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Member since:
2009-08-20
You keep thinking that things work in the real world as they do in rosy-red theory land.
Fact 1: Apple does control the project in practice. Even if this changes, Webkit will still only be controlled by a couple of major contributors, most likely Google and Apple. Despite Nokia's size, they ended up with a broken fork, and had to start from scratch. For smaller players, Webkit will never be within their control. When even Nokia can't pull it off, how would others be able to?
Fact 2: You end up with forks in practice. Look at Nokia again.
Fact 3: Not only does the quality vary depending on the port, but each port will eventually either have to become fully forked, or work will have to be thrown away to be aligned with the main Webkit project, which is run by at most a couple of major players. Right now, Apple is basically the owner.
Fact 4: Indeed, there is more to a browser than the browser engine. Webkit is a not at all easy to work with, and when you start integrating with platforms, creating your own UI, etc. you quickly end up with a separate and incompatible fork.
So as you can see, Webkit is no easy solution. It's hard, requires a lot of work, and unless you are a giant like Google or Apple, you will forever be at the mercy of the Webkit "owners".