Comparison of browser engines
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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. The selection of layout engines that remain in development is much smaller than what is available for most other types of desktop software. A 2015 Popular Mechanics article, for instance, noted that "every browser has a rendering engine, but some of them share DNA, and virtually all of them date back decades."[1]
This article is not all-inclusive—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.
General information
Basic general information about the engines.
Release history
A brief overview of the release history.
Engine | First public release | First stable release | Latest stable release | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Version | Date | Version | Date | Version | |||||||
Blink | 3 April 2013[7] | No number | 3 April 2013[7] | No number | — | SVN version only | ||||||
EdgeHTML | 12 November 2014 | 12.0 | 15 July 2015 | 12.10240 | 5 November 2015 | 13.10586 | ||||||
Gecko | 7 December 1998 | "Preview" | 19 March 1999 | M3 |
| |||||||
Goanna | 4 August 2015 | "Preview" | 26 January 2016[11] | 2.0 | 24 February 2016 | ? | ||||||
GtkHTML | 2000 | ? | 2000 | ? | 14 December 2009 | 3.28.2 | ||||||
Hubbub | 22 April 2002 | ? | 17 May 2007 | 1.0 | 16 February 2016 | 3.3 | ||||||
iCab | 1998 | ? | 1998 | ? | 1 January 2008 | 3.0.5[12] | ||||||
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 | April 2003 | 1.0 | April 2003 | 1.0 | February 2016 | 10 rev 7 | ||||||
Tasman | 27 March 2000 | 0 | 27 March 2000 | 0 | 11 May 2004 | 1.0 | ||||||
The Bat! | 27 April 2000 | 1.32 | 27 April 2000 | 1.32 | 24 August 2009 | 4.2.10 | ||||||
Trident | April 1997 | No number | October 1997 | No number | 17 October 2013 | 7.0 | ||||||
WebKit | 7 January 2003 | 48 | 23 June 2003 | 85 | — | SVN version only | ||||||
XEP | 1999 | fo2pdf | ? | ? | March 2010 | 4.18 |
Operating system support
The operating systems the engines can run on without emulation.
Engine | Windows | OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix | Symbian OS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Blink[note 7] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Dillo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[note 8] | No |
EdgeHTML | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Gecko | Yes | Yes[note 9] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Goanna | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unknown | No |
GtkHTML | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Hubbub | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
iCab | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
KHTML | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
NetFront | Partial[note 10] | No | Yes | No | No | Dropped[13] |
Presto | Dropped (12.16) | Dropped (12.16) | Dropped (12.16)[note 11] | Dropped (12.16)[note 12] | Dropped (10.11) | Yes |
Prince | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Servo[14] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | No |
Tasman | No | Dropped (5.2.3) | No | No | No | No |
The Bat! | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Trident | Yes | Dropped (4.0) | No[15] | No | Dropped (5.0) | No |
WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
XEP[16] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Notes
- ^ Blink was created by Google by forking WebKit
- ^ EdgeHTML was created by Microsoft by forking Trident.
- ^ Goanna was created by Moonchild Productions by forking Gecko. "Goanna".
- ^ a b c d This engine is not currently being developed.
- ^ Opera switched to Webkit, then followed Google to Blink.
- ^ WebKit was created by Apple by forking KHTML.
- ^ Blink cannot be used alone and must be used via Chromium's content layer which has wide platform support. "Blink".
- ^ Dillo has been compiled successfully for IRIX, and hence is capable of running natively on UNIX.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Opera has released a developer version of the Blink-based Opera 24 in July 2014.
- ^ The newer versions of Opera (based on the Blink engine) will not be released for FreeBSD anymore.
References
- ^ Limer, Eric (2015-07-29). "Can Microsoft Edge Start the Browser War We So Desperately Need?". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
- ^ "Chromium Authors". Retrieved 30 August 2013.
- ^ Hachamovitch, Dean (2007-12-14), Internet Explorer 8 and Acid2: A Milestone, Microsoft
- ^ "libhubbub.git - HTML5 parser library". Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^ Lextrait, Vincent (January 2010). "The Programming Languages Beacon, v10.0". Retrieved 4 January 2010.
- ^ Hachamovitch, Dean (2007-12-14), Internet Explorer 8 and Acid2: A Milestone, Microsoft
- ^ a b "Blink: A rendering engine for the Chromium project". Retrieved 30 August 2013.
- ^ "Firefox 130.0, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes". 3 September 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ "Firefox ESR 128.2.0, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes". 3 September 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ "Firefox ESR 115.15.0, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes". mozilla.org. 3 September 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
- ^ "Goanna". Retrieved 26 February 2016.
- ^ 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". Retrieved 2009-04-30.
- ^ From Access website (2010/06/19): "Access no longer offers nor supports NetFront Browser for Symbian."
- ^ The Servo Project. "README.md". Github web repository. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
- ^ Through the use of the Wine Libraries some version of IE can be started."Beta - IEs4Linux". Tatanka.com.br. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ XEP is written in Java, with a dedicated release line for Windows.
See also
- List of layout engines
- Comparison of web browsers
- Comparison of e-mail clients
- Comparison of layout engines (HTML5) — see "Comparison of layout engines" in box below for more
- Comparison of layout engines (CSS) — see "Comparison of layout engines" in box below for more