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Collaboration and Rivalry In WebKit

Posted by Soulskill on from the enemy-of-slower-load-times-is-my-friend dept.

An anonymous reader writes "An unconventional article on the development of the WebKit project was just posted to the arXiv. Those guys data-mined the WebKit source-code change-log with Social Network Analysis. They claim that even if Apple and Samsung fight each other with patent wars in the courts, they still collaborate in the WebKit community. The report provides a different perspective from the Bitergia WebKit analytics. Some interesting polemics regarding Apple, Google and Nokia participation in the WebKit project are also highlighted in the paper. There are some nice figures capturing collaboration and rivalry in the WebKit community."

10 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. Freedom is not a "problem". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The near-absolute freedom one gets with BSD code, including the ability to create incompatible closed-source forks, is in no way a "problem". It is is the most beautiful and powerful thing about the BSD license. It's what makes the BSD license superior to other licenses, such as those in the GPL family, that go out of their way to put numerous impediments and barriers in place to limit freedom. Freedom is to be embraced, not limited. Freedom is what allows great things to happen. Freedom is what allows superb software to be created.

    1. Re:Freedom is not a "problem". by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      And how is BSD doing versus the oh-so-unfree GPLv2 Linux these days?

      But, as always, the rules are simple. Pick the license you want for your project, and respect the license other developers pick for their projects.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Freedom is not a "problem". by mspohr · · Score: 2

      With BSD, you get the freedom to do what you want including locking everyone else out from "your" system.
      Freedom for you... not so much for everyone else.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    3. Re:Freedom is not a "problem". by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

      With BSD, you get the freedom to do what you want including locking everyone else out from "your" system.

      Why the quote marks? With BSD, you get the freedom to start your own system, starting from some code that was BSD. Your own system, not "your" own system.

      In that situation, all the parts that were BSD are still available to anyone else. The only thing that someone else can't get their hands is your own work.

      In other words, unlike GPL, it's not viral. It's this viral aspect of GPL that is turning people against it, and towards the more permissive BSD and MIT licenses.

    4. Re:Freedom is not a "problem". by marsu_k · · Score: 2

      In other words, unlike GPL, it's not viral. It's this viral aspect of GPL that is turning people against it, and towards the more permissive BSD and MIT licenses.

      Which is why we just heard Linux running out of funds? Oh wait, we didn't. And WebKit is LGPL (and not an Apple creation but a fork of KHTML - undoubtedly refined since though).

      (For the record, I've nothing against BSD-licensed software, but people seem to be fine with GPL and its derivatives. Linux seems to be the platform of choice for most of smartphones and completely owns supercomputing. The desktop part is missing, insert compulsory joke about "YEAR OF LINUX DESKTOP" here - but generally it seems GPL is not scaring people away. And yes, even you, running Safari on your i-Device - you're running LGPL software.)

  2. Re:Just GPL the d' thing by jonwil · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ummm, WebKit (and all its forks) ARE LGPL, all having been forked from the original LGPL KHTML engine.

    And the whole WebKit vs Blink issue happened because Apple (creator of WebKit) had no interest in a whole pile of WebKit stuff Google created for Android and Chrome and Google had no interest in a bunch of WebKit stuff Apple created for Safari, OSX and iOS. So rather than try and pretend that there was anything like a single WebKit anymore, Google decided to go its own way and call it "Blink".

  3. Re:Google/Samsung? by VortexCortex · · Score: 4, Funny

    <blink> Yes </blink>

  4. Re:Google/Samsung? by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 2

    Sadly there is no blink tag support in Blink

    --
    ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
  5. Re:Google/Samsung? by sribe · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sadly there is no blink tag support in Blink

    Which is why we all need to band together and start a class-action lawsuit over this blatantly fraudulent promotional tactic ;-)

  6. Lots of companies fight and cooperate all at once by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The programmers contributing to Webkit from Apple, Google, and Nokia have probably never met, or spoken to, any member of the legal departments of those companies. The lawyers do their thing, and the programmers do their thing. The programmers don't care about the lawsuit, they just want to make a great rendering engine! It's not at all far-fetched for big companies to sue each other, and cooperate with each other, all at the same time.