On: The Decade-Long Campaign to Lock Down Your Computer

[throwaway54-762]

Webkit is a fork of... wait for it... KHTML! The open source rendering engine from KDE.

[redial → throwaway54-762]

Isn't that what the open source movement encourages?

And are you implying that it is simply KHTML rebranded and that they have not worked on it for more than 10 years?

[philwelch → throwaway54-762]

Comparing KHTML to Webkit in the year 2012, it seems like Apple has done a much better job than KDE of "fostering a proper open source eco-system"....

[saurik → philwelch]

WebCore is based on KHTML, and is thereby licensed user LGPL: it is open source, and due to that license choice Apple is stuck and can't fix it. However, WebKit, a library that sits on top of WebCore initially by Apple, and where a lot of the "little touches" (such as multitouch JavaScript events) goes, is under modified BSD, and Apple often does not release code for it back to the community; hell: even for WebCore they sometimes play games distributing binary object files for parts they want to redact.

[cutie → philwelch]

That's not really fare to KDE, Apple has a thousand times the resources.

[philwelch → cutie]

That Apple used those resources to steward a successful open-source project themselves rather than just sending patches back to KDE makes the point, though.