WebKit Shutting Down
Posted by Maciej Stachowiak on Sunday, April 1st, 2007 at 12:04 amWebKit has always focused on performance, web standards compliance, security, and relatively understandable code. But, as recently pointed out by Camino developer Mike Pinkerton, this doesn’t mean much when users can’t browse to all the sites they care about.
Many have suggested over the years that WebKit should be abandoned in favor of Gecko, the browser engine with second-place market share according to studies like the Net Applications Survey. But why go with number two when you can go straight to the top? That’s why I am pleased to announce that WebKit will be discontinued in favor of Trident, the engine inside Windows Internet Explorer. Like OpenDarwin before us, we will be shutting down.
You may wonder how we can use Trident in Mac OS X browsers like Safari. Fortunately, on Intel-based Macs, there is a solution: running IE under Parallels, and using Mozilla’s XPCOM to bridge the gap. This means we will discontinue the WebKit Objective-C API in favor of a COM API.
IE has often been criticized for its lack of standards compliance and long gaps in development. But Microsoft says they will do way better in the future, and we see no reason not to trust them with the future of the web.
It’s been a great ride these past five years. Please join me in giving a fond farewell to WebKit, and a hearty welcome to our new Microsoft overlords.
Yes, this was written on April 1st 2007.
April 1st, 2007 at 12:41 am
zing!
pssst. look at your calendar.
April 1st, 2007 at 12:41 am
Rest in peace WebKit. I will be sad to see you go.
April 1st, 2007 at 12:56 am
Wow. Haha. You really got me on that one. I totally & completely bought it hook, line, and sinker… up until the comments on Microsoft in the last 2 paragraphs. GREAT APRIL FOOL’S JOKE!
April 1st, 2007 at 1:11 am
I, for one, welcome our new Microsoft overlords
April 1st, 2007 at 1:35 am
Hehe good one
April 1st, 2007 at 1:44 am
Is this some kind of joke? Today is April Fool’s Day. It can only be devastating if this were true. “Microsoft says they will do way better in the future, and we see no reason not to trust them with the future of the web” ? Seriously, I mean since when we have begun to trust what Microsoft says. They have always been trying hard to fool people around with bad designs(such as IE, Zune, PlayForSure)… “WebKit Shutting Down” couldn’t possibly be happening, right?
April 1st, 2007 at 1:48 am
This is great news!
As a new company, we had planned to release a rethought version of webkit to fit multiple ports to embedded systems issues, but since we switch to IE engine, we will have no more problem.
We are going to change our business plan to propose a bundle vista ultimate + IE on every single embedded device from now one.
Thanks webkit guys for showing common sense in this decision !
April 1st, 2007 at 2:09 am
This can’t be true, because my top-secret source at Microsoft said they’re switching to Webkit for IE 8!
April 1st, 2007 at 2:14 am
Yeah ! Right !
That’s for the same reason I’m gonna trash my Mac, and buy a PC with Windows.
Nice try
April 1st, 2007 at 2:25 am
Fantastic, we can now join with the “ninety percent of the market share”
April 1st, 2007 at 2:35 am
Please tell me this is an April fools joke, right? WebKit is to awesome to go. It’s so much better than Gecko and Trident will ever be.
April 1st, 2007 at 4:17 am
[...] , and we all know the mobile web browser is dead, right? Safari? Well, it turns out that WebKit is shutting down. So the site will be putting its weight behind iCab. It’s as alte [...]
April 1st, 2007 at 5:22 am
LOL
April 1st, 2007 at 5:29 am
What took you so long?
April 1st, 2007 at 6:58 am
This means we’ll have a Windows port of “Safari” too, right?
I can’t wait for Private Browsing on Windows!
Hopefully the Web Inspector can be ported too.
April 1st, 2007 at 7:25 am
almost, but not quite, entirely not funny
April 1st, 2007 at 9:00 am
[...] ome of my favorites for this year: heise.de -Mozilla sues Microsoft over tabbed browsing. WebKit - Switching to Trident (IE) NASA - Americans Defeat Russians in First Space Quidditch Ma [...]
April 1st, 2007 at 9:33 am
[...] onclick=”javascript:urchinTracker (’/outgoing/webkit.org/blog/100/webkit-shutting-down/’);” href=”http://webkit.org/blog/100/webkit-shutting-down/” title=”WebKit Shutting Down”>WebKit Shutting Down - Safari on OS X is now going to be powe [...]
April 1st, 2007 at 9:40 am
[...] aming at the machine until I glanced up and saw the date and realised. It’s from the Surfin’ Safari blog, the team blog of the guys at Apple who work on WebKit, the open sourc [...]
April 1st, 2007 at 11:10 am
webkit wird durch trident ersetzt
Surfin’ Safari - Blog Archive » WebKit Shutting Down netter versuch, hätte fast gekllappt, ich wäre fast draufreingefallen… die meldung zum ende von webkit ist ganz nett gestrickt, als ich den anreisser zur meldung gelesen habe ich es fast …
April 1st, 2007 at 11:22 am
Shouldn’t be the title rather be ‘WebKit acquired by Mozilla?’ Because they will use it in next Firefox version http://burntelectrons.org/index.php?itemid=219
April 1st, 2007 at 11:43 am
I hate April fools day.
April 1st, 2007 at 12:28 pm
[...] /profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=4″> Posted by iGor A post by maciej titled “Webkit Shutting Down” over at Surfin’ Safari caused us a brief moment of panic this [...]
April 1st, 2007 at 12:28 pm
[...] /profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=4″> Posted by iGor A post by maciej titled “Webkit Shutting Down” over at Surfin’ Safari caused us a brief moment of panic this [...]
April 1st, 2007 at 12:57 pm
So…
I see it’s April 1.
You had me going for the first few paragraphs, made my heart sink for a moment!
Cruel, cruel Maciej. Shame on you!
April 1st, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Alright! I can get back on the team! Although, WebKit was already “dead to me” anyways
April 2nd, 2007 at 4:41 am
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April 2nd, 2007 at 7:28 am
Just reading my Google reader today (April 2nd) and almost had a stroke. Clicked on the link to check this site, to be sure I wasn’t seeing things, then I saw how old the article was. April first. pffft.
I’m sure a few folks at Adobe blew out a pupil as well!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_hemorrhage#Symptoms_of_cerebral_hemorrhage
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:26 am
[...] ars and the outstanding mind-focus powers of one of Azeroth’s most precious gems. 5. Webkit Shutting Down IE has often been criticized for its lack of standards compliance and long [...]
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:42 am
I think it’s about time that as a society we got rid of this useless tradition. It’s fun for a couple hours, but the fun gets quoted as authorative for the rest of time. In the end, it’s just noise, and it isn’t truth.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:16 pm
I feel I have to rebut sdfisher.
If a single day of untruth can get people to cultivate a questioning mind, then I think we are really onto something.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Can you take this post down? It’s still up on May 17 and it made me very confused for a few moments. Not a good idea.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:19 am
No, leave it up. It’s still catchin’ people as of yesterday. I suggested Webkit as a solution to Yahoo! Answers lousy code crashing Safari, and got a “gotcha” back from a Windows user based on this April Fool’s joke. It’s a “life lesson” in always checking the date of “shocking news”