4 ms·

No, WebkitGTK is notoriously an issue.

by Klonoar 1y ago

mort96 1y ago
Is WebKitGTK as used by Tauri worse than WebKitGTK used by a web app user's web browser?
- porridgeraisin 1y ago
  No. But also, nobody(first order approximation) uses Gnome web. I would wager most javascript web apps don't work on that browser anyways due to webkitgtk. The most popular gnome distros all come with firefox installed so even the "just use the default" folks won't be using gnome web.
  - oblio 1y ago
    But the thing is, if you're using Tauri, you control the web app. So you need to test it on WebkitGTK, I guess that's the extra burden?
    - porridgeraisin 1y ago
      Have you actually tried deploying to webkitgtk ever? Good luck "testing" your video conferencing app on webkitgtk - it doesn't support webrtc! It is still useful to test your error page I suppose. Note that this is one example among many of missing features, bugs and/or horrible performance. Here's a preview: no notifications, no :has, no TLA. (Not blaming the epiphany devs for the situation here to be clear)
      - oblio 1y ago
        The thing is, Firefox/Gecko isn't embeddable (probably the one of worst tech blunders ever). I wonder if Tauri could wrap around Blink, instead? Then your app could just ask for Chrome to be installed.
        mort96 1y ago
        The modern Qt web view component, QtWebEngine, is actually Chromium-based. So you could imagine a Tauri which uses Qt instead of GTK and uses QtWebEngine as its renderer instead of WebKitGTK.
      - anthk 1y ago
        Ahem https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/discussions/8426 https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/discussions/8426
        Klonoar 1y ago
        That's a significant amount of workaround for something that "just works" elsewhere (and if I'm reading correctly doesn't work under Wayland). It proves what everyone knows: that there's no reason WebRTC can't work in Tauri/Linux environments. It also proves the point here: there are legitimate issues with the system-provided webview approach that are not always apparent.
  - ameliaquining 1y ago
    WebKitGTK benefits from sharing a codebase with WebKit for iOS, which web developers do care about supporting. There can still be bugs in the Linux-specific platform integration code, but that's not most of the codebase, so any given app is less likely to run across a bug in it. It's not as reliable as more mainstream browser-OS combinations, but saying that most apps don't work is an exaggeration.
    - Klonoar 1y ago
      Last I checked, WebkitGTK does not have parity with WebKit on iOS, and plenty of devs do test on that platform anyway - so I'm not sure what you're talking about? You're right to correct someone saying _most_ apps don't work, but it's also not cool to just sweep the WebkitGTK issue under the rug and pretend it's not an issue at all. It's bitten plenty of people who build on Tauri. Additionally, the issues people find with WebkitGTK/Tauri aren't always web related, usually moreso Linux related (weird blank screens, issues with rendering certain stacked items, etc).
  - anthk 1y ago
    Gnome Web sucks, it's has shitty defaults and a horrid performance. But luakit/vimb can be really fast. Luakit even ran under a netbook. Single page bound, ok,, but not bad from an n270 with 1GB of RAM.
  - anthk 1y ago
    Gnome Web sucks, it has shitty defaults and a horrid performance. But luakit/vimb can be really fast. Luakit even ran under a netbook. Single page bound, ok,, but not bad from an n270 with 1GB of RAM.
    - Narishma 1y ago
      > Luakit even ran under a netbook. Single page bound, ok,, but not bad from an n270 with 1GB of RAM. I have one such device and Firefox and Chrome also run on it. They're slow but still usable.
blurbleblurble 1y ago
It's awful. I'm cautiously optimistic (hopeful? naive?) that progress on servo will make it unnecessary!
cosmic_cheese 1y ago
The Linux port of Orion (Kagi’s power user oriented web browser) is built with WebKitGTK, some hopefully the Orion team will be patching up some of the more glaring issues. At minimum the port will put it in front of pairs of eyeballs that hadn’t been looking at it before which should help bring attention to bugs.

No, WebkitGTK is notoriously an issue.

mort96 1y ago

Is WebKitGTK as used by Tauri worse than WebKitGTK used by a web app user's web browser?

porridgeraisin 1y ago
No. But also, nobody(first order approximation) uses Gnome web. I would wager most javascript web apps don't work on that browser anyways due to webkitgtk. The most popular gnome distros all come with firefox installed so even the "just use the default" folks won't be using gnome web.
- oblio 1y ago
  But the thing is, if you're using Tauri, you control the web app. So you need to test it on WebkitGTK, I guess that's the extra burden?
  - porridgeraisin 1y ago
    Have you actually tried deploying to webkitgtk ever? Good luck "testing" your video conferencing app on webkitgtk - it doesn't support webrtc! It is still useful to test your error page I suppose. Note that this is one example among many of missing features, bugs and/or horrible performance. Here's a preview: no notifications, no :has, no TLA. (Not blaming the epiphany devs for the situation here to be clear)
    - oblio 1y ago
      The thing is, Firefox/Gecko isn't embeddable (probably the one of worst tech blunders ever). I wonder if Tauri could wrap around Blink, instead? Then your app could just ask for Chrome to be installed.
      - mort96 1y ago
        The modern Qt web view component, QtWebEngine, is actually Chromium-based. So you could imagine a Tauri which uses Qt instead of GTK and uses QtWebEngine as its renderer instead of WebKitGTK.
    - anthk 1y ago
      Ahem https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/discussions/8426 https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/discussions/8426
      - Klonoar 1y ago
        That's a significant amount of workaround for something that "just works" elsewhere (and if I'm reading correctly doesn't work under Wayland). It proves what everyone knows: that there's no reason WebRTC can't work in Tauri/Linux environments. It also proves the point here: there are legitimate issues with the system-provided webview approach that are not always apparent.
- ameliaquining 1y ago
  WebKitGTK benefits from sharing a codebase with WebKit for iOS, which web developers do care about supporting. There can still be bugs in the Linux-specific platform integration code, but that's not most of the codebase, so any given app is less likely to run across a bug in it. It's not as reliable as more mainstream browser-OS combinations, but saying that most apps don't work is an exaggeration.
  - Klonoar 1y ago
    Last I checked, WebkitGTK does not have parity with WebKit on iOS, and plenty of devs do test on that platform anyway - so I'm not sure what you're talking about? You're right to correct someone saying _most_ apps don't work, but it's also not cool to just sweep the WebkitGTK issue under the rug and pretend it's not an issue at all. It's bitten plenty of people who build on Tauri. Additionally, the issues people find with WebkitGTK/Tauri aren't always web related, usually moreso Linux related (weird blank screens, issues with rendering certain stacked items, etc).
- anthk 1y ago
  Gnome Web sucks, it's has shitty defaults and a horrid performance. But luakit/vimb can be really fast. Luakit even ran under a netbook. Single page bound, ok,, but not bad from an n270 with 1GB of RAM.
- anthk 1y ago
  Gnome Web sucks, it has shitty defaults and a horrid performance. But luakit/vimb can be really fast. Luakit even ran under a netbook. Single page bound, ok,, but not bad from an n270 with 1GB of RAM.
  - Narishma 1y ago
    > Luakit even ran under a netbook. Single page bound, ok,, but not bad from an n270 with 1GB of RAM. I have one such device and Firefox and Chrome also run on it. They're slow but still usable.

blurbleblurble 1y ago

It's awful. I'm cautiously optimistic (hopeful? naive?) that progress on servo will make it unnecessary!

cosmic_cheese 1y ago

The Linux port of Orion (Kagi’s power user oriented web browser) is built with WebKitGTK, some hopefully the Orion team will be patching up some of the more glaring issues. At minimum the port will put it in front of pairs of eyeballs that hadn’t been looking at it before which should help bring attention to bugs.