http://planet.igalia.com/ (Main GTKwebkit maintainer/developer)
I linked to the above blog site from Beyond 3D for my Post
Will the PS3 have an XMB desktop that has Browser abilities which with the
Charles Ying post and recent developments would seem to be confirmed. HTML from the XMB is still up in the air but the XMB is most likely a Cairo surface (Since 2009) which can support "What's New" as well as Webkit calls using Cairo, I.E. a
Gnome Desktop. (XML with Cairo bindings)
GNOME = GNU Network Object Model Environment, I.E. it uses Network libraries to support a Desktop environment; GTKwebkit support libraries.
While many people envision that the next desktop will be the browser, many more do use Web applications almost exclusively, already today. The traditional separation between Web and Desktop app development is blurring. Browsers have become powerful platforms for running complex applications, and this situation is speeding up with the broad and increasing adoption of HTML5 standards by major browsers.
On the other hand, we have D-Bus (in Glib-part of Gnome, in the PS3 as it's required for the GTKwebkit), a freedesktop.org standard that is at the core of almost every GNU/Linux system out there. It is the de-facto IPC mechanism on which your applications talk and share. D-Bus allows us to write a program in any language, and export its usefulness over a standard channel. Also allows us to write differentiated UIs (e.g, Qt vs. GTK+ vs. NCurses) to interface a common functionality. Yes, one bus to bind them all! (Fling negotiation from Android to PS3 is D-BUS, In Android with 2.2)
Joining these two pieces together is just the next logical step. A step towards bringing together the best of two contexts: the ubiquity of the Web and the inter-process collaborative nature of the Desktop.
This is, in my opinion, what Gnome is about; with GTKwebkit (
Coming to the PS3) the Gnome Mobile programs/libraries (+ Cairo-mobile or Clutter -desktop) are used to create a browser and browser applications for the desktop in an efficient inter-process manor, they talk to each other and share data. The Gnome Shell is an
efficient browser desktop and application platform because the basic cross platform libraries are used over and over again and are
designed with mobile platforms in mind. (Good choice for the PS3)
There are problems in the Gnome world mainly because it's evolving and has not settled on standards to allow developers to write applications. The move from Cairo to a more powerful Clutter for rendering and the API changes in Gstreamer 1.0 are examples of this.
Gnome 3.2 where the default browser will be built entirely from Gnome libraries is the first step. Gnome 3.4 with Gstreamer 1.0 and Clutter used for the browser and Desktop should be the standard rather than 3.2's use of Clutter for the desktop shell but still using Cairo for the browser. (The PS3 is using Cairo for everything at this time. The PS4 might support Clutter.)
We need to write applications that you can host and use securely and reliably not only in your computer, but anywhere in the Planet where you happen to have a browser plugged into the Net; whether it is your laptop, mobile phone, tablet or your neighbors PS3. We also need to encourage application developers to export the logic of their programs over D-Bus, to allow other platforms (like the Web!) to reuse it. Telepathy is a good example of such program (subsets of Telepathy in Glib). (OLPC, collaborative games, VITA to PS3 everything)
Almost identical applications in terms of functionality are written for FOSS environments like GNOME, KDE, MeeGo, Android, etc; yet many times only the user experience and the technologies used to build it are different. I think there is room for a wider code-reusing culture if we come back to the original Unix philosophy:
Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface. (example is XML, PS3 XMB is XML with Cairo bindings)
Going back to the Planet Igalia site and the Most recent post
The Next Million Apps talks about Gnome, Webkit and apps.
A new array of solutions designed to build web applications (packaged, delivered to the user, run locally) is being created as we speak. From Tizens endorsed WAC, to Mozillas OpenWebApps, to Chromes Applications the list keeps growing in expansionary fashion, but all the specs share the same father: a thin layer (shell) on top of HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, bridging the gap between the W3C standards and the needs of the apps. As the standards grow, those (shell) platforms will shrink, and it is likely that in good time a reasonably standardized solution will emerge.
Why is this relevant for GNOME? Never mind iOS, never mind Android, one thing is clear: most of the next million apps written will be web applications. Some huge players like Microsoft are already moving there as fast as they can, and the rest will follow sooner or later. Native apps wont go anywhere for a long time, but developers willing to maximize their reach will, increasingly, prefer web applications over anything else. At least as their first choice. This brings us a great opportunity. If we jump on this bandwagon, support web applications as first class citizens on top of world-class runtimes, and accept and even encourage people to run their web apps on our operating system we can maximize our reach with a fraction of the effort of fighting in the native SDK war against Apple and Google. I think being smart in how we spend our scarce resources is important, and I believe this is a fight that we can win if we put our minds to it: lets not forget our own platform, but lets embrace the web as it is emerging.
Most of this was shared with those present at this years GNOME Boston Summit (in Montreal), and although there was a lively debate my impression is that most of it was well received by the core hackers present. We at Igalia believe that this is a promising way forward for GNOME and we happen to have the skills necessary to make it happen, so we are committed to keep investing in the foundational platform bits like WebKit and to bring Web Application support to our OS: our plan for the next months is to explore all the new technologies I have mentioned, and start to implement a well integrated runtime to run the next generation of web goodness at home.
The Gnome core libraries are still overwhelmingly written in C (and compiled to native language as they should be), but most of the new generation applications and UI modules are being written in higher level languages (finally?!) (Vala, Python, Mono)
Windows 8 applications will be built using HTML and JavaScript. You dont get more mainstream than that.
The Gnome Mobile Libraries in the PS3 to support GTKWebkit can/will support multiple PS3 applications; thus the PS3 APP store!
Microsoft's Silverlight and the Mono .NET clone Moonlight use API calls to various Web Browsers and Mono now supports Webkit calls. Mono (an apx 3 meg VM Gnome technology and much more) can be thought of as an upper level script UI and
shell that can call webkit and Gnome as well as protect IP by running only where authorized, a form of DRM.
Currently Sony has a
Shell to support IPTV apps and we do not know what comprises that shell.
The Charles Ying post calls the Sony Video app development platform + Shell = Trilithium. AN internal name that only tells us that the team has a sense of humor and are Star Trek Fans.
There were rumors of a Silverlight (HTML
5) version
5 early 2011 but that gave way to Windows 8 and other subsets for multiple different platforms in their ecosystem.
Reports indicate the Xbox is going to support Windows 8 applications ("Windows 8 applications will be built using HTML and JavaScript"). Sony's version is based on Gnome + webkit + Cairo + custom shell that might give way to Gnome's Mono (also requires Cairo + webkit + Gnome libraries) for Sony's PS Suite ecosystem.
This is the future for both Linux and Sony platforms! It's why Sony chose to go with Gnome in 2007-2008 and it's in the PS3 in 2009 (Firmware 3.0). Any applications written with the Gnome libraries can be easily ported to the PS3, Vita, PS Suite and Sony 2011 TVs and Blu-ray players or between any of those platforms as well as future platforms built with Gnome like the PS4.
Personal Rant
"Will the PS3 have an XMB desktop that has Browser abilities" with Shifty & jonabbey comments is a two page microcosm example of the viewpoints of some in this thread; Who cares, claims of wild speculation or Sony can write their own code. I've tried to point out "the next million apps will be web applications" and
cross platform ecosystem support were important reasons for rewriting the XMB but hadn't put together at that time that Sony had already started the move to Gnome, Cairo and webkit with PS3 Firmware 3.0 in 2009.
It was not possible to accurately speculate until closely examining the Nov 2010 Sony webkit javascript engine disclosure and understanding what Gnome and the libraries/programs in Gnome make possible. One or the other has been keeping others from seeing what I see.
The web is the future + examining & understanding the Sony webkit disclosure + Sony ecosystem + Sony is not stupid = Gnome
Really very simple but delete something to the left of the = sign and you can't see it. androvsky would probably say that it makes sense but you haven't proved it and he would be right. Parts of this have proof and while other aspects still await proof, I think this is now most likely what Sony is doing and any statements that it's not should be considered wild speculation, turnabout <grin>.
When will we get the new browser or see significant changes to the XMB? Since the Sony March 2011 webkit disclosure (version 1.41) which required Cairo 1.6, we now have Cairo 1.8, Webkit 1.6 with parallel versions of webkit and webkit2 released and soon Gstreamer 1.0 (end of year). At some point Sony, when libraries reach where they are targeting, will take a snapshot of the Gnome and Webkit development libraries and release a new MAJOR firmware update with a GTKwebkit browser. I'm guessing this has Oct 25th (Gstreamer conference) as the soonest (we have already gone past last year's Sept 28th for PS3 3.5 which contained the javascript engine, this year Gnome 3.2 was released on Sept 28th) and the Torne update (Dec 17th 2011) as the latest date for this. Torne uses Gstreamer, Cairo SVG and a browser so the Torne update to allow streaming to the Vita will probably include updates to all of Torne including the browser.
PS3 4K monitor viewing of pictures in 4K resolution early 2012 might be targeted by Sony for PS3 Firmware 4.0. They might sacrifice PS3 sales this Christmas season to keep attention on the Vita and keep attention on it till after the Vita launch outside Japan Feb 22, 2012.
The new Xbox360 Dashboard launch is occurring Nov 2011 and I think this might impact when Sony releases the new XMB and browser....again a guess, it's up to Sony.