Recently, a blogger exposed that a senior manager working in Huawei's browser team revealed that he would be able to use a better Huawei browser in two years, and with the words "the four cores of today's browsers are American technology", as well as the recent "Huawei Browser MEET X Salon • Education" introduction long map.
Although it is not explicitly stated that Huawei intends to develop the browser kernel, the blogger's words seem to reveal relevant information inside and outside the words, which makes people wonder whether Huawei intends to develop the browser kernel by itself.
See here, it is estimated that some netizens are confused, browser kernel? What's the use of this stuff? Why does a browser have to develop its own kernel? Is it harder than making a system? It is not surprising that friends who are not familiar with the field of programming have such doubts, even in the programmer's circle of whether the browser kernel needs to be self-developed, the debate has not stopped, many people feel that there is no need to develop everything, it is better to divide the hands to do self-research system.
In fact, in the past, there were also many browser kernel self-development projects in China, but most of the teams were difficult to retreat, and in 2018, the Red Core Company, which claimed to have developed the first domestic independent browser kernel, was also exposed that its browser was directly produced by the Chromium kernel, and there was no difference with mainstream browsers such as 360 browser.
The browser kernel seems inconspicuous, but in fact, there are only 4 browser kernels that are still being updated, namely Gecko, WebKit, Presto and Blink, even if you count the dying Internet Explorer kernel Trident, there are only 5.
Therefore, although dozens of browsers can be found in the app store and Baidu, in fact, most of them are based on the above browser kernels, not self-developed browser kernels. Therefore, if Huawei can successfully toss out a new browser kernel, then it will become the sixth mainstream browser kernel in history, and it will also be the first domestically owned browser kernel, but can Huawei really succeed?
How hard is it to be a browser kernel?
As the core of the browser, the browser kernel integrates multiple components within it, through which users can easily browse various websites using the browser, and can use the various functional modules built into the website. Now you can think back to how many types of websites you have browsed? How many of these different features are there? And this is only a graphical interface for our users to see, and for browsers they see more diverse and complex compilation data.
Therefore, each component of the browser kernel is not very difficult to develop separately, but when you want to integrate all the components together and ensure that the components do not affect each other and produce serious bugs, it is necessary to squeeze the hair of many programmers.
What's more, simply integrating components and making them work together is only the first step, and then you'll have to face the test of countless website developers. From the simplest text websites to complex interactive websites, from the cute new who enters the letters one by one in the reference book to the experienced programmer of the keyboard pianist, the browser kernel needs to face a variety of known or unknown code, how to deal with this code and not let the browser crash, directly determine the browser experience.
Moreover, users not only demand that the browser not crash, they also want the browser to run faster, better, and save traffic, and then it involves network transmission optimization, compilation optimization and other fields. Therefore, a seemingly simple browser, the level of technology contained in its kernel is actually quite high, not only requires a large number of programmers to develop and debug, but also needs a core developer who knows enough about the field to integrate the entire team.
Therefore, almost all browser kernels are derived from the browser war of the nineties IE and Netscape, there is the KTHML architecture, if the current mainstream browser kernel is traced, Chrome, Opera, Safari (Safari) are from the KTHML architecture, Firefox is from the Netscape kernel architecture, IE is Microsoft's self-developed Trident or whairvre architecture.
These architectures, which have been emerging since the barbaric days of the Internet and have been iteratively updated, are another pillar that supports the development of the browser kernel. It can be seen that in order to truly develop a browser kernel, in addition to a large number of developers and professional teams, there needs to be a lot of technical accumulation, and both are indispensable, in addition to a lot of trial and error accumulation and development time.
For example, the Google Chromium kernel, which is currently used by a large number of browsers, uses the WebKit engine developed by Apple from the time of development, and also uses part of the source code of Apple's Safari browser and Firefox browser. It can be said that it stands on the shoulders of giants, and it took nearly 10 years from the launch of the first version to the real recognition of most users, and it was basically solved in the past one or two years to basically solve the problem of high memory occupation.
So the question is, why does Huawei want to develop its own browser kernel?
How likely is it that Huawei's self-developed browser kernel is high?
In fact, from the current huawei official channels, there is no exact report on Huawei's self-developed browser kernel, and tracing back to the source is only a sentence "Huawei wants to build a better browser". From the perspective of products, if you want to make a delicious plate of mapo tofu, the cook does not need to start from planting soybeans, as long as he can cook the "ingredients" to the perfect state, the customer will naturally pay.
Although most browsers currently use the Chromium open source kernel, there are obvious differences in browser development and optimization. For example, the new generation of edge browsers developed by Microsoft, although it also uses the Chromium kernel, it surpasses the Chrome browser in actual experience, and also solves the problems of memory occupation that the Chrome browser has been headaches.
Therefore, if Huawei's desire is only to create a better official browser, there is no need to develop a browser kernel from scratch. Because the self-developed browser kernel not only requires a lot of time and developers, but also the initial browser kernel must have a lot of bugs and optimization problems, from the loading speed to the stability of the experience are far less than the current version.
Some netizens may ask: "Can't it be secretly developed, and then come up with a perfect kernel to make a splash?" Although the idea is good, from a practical point of view, it will be found that it is impossible. The improvement of the browser kernel depends not only on the developer's debug speed and development capabilities, but also on having enough user groups to provide bug reports and bug reports for the development team.
Therefore, if Huawei is really developing the browser kernel, then the relevant news will not only be some speculations of catching wind and shadows, but will be exposed to a lot of test pictures and even test documents. Moreover, from the perspective of enterprises, although Huawei occasionally does some research and development work that does not seek short-term returns, it is basically concentrated in core areas, such as the Hongmeng system, and although the browser is important, it is difficult to bring obvious economic benefits, and it is also impossible to bring users a real qualitative experience, and it is difficult to increase the stickiness of users to the system or brand.
In fact, this is why there are only a few browser kernels these days, it takes a lot of developers and time at the same time this thing is not profitable, and users can easily switch directly to other browser camps because your browser is not good.
Therefore, in addition to Google's family can always maintain the Chromium development team, browser companies such as Opera, Firefox and other self-developed kernels need to rely on user donations to maintain daily operations. And in recent years, because of the decline in market share, they are more or less facing financial problems, I am afraid that in less than a decade, the mainstream browser market will become the world of Chromium.
On the other hand, the browser itself is not a core application, without Chrome and Opera, and then firefox, both of which are browser development companies based on open source protocols and user donations, so we don't need to worry about the embarrassing situation of no browser available due to the blockade in the United States.
Xiao Lei believes that if the United States needs to hit China by restricting the use of the browser kernel one day, then I am afraid that the United States has been completely defeated by China in other fields. After all, in all the internet fields, although the browser is important, but its own high degree of substitution, determines that it can only exist as an ordinary software, it is difficult for you to cause any serious blow to the Internet or mobile ecology of other countries through a browser.
Therefore, even if the relevant bloggers use American technology as an excuse to promote the American identity of the mainstream browser kernel (Opera, which actually has its own kernel, is a Norwegian company and has been acquired by 360 and Kunlun Wanwei), we do not need to pay more attention to a browser kernel, if it slows down the development of the Hongmeng system, it will not be worth the loss.
However, Huawei does need a browser that can open up mobile and PC terminals to support the Interconnection System of The Hongmeng Ecosystem, allowing users to directly synchronize the data and settings of browser bookmarks, passwords, browsing content and other data and settings on different devices, bringing users a seamless browsing experience.
As for the "better Huawei browser" mentioned by relevant bloggers, XiaoLei is more inclined to be a browser based on a browser kernel for deep optimization and function customization, and there is no problem in creating an excellent browser product with Huawei's development capabilities.