June 7, 2005
WebKit open-sourced by Apple
Apple open-sourced WebKitApple's open-source browser engine — powers Safari and historically influenced Chrome's fork. on June 7, 2005 at WWDCApple Worldwide Developers Conference — annual June keynote and sessions for iOS, macOS, and Apple platform developers. — releasing the SafariApple's web browser — built on WebKit for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. rendering engine that began as a KHTML fork.
What it was for
Open WebKitApple's open-source browser engine — powers Safari and historically influenced Chrome's fork. let other projects embed Apple's engine without starting from scratch. Nokia used it in mobile browsers; Google chose it for ChromeGoogle's web browser — built on Chromium and the most widely used browser worldwide. in 2008. Today BlinkGoogle's rendering engine forked from WebKit — powers Chrome and many Chromium-based browsers. (ChromeGoogle's web browser — built on Chromium and the most widely used browser worldwide.'s fork) and WebKitApple's open-source browser engine — powers Safari and historically influenced Chrome's fork. (SafariApple's web browser — built on WebKit for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS.) together power most of the world's browsing.
Companies
- Apple
Why it's here
Open-sourcing WebKitApple's open-source browser engine — powers Safari and historically influenced Chrome's fork. was the decision that enabled ChromeGoogle's web browser — built on Chromium and the most widely used browser worldwide. and modern mobile browsers.
Why it mattered
It turned Apple's engine into shared infrastructure for the entire industry.
What it solved
Developers building browsers or embedded web views needed a modern, licensable engine beyond IEInternet Explorer — Microsoft's browser that dominated the web in the 1990s and 2000s. and Gecko.
Media
- ImageWebKit
Apple, LGPL, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- Safari announced at MacworldJanuary 7, 2003
- Konqueror and KHTML shipped with KDE 2October 23, 2000
- Google Chrome beta releasedSeptember 2, 2008