is it's fine to learn what series of system calls they're making and look at their optimizations.
- pjmlp 6y agoReading the code means analog copy paste.