[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] Re: gpe-mini-browser for maemo

[From: Alp Toker]

Jorge Salamero Sanz wrote:
> hi all,
> 
> i've packaged gpe-mini-browser for maemo.
> 
> you can find the packages in http://bencer.cauterized.net/nokia770/
> 
> *warning*: there are very very dirty and quick packages. this weekend i'll 
> have much cleaner and well done packages in a repository.
> 
> i'll try to make fresh packages from gpe svn often.

Why distribute a browser engine that is practically unchanged since 
2004? You lose out on almost three years of performance, compatibility 
and security updates.

A few weeks back I updated the WebKit Gdk port from Apple's SVN. With 
some days hacking it was rendering pages, and was easily cross-compiled 
to the 770: http://www.ndesk.org/tmp/WebKit-Gdk-Nokia770.jpg

It is a bit of work and you need to know your way around Gtk+/gdk, but 
probably nowhere near the headache of maintaining a snapshot of WebCore 
from 2004 by yourself, fixing security issues etc.

It also seemed to be empirically faster at loading and scrolling pages 
than the "Opera" browser that came with the device.