Comparison of layout engines
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of layout engines. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date. Unless otherwise specified in footnotes, comparisons are based on the stable versions without any add-ons, extensions or external programs.
Contents |
General information
Basic general information about the engines: creator/company, license, etc.
Creator | Open Source | Software license | Leading application | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Gecko | Mozilla Corporation | Yes | MPL/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL tri-license | Mozilla Firefox |
iCab | Alexander Clauss | No | Proprietary | iCab |
KHTML | KDE | Yes | GNU LGPL | Konqueror |
Presto | Opera Software | No | Proprietary | Opera |
Robin | No | Proprietary | The Bat! | |
Tasman | Microsoft | No | Proprietary | Microsoft Entourage |
Trident | Microsoft | No | Proprietary | Internet Explorer |
WebCore | Apple Inc. | Yes | GNU LGPL | Safari |
Release history
A brief overview of the release history.
First public release | First stable release | Latest stable release | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Version | Date | Version | Date | Version | |
Gecko | December 7, 1998 | "Preview" | March 19, 1999 | M3 | July 30, 2007 | 1.8.1.6 |
iCab | 1998 | ? | 1998 | ? | August 18, 2006 | 3.0.3 |
KHTML | October 2000 | ? | October 2000 | ? | January 25, 2007 | 3.5.6 |
Presto | November 13, 2002 | 7.0 beta 1 | January 28, 2003 | 7.0 | July 19, 2007 | 9.22 |
Robin | April 27, 2000 | 1.32 | April 27, 2000 | 1.32 | December 27, 2006 | 3.95 |
Tasman | March 27, 2000 | 0 | March 27, 2000 | 0 | May 11, 2004 | 1.0 |
Trident | April 1997 | I | October 1997 | I | October 18, 2006 | 7 |
WebCore | January 7, 2003 | 48 | June 23, 2003 | 85 | March 13, 2007 | 419 |
Operating system support
The operating systems the engines can run on without emulation.
Windows | Mac OS X | Mac OS 9 | Linux | BSD | Unix | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gecko | Yes | Yes | Dropped | Yes | Yes | Yes |
iCab | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
KHTML | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Presto | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Robin | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Tasman | No | Yes | Dropped | No | No | No |
Trident | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
WebCore | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
- Although dropped in current version, older versions of the Gecko layout engine for Mac OS 9 are still available for download from Netscape's Archived Products site.
- Most of WebCore runs natively on Windows, Safari 3.0 Beta promises and/or provides support for previously non-ported features such as SVG, Canvas, and plugins.
WebCore notes
Linux, Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X support are also available with Qt 4.3 in the public WebKit SVN repository.
See also
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List of layout engines | Trident · Presto · Gecko · Tasman · WebCore · KHTML · iCab · Prince · Gzilla · Boxely · Tkhtml · Robin |
Comparison of layout engines | HTML · XML · XHTML · Graphics · CSS · DOM · HTML5 · ECMAScript · SVG |