The browser has become an indispensable tool for surfing the Internet in our life or work. Today we will talk about the kernel and brief history of the current five major browsers in detail. The core of the browser is divided into two parts, one is the rendering engine and the other is the JS engine. Now the JS engine is relatively independent. What we usually call the browser kernel is more inclined to say the rendering engine. The rendering engine determines how the browser displays the content of the web page and the format information of the page. The rendering (display) effects in browsers with different kernels may also be different, which is why test engineers or web page writers need to test the display effects of web pages in browsers with different kernels. The following is the browser market share report of Baidu Statistical Traffic Research Institute (from 2017.1.1 to the present):
After reviewing the relevant information, I organize it as follows, in the order of release time:
1. IE (Internet Explorer) browser:
The birth of IE originated in 1994, when Microsoft prepared to develop its own browser in windows in order to fight against Netscape Navigator (Navigator), which occupies almost 90% of the market. , named Internet Explorer, which means Internet Explorer. In 1995, Microsoft acquired the source code and license for Spyglass Mosaic from Spyglass by giving a quarterly fee and a portion of the revenue. Thus making IE gradually become Microsoft's exclusive software. On August 16 of the same year, Microsoft launched the IE 1.0 browser. At the time, it was just Windows95Plus! An add-on software for the enhancement package. The typesetting engine it uses (commonly known as the kernel) is Trident. Each time a new IE version is released, it also marks an increase in the Trident kernel version number.
2. Opera browser:
Opera browser was founded in April 1995. It is a web browser that supports multi-page tabbed browsing produced by Opera Software ASA in Norway . It is a cross-platform browser that can be used on Windows, Mac and Linux. Runs on three operating system platforms. In February 2016, it was determined to be acquired by Qihoo 360 and Kunlun Wanwei, and the latest version was 52.0 (52.0.2871.99) on April 27, 2018. The kernel of the Opera browser was originally Presto. A few years ago, it announced that it would use Google's open source project Webkit as its own kernel. It didn't take long, but now it is following Google to use the Blink kernel.
3. Safari browser:
Apple's own kernel, which is also the kernel used by Apple's Safari browser. Safari was first released in beta on January 7, 2003, and has become the default browser for Mac OS X v10.3 and later, and the designated browser for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The first beta version of the Windows version was launched on June 11, 2007, supporting Windows XP and Windows Vista, and the official version was launched on March 18, 2008, and now supports Windows 7. On July 26, 2012, with Apple's The "Mountain Lion" system was released, and the development of Safari on the Windows platform has been abandoned. The Safari browser uses the Webkit engine, including the WebCore typesetting engine and the JavaScriptCore parsing engine, both derived from KDE's KHTML and KJS engines. They are all free software, licensed under the GPL treaty, and support the development of BSD systems. So Webkit is also free software and open source. In terms of security, it is not restricted by IE and Firefox, so the Safari browser is still very safe in China.
4. Firefox browser:
On February 9, 2004, Mozilla Firebird decided to change its name to Mozilla Firefox, referred to as Firefox, officially abbreviated as Fx or fx, but it is still often referred to as FF (FireFox). Firefox refers to "red panda" in English colloquialisms, but the development team used "Fire" and "fox" to separate the meaning of literal translation, and designed the mascot and official icon as a fiery little fox. Gecko engine, which is also the rendering engine that Firefox has been using since its release in 2004, officially because Gecko is an open source project, the code is completely open, so it is sought after and praised by many people. According to browser statistics in August 2013, Firefox has a market share of 76% to 81% in the global web browser market, and the number of users ranks third among all web browsers.
5. Chrome browser:
Chrome browser is a web browser developed by Google on September 2, 2008. The browser is based on other open source software, including WebKit, with the goal of improving stability, speed and security. And create a simple and efficient user interface. Google Chrome is characterized by simplicity and speed. Google Chrome supports multi-tab browsing, and each tab page runs in an independent "sandbox". While improving security, the crash of one tab page will not cause other tab pages to be closed. Additionally, Google Chrome is based on a more powerful JavaScript V8 engine, which is not possible with current web browsers. In April 2013, Google announced that it would develop a new independent browser engine Blink for the Chrome browser. In the latest Chrome development version, Blink has officially appeared.
To summarize (please correct me if it is not comprehensive):
1. IE browser kernel: Trident kernel, also commonly known as IE kernel;
2. Chrome browser kernel: collectively referred to as Chromium kernel or Chrome kernel, Webkit kernel (previously) --> Blink kernel (now);
3. Firefox browser kernel: Gecko kernel, commonly known as Firefox kernel;
4. Safari browser kernel: Webkit kernel, commonly known as Safari kernel;
5. Opera browser kernel: Presto kernel (previously) --> Webkit kernel (middle) --> Blink kernel (now);
6. Other browsers: IE core (such as Baidu browser) or IE+Chrome dual core (such as 360, Cheetah browser), etc.