KHTML is an excellent rendering engine, used in both Konqueror and Safari. However, there is currently no Windows-based browser making use of the KHTML rendering engine, as far as I know. There is a Sourceforge project, KHTML for Win32, however, that seems to have stagnated.
I am curious - what would it take for a browser to be created that makes use of the KHTML engine, even if just for the purposes of testing a page? Is this the kind of project that is far too daunting for anyone to seriously take on? Are there major technological obstacles to creating a KHTML-based browser on Windows?
16 Comments
I'd love to see this implemented in Windows too. I don't like the Mozilla stuff. Alan Gutierrez told me to look at Apple. (The exact laconic response was: "Apple developer. Try Googling for Apple WebCore.
" but there's not a lot of information there.) I'd be happy to do some work on it, al though I don't have too much spare time.
#1, Pablo, Spain, 12 November 2004. Reply to this.
I've heard from a lot of people that they'd be willing to put time in. Certainly there's huge value in having a KHTML-based browser on the market, if for no other reason than to competition.
What is needed is someone to take the reigns of such a project. Sadly, there are few people with the skills required (it seems) willing to step forward.
#2, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 12 November 2004. Reply to this.
Gtk+ WebCore project and Petri Salmi and Kimmo Kinnunen provide a port of KHTML (from the Apple Safari code branch) to Gtk already. See http://gtk-webcore.sourceforge.net/
They told me that a port to Windows would be easy to do by using the Gtk version for Windows.
The main work items would be to remove a few dependencies on X Windows that are currently in their code, to integrate the Windows HTTP framework, and to make a nice Browser UI / Application on top of KHTML.
Such port using Gtk for Windows would probably be a good start. However, it would probably have suboptimal performance.
To get better performance one could remove the calls to Gtk in their porting layer and replace them by calling similar win32 functions directly. Surely, this would be a much bigger project, but the Gtk+ WebCore project has done a lot of common ground work already by making KHTML independent of KDE and Qt.
#3, Guido Grassel, Finland, 15 November 2004. Reply to this.
I wish somebody would make this happen. I use Safari at home, on my Macs, but I have to use Windows at work. Not being able to test in a KHTML browser is annoying, because I've often arrived home and found really obvious breakages in sites I've been working on.
Yes, I could take my iBook to work every day, but that's far too easy :)
#4, Phil Sherry, United Kingdom, 19 January 2005. Reply to this.
You can always use co-linux. Uses cygwin to run kde on top of explorer.
#5, Gadger, United States, 15 February 2005. Reply to this.
Cygwin is a way to have a site rendered with the KHTML engine on Windows. It's not much use though - a KHTML engine is needed as much by non-techies - marketing folk, graphics people - as techies, and the only way its going to be useful on Windows is with a proper port.
#6, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 15 February 2005. Reply to this.
Try Here:
http://www.danka.de/printpro/NX.html
Have fun! :)
#7, Ravi, United States, 28 October 2005. Reply to this.
I would really love to see KHTML ported to Windows in some new browser. But it seems there's not enough motivation for developers to develop "yet another" browser for Windows.
#8, Michal Stankoviansky, Slovakia, 16 January 2006. Reply to this.
I know this topic is 2 years old and all, but here's a link explaining how to get LDE up and running using the free version of VM Ware:
http://jedisthlm.com/2006/01/04/khtml-on-windows-part-iii/
Not native, but certainly good enough for testing purposes!
#9, Kevin Cannon, Ireland, 8 May 2006. Reply to this.
Here you go :)
http://www.getswift.org/
#10, rojer_31, India, 21 August 2006. Reply to this.
Sadly, the GetSwift site has been down for a while now.
Does anyone out there have a binary of Swift lying around? Would be helpful.
#11, kr3mliyn, United Kingdom, 29 October 2006. Reply to this.
I have a copy of Swift linked from my blog in case you're interested.
http://blog.muymra.com/2006/10/21/swift-browser/
#12, EvilCarlo, Philippines, 7 November 2006. Reply to this.
Hi,
Apparently there is a 0.2 version of swift, with scroll support, bug fixes and in-dependency of .net2.0. Unfortunately on the swift site it is not avaiable. I was hoping someone who has it might be kind enough to post the download.
#13, Leonard, United Kingdom, 9 November 2006. Reply to this.
Just dropping in to say the second mirror on the swift download page works.
http://www.happyandlost.co.uk/media/misc/swift/swift_0.2.msi
#14, Kane Elson, Australia, 18 December 2006. Reply to this.
I have Swift 0.2, but does anyone know why they have abandoned this project? You'd think they'd at least put up some info as to why they did, or where they left off.
I really would love to see Swift develop further, I need to test sites for Mac and Linux users.
#15, Eric, United States, 9 January 2007. Reply to this.
I know this is an old post, but Safari 3 Beta has been released as a Win32 Binary, so there is finally a KHTML browser for Windows (granted, its webkit, a derivative of KHTML, but its better than nothing right?)
#16, phalacee, Australia, 2 July 2007. Reply to this.