Comments on: Guess who is WebKit’s new best friend

By: Rob Chandhok

Rob Chandhok — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:50:25 +0000

Uh, no, I’m sure I didn’t say that..

By: Erick

Erick — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:02:46 +0000

Om, not only do you misrepresent WebKit, but now it sounds like you also don’t know what KDE is…

For the record, KHTML originated from KDE (not a variant of Linux), but it wasn’t compatible enough for anyone to use over Mozilla Firefox.

Apple, in need of a browser, chose KHTML as a starting point for their WebKit (___Kit is the standard nomenclature for many of Apple’s frameworks). In the process they fixed a lot of bugs and divorce it from the dependencies on Qt, but presumably this was preferable to adapting the heavyweight Mozilla code.

By: Marc Love

Marc Love — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:28:26 +0000

Please tell me Chandhok didn’t actually say, “because we didn’t have no leverage in the early days.”

By: cheese

cheese — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 04:49:47 +0000

The flexibility of HTML vs the convenience of apps is not going to be an easy fight for the browser. Also, apps live in an ecosystem with a sound biz model around them. That said, the cloud could become relevant for the mobile internet as well. But the cloud faces big hurdles from both Apple and Google (and probably Windows as well), so unless something earth shattering happens, the browser is not unlike the swiss-army knife in your travel pouch whereas you use a bunch of regular knives and various tools(apps) in your daily life.

By: curdriceaurora

curdriceaurora — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:52:27 +0000

“..didn’t have no leverage..” is that verbatim?

By: Cyndy Aleo

Cyndy Aleo — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:14:25 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Bob. We try to get everything copyedited as quickly as possible, but sometimes are catching things on the backend.

By: G Ragib

G Ragib — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:55:57 +0000

correction… “Eventually, Apple”, not “Eventually, the Apple”

By: G Ragib

G Ragib — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:55:05 +0000

Webkit was Apple’s fork of KDE project’s KHTML efforts. In the beginning, they weren’t a good member in the KHTML community. Eventually, the Apple agreed to open up Webkit development, and the KDE folks agreed to make Apple’s fork the official branch, or something like that.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:28:13 +0000

It originated from KDE (a variant of linux) and Apple used those core technologies to build Safari and helped popularize it with Apple user base!

By: Idon't Know

Idon't Know — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:18:41 +0000

You do know that Webkit came from Apple who open sourced it right? Because it doesn’t sound like it.