Webenginepart
Version: 17.04 Web: http://bit.ly/2p9Aq0d
By the time these lines reach you, the KDE Applications 17.04 release will be out, bringing some major new functionality to the standard KDE Plasma web browser known as Konqueror.
It’s no secret that in recent years Konqueror hasn’t attracted much attention either from developers or from users, and so lagged behind Chrome and Firefox. Technically the reason was the outdated HTML rendering engines. Konqueror used to have two options: the very old KHTML, which was forked by Apple in 2002 to become the base for Safari, and the newer and better Webkit, which still wasn’t good enough for modern web surfing. Webenginepart brings support for QtWebengine for KDE applications, and Konqueror is the one that benefits the most from it. Webenginepart supersedes KWebkitpart and lets Konqueror use a modern rendering engine while retaining all of its advanced features. Currently it connects the browser with QtWebengine 5.8, which contains the slightly modified Chromium 53.0.2785.148 engine inside. Not the very latest version, but still very good. You can select the new engine in the Settings > Configure Konqueror > General menu and instantly enjoy great speed and compatibility in your now Chromium-powered Konqueror browser. Noticeable changes include smooth online video playback, the ability to gracefully handle JavaScriptheavy web pages and much better performance working with many tabs.
Webenginepart has been around for some time already, but the earlier implementations in late 2016 were not stable enough and made the browser crash too often. That contrasted with web browsers that used QtWebengine directly, such as Qupzilla. But during the last months many annoying bugs have finally been fixed.
Again, Webenginepart is just a mediator, not a web browser engine itself, so it is future QtWebengine updates that will actually improve your browsing experience with Konqueror.
“Noticeable changes include smooth online video playback.”