Chrome Leaving Webkit Behind

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/04/blink/

"Google’s Chrome web browser was built on WebKit, an open source rendering engine developed by Apple that also underpins many other browsers, including Safari and Opera. But on Wednesday, Google told the world it will no longer use WebKit. Instead, it’s starting its own variation — or fork — of WebKit. This new open source project is known as Blink."


Now this should be interesting. I wonder just how far removed from Webkit proper this is going to get? I have all sorts of questions.

 

It makes me ponder just what Google's real motives are for this.

 

... and Opera joins them.

 

What the? This is getting interesting. I have to wonder though why Opera would join in on a Google project. After all, to hear Google say it, they're leaving Webkit because of architectual reasons, because their multi-process method doesn't jive with how Webkit handles it (along with other reasons for leaving I'm sure.) I'm not sure what Opera has to gain by going with a brand new engine that's not even "done" yet.

This is going to get weird. Hopefully this isn't going to screw with websites when it arrives. Google says it won't have much effect right out of the gate, but I'm having trouble believing that just yet.

 

I really don't think this falls along the same lines as them trying to push SPDY. So far this doesn't sound like typical "We know better than others" Google trying to change the web. This really does so far seem like an attempt at better efficiency with the way they coded Chrome. We'll see, you can never count out the possibility that Google is going on another "Change the world" trip.

 

One has to admit that Google is very smart.

At first, Google used WebKit as much as it could. WebKit was already well established. Using it was necessary.

But now that Google has a very significant portion of the browser market share (Android Browser, Chrome), it's possible to finally skip WebKit and make faster "large-scale architectural changes" with Blink.

Web developers simply can't ignore Google; Chrome and Android Browser are too relevant.

 

I don't think so. It's not in Google's interest if you wouldn't be able to load many websites.

IMO, this move is understadable considering what Adam Barth wrote:

And that Opera joins them suggests that the development of Blink didn't start just a few days ago.

Yes, a lot is going on in the browser market. Another exiting news is the collaboration of Mozilla with Samsung in order to develop a new browser engine called Servo and based on Rust which will ultimately replace Gecko. Rust had been developed by Mozilla for several years as a new safe programming language. Now the whole thing is finally getting speed - great!

 

I don't think they've been ignoring Google, considering almost everyone is basing their websites around being rendered by Webkit, lol. Google could have easily went the route of Opera and created their own engine from the get-go that worked well with the architecture. But, if I had been them, I probably would have used Webkit too. It was there, it was open source and cheaper than creating an engine from scratch.

I'm still really surprised at Opera, and confused. I can imagine their user base will be too after all the Webkit talk and all the controversy it brought.

 

You're probably right about Opera joining. I wasn't thinking it through too much, but I sincerely doubt they just read the blog post and thought "Let's do it!".

As far as Servo goes, it's very interesting. I do wonder if it will stay exclusive to ARM/Android though. I honestly would like to see a complete overhaul of Firefox. Use Servo, finally fix the same tired issues that have been going on for years, support x64 officially..it just needs a makeover and not all these silly little useless things like tweaking the download manager and changing privacy settings. If it doesn't, I fear in a few years time it will reside in the same place the current Opera does.

 

I still haven't read the articles that were mentioned here, but I'm really interested to see how this evolves. The reason being, and I'm not sure if it's something that was mentioned in the article(s), that according to security researchers who have been able to bypass Chrome's sandbox, Chrome's strenght is precisely the sandbox, but its weakness is Webkit, making the browser weaker from a security point of view. I wonder how far this fork will take this under consideration - hopefully a lot.

 

Yeah, I worry about those.

 

Well if that is the case, I'm sure Google has thought that one out while working on Blink.

I'll make an assumption that they are closing in on getting it done, what with the out of the blue blog post and Opera basically being confirmed to use it as well. Opera using Webkit was due out some time in the latter half of this year I had thought, and I wouldn't think that after all the talk they'd leave the current Opera lingering too long. Mobile Opera with Webkit was due sooner, so, I don't know.

 

http://www.chromium.org/blink

 

Will this bring back the blink HTML element that Netscape had way back when? That's all I could think of when I saw the name.

BTW, I wonder if Steam will follow suit.

 

Did Chrome's last update change the drop-down menu appearance a bit for anyone else?

 

Yeah, I don't like it. Just too much white space.
Luckily there's a fix: http://www.ghacks.net/2013/03/12/how-to-disable-google-chromes-white-context-menu/

 

No.

 

4.5 Million lines of code = depending on the gearing factor and productivity factor of Webkit (assuming averages ==> 4.500.000 Sloc / 80) = 115.000 hours (rough estimate) = 35 man years less maintenance effort or more important 15 to 20 man years less testing effort (before major release upgrades) of even more important 3000 possible bugs hidden in code of which 5 to 10 percent exploitable (theoretical reduction of 150 to 300 exploits).


Do the math: it is the same developing contest which brought Firefox to its knee's (unable to implement OOP and Sandboxing). Next victim Apple, not on the PC market, but on the mobile/tablet market.

Before Chrome, Opera was the browser with the best architecture and hence safety /performance track record (less code is less errors and often increased performance due to re-use of allready in memory code). So it is only logical Chrome convinced Opera to join and add its expertise. They will create a new competitor, but when choosing a competitor based on intellectual and financial power, I would rather fight Opera than Apple, so congrats to Google's "be humble" software design strategy.

And I would not be surprised when the new web engine would be boosting Dart also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dart_(programming_language)

 

I wondered about that as well. But since Opera was bent on changing their Presto engine anyway, it wouldn't matter too much if the new one is WebKit or Blink (especially because they have the same code base). Even more, I belive Opera developers want more power to tweak/patch the browser engine, and they hope to achieve that with Blink more than with Webkit.