6 ms·

Hey, how come nobody has used webkit instead of chrome as the basis for an alternate browser.

karmakaze 5y ago
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers#WebKit-based https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers#WebKit-ba...
- can16358p 5y ago
  For completeness sake, anything on iOS needs to be (App Store guidelines) actually Safari under the hood, hence WebKit. That's why there are so many iOS browsers being WebKit.
AprilArcus 5y ago
They did. It's called Chrome.
true_religion 5y ago
All browsers on iOS are based on WebKit. It’s an Apple requirement.
- MBCook 5y ago
  That’s not exactly true. They’re not based on Safari, they ARE Safari. The browser maker controls the chrome and can add some kids of features (bookmark/history sync, password management/etc.) but they can’t modify the rendering engine outside of any hooks Apple provides them. It’s not like when Google forked WebKit to make Chrome on the desktop and could truly modify it. On iOS you can’t add new tags or syntax, as a simple example.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
    That makes them WebKit, not Safari; they share the engine, not the chrome.
  - freediver 5y ago
    It is a common misconception. Browser != rendering engine. It takes tremendous effort to build an iOS browser even when you have WebKit as given as you need to build every single browser feature from scratch. "Open in new tab"? "Favorites"? "Download file"? "Switch tabs"? "Find on page"? All of them need to be built. I know because we are building one. Chrome on iOS can do pretty much everything it needs to do - settings, telemetry, sync, any kind of custom browser chrome and features and is a _very_ different browser than Safari in many important aspects. For a few that particularly matter to user - consistency of web page rendering, performance and battery life - the user is actually better off as they get a rendering engine built by the phone manufacturer.
    - ladon86 5y ago
      > the user is actually better off as they get a rendering engine built by the phone manufacturer But also worse off, because features like WebGL2 are released literally 5 years after other browsers supported them.
      - freediver 5y ago
        It is a balance you have to strike. The benefits are very strong IMO.
nemothekid 5y ago
Chrome and friends are technically children of WebKit. WebKit actually used to be the backend for Chrome, but forked it into a new engine called Blink (8?!? years ago, I didn't think Blink was that old).
bni 5y ago
Many have done and still do. In fact its about the only alternative there is if you don't want to be another Chromium variant.
- MayeulC 5y ago
  Is gecko a joke to you? Though IIRC it's harder to embed than CEF. I wonder how servo does these days: https://servo.org/ https://servo.org/
freediver 5y ago
We are using it for Orion browser, currently in beta. Very grateful for WebKit being open-source. https://browser.kagi.com https://browser.kagi.com
mmphosis 5y ago
GNOME Web (Epiphany) https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Web https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Web surf http://surf.suckless.org/ http://surf.suckless.org/ Midori
- webmobdev 5y ago
  If I remember right, Midori has moved to Chromium.
dev_tty01 5y ago
Well, chrome is based on webkit, so all of those alternate browsers are based on webkit.
- lodovic 5y ago
  And WebKit is based on KHTML, so in the end it all comes from KDE
nerdponx 5y ago
Most of the "lightweight" alternative browsers are. For example Qutebrowser.

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

can16358p 5y ago
For completeness sake, anything on iOS needs to be (App Store guidelines) actually Safari under the hood, hence WebKit. That's why there are so many iOS browsers being WebKit.

AprilArcus 5y ago

They did. It's called Chrome.

true_religion 5y ago

All browsers on iOS are based on WebKit. It’s an Apple requirement.

MBCook 5y ago
That’s not exactly true. They’re not based on Safari, they ARE Safari. The browser maker controls the chrome and can add some kids of features (bookmark/history sync, password management/etc.) but they can’t modify the rendering engine outside of any hooks Apple provides them. It’s not like when Google forked WebKit to make Chrome on the desktop and could truly modify it. On iOS you can’t add new tags or syntax, as a simple example.
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
  That makes them WebKit, not Safari; they share the engine, not the chrome.
- freediver 5y ago
  It is a common misconception. Browser != rendering engine. It takes tremendous effort to build an iOS browser even when you have WebKit as given as you need to build every single browser feature from scratch. "Open in new tab"? "Favorites"? "Download file"? "Switch tabs"? "Find on page"? All of them need to be built. I know because we are building one. Chrome on iOS can do pretty much everything it needs to do - settings, telemetry, sync, any kind of custom browser chrome and features and is a _very_ different browser than Safari in many important aspects. For a few that particularly matter to user - consistency of web page rendering, performance and battery life - the user is actually better off as they get a rendering engine built by the phone manufacturer.
  - ladon86 5y ago
    > the user is actually better off as they get a rendering engine built by the phone manufacturer But also worse off, because features like WebGL2 are released literally 5 years after other browsers supported them.
    - freediver 5y ago
      It is a balance you have to strike. The benefits are very strong IMO.

nemothekid 5y ago

Chrome and friends are technically children of WebKit. WebKit actually used to be the backend for Chrome, but forked it into a new engine called Blink (8?!? years ago, I didn't think Blink was that old).

bni 5y ago

Many have done and still do. In fact its about the only alternative there is if you don't want to be another Chromium variant.

MayeulC 5y ago
Is gecko a joke to you? Though IIRC it's harder to embed than CEF. I wonder how servo does these days: https://servo.org/ https://servo.org/

freediver 5y ago

We are using it for Orion browser, currently in beta. Very grateful for WebKit being open-source. https://browser.kagi.com https://browser.kagi.com

mmphosis 5y ago

GNOME Web (Epiphany) https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Web https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Web surf http://surf.suckless.org/ http://surf.suckless.org/ Midori

webmobdev 5y ago
If I remember right, Midori has moved to Chromium.

dev_tty01 5y ago

Well, chrome is based on webkit, so all of those alternate browsers are based on webkit.

lodovic 5y ago
And WebKit is based on KHTML, so in the end it all comes from KDE

nerdponx 5y ago

Most of the "lightweight" alternative browsers are. For example Qutebrowser.