Comparison of web browser engines Telecommunication Systems 479 kategori-antropologi.pts-ptn.net

Usage share as of Q2 2009^{[dated info]} by percent of layout engines/web browsers

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of layout engines. While these are mainly used in web browsers, they are also used in email clients for rendering HTML email, and used to render EPUB e-books, for example. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up to date—please see individual "Comparison of layout engine" articles for detailed comparisons of HTML5 feature support, CSS feature support, and the like. Unless otherwise specified in footnotes, comparisons are based on the stable versions without any add-ons, extensions or external programs.

1 General information
2 Release history
3 Operating system support
4 Notes
5 References
6 See also

General information

Basic general information about the engines.

Engine	Developer(s)	Software license	Leading application	Target application(s)	Programming language
Gecko	Netscape/Mozilla Foundation	MPL/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL tri-license	Mozilla Firefox	Mozilla Firefox & Mozilla Thunderbird	C++
GtkHTML^{[note 1]}	GNOME	GNU LGPL	Novell Evolution	Novell Evolution	C
iCab^{[note 1]}	Alexander Clauss	Proprietary	iCab	iCab	?
KHTML	KDE	GNU LGPL	Konqueror	Konqueror & KMail	C++
NetFront	Access Co.	Proprietary	NetFront	NetFront	?
Presto	Opera Software	Proprietary	Opera	Opera	C++^[1]
Prince XML	YesLogic Pty Ltd	Proprietary	Prince XML	Prince XML	Mercury
XEP	RenderX	Proprietary	XEP	XEP	Java
Robin	Ritlabs	Proprietary	The Bat!	The Bat!	Delphi
Tasman^{[note 1]}	Microsoft	Proprietary	Microsoft Entourage	Internet Explorer for Mac & Microsoft Entourage	?
Trident	Microsoft	Proprietary	Internet Explorer	Internet Explorer	C++^[2]
WebKit^{[note 2]}	Apple, KDE, Nokia, Google, BlackBerry, Palm, others	GNU LGPL, BSD-style	Google Chrome	Google Chrome & Apple Safari	C++

Release history

A brief overview of the release history.

Engine	First public release		First stable release		Latest stable release
Engine	Date	Version	Date	Version	Date	Version
Gecko	7 December 1998	"Preview"	19 March 1999	M3	9 October 2012	16.0
GtkHTML	2000	?	2000	?	14 December 2009	3.28.2
iCab	1998	?	1998	?	1 January 2008	3.0.5^[3]
KHTML	October 2000	?	October 2000	?	4 August 2009	4.3
NetFront	1995	?	1995	?	13 January 2010	4.0
Presto	13 November 2002	1.0	28 January 2003	1.0	5 November 2012	2.12.388
Prince XML	April 2003	1.0	April 2003	1.0	May 2010	7.1
XEP	1999	fo2pdf	?	?	March 2010	4.18
Robin	27 April 2000	1.32	27 April 2000	1.32	24 August 2009	4.2.10
Tasman	27 March 2000	0	27 March 2000	0	11 May 2004	1.0
Trident	April 1997	No number	October 1997	No number	26 October 2012	6.0
WebKit	7 January 2003	48	23 June 2003	85	N/A	SVN version only

Operating system support

The operating systems the engines can run on without emulation.

Engine	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix	Symbian OS
Gecko	Yes	Yes^{[note 3]}	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
GtkHTML	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
iCab	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
KHTML	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NetFront	Partial^{[note 4]}	No	Yes	No	No	Terminated^[4]
Presto	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Prince XML	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
XEP^[5]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Robin	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Tasman	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Trident	Yes	Dropped (4.0)	No^[6]	No	Dropped (5.0)	No
WebKit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c This engine is not currently being developed.
^ WebKit was created by Apple by forking KHTML. Subsequently Apple released it as an open source project.
^ Although dropped in current version, older versions of the Gecko web browser engine for Mac OS 8.6 and Mac OS 9 are still available for download from Netscape's Archived Products site. An updated port of the Mozilla Application Suite for classic Mac OS systems is maintained as Classilla.
^ NetFront supports Windows CE and Android, but is mainly used as an embedded browser on low-end mobile phones.

References

^ Lextrait, Vincent (January 2010). "The Programming Languages Beacon, v10.0". http://www.lextrait.com/Vincent/implementations.html. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
^ Hachamovitch, Dean (2007-12-14), Internet Explorer 8 and Acid2: A Milestone, Microsoft, http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/12/19/internet-explorer-8-and-acid2-a-milestone.aspx
^ The iCab 4 browser uses the WebKit engine - iCab 3.0.5 was the final release of the Carbon (API)-based iCab engine "iCab 4 Abandons Support for the Classic Mac OS". http://lowendmac.com/thomas/08tt/icab-drops-classic-mac-os.html. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
^ From Access website (2010/06/19): "Access no longer offers nor supports NetFront Browser for Symbian."
^ XEP is written in Java, with a dedicated release line for Windows.
^ Through the use of the Wine Libraries some version of IE can be started."Beta - IEs4Linux". Tatanka.com.br. http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Beta. Retrieved 2008-10-17.

Comparison of web browser engines

Contents

General information

Release history

Operating system support

Notes

References

See also