[Dev] [RFC] Deprecation of webkitgtk2

[Freemor]

On Fri, Mar 16, 2018 at 07:47:09AM -0400, bill-auger wrote:
> maybe webkit2gtk and webkitgtk2 are the same software with different
> names - that would not be uncommon for AUR packages
> 
> but what makes you say it is deprecated? "deprecated" is not the same
> thing as "arch stopped packaging it" - i would not use the word
> deprecated unless the upstream developers say so - even then, it may
> still be worth keeping - it sounds like probably not in this case though
> 
> the question a distro should ask in such cases is "does this program
> offer any unique and important functionality to the distro that would be
> missing if it were removed?" - like a web browser - no distro needs 10
> web browsers but they should all probably have at least one - in the
> case of file sync, there are surely several alternatives (unison and
> rsync for examples); so parabola users would not be missing the "file
> sync" ability - i dont know what the other program does but i suspect it
> would not meet the "important" criteria - maybe send mail to the
> [assist] list asking anyone to speak up if they want to save those packages
> 
> 
> 

They are the same but different. If I understand correctly and some
duckduckgo-ing seem to support my understanding webkitgtk2 is a older
unsupported version of webkit, where as webkit2gtk is the current supported
branch of the code. I can't remember the reason for the version split but do
recall that the old version has several severe vulnerabilities in it that will
not be patched. I had to change my browser choices for a while to move off on
the old unpatched webkit until some projects switched over.

Given the confusing nature of the naming and the vulnerabilities it may be an
idea to ditch the older ones.

There is some good discussion of it here:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/what-is-the-difference-between-webkitgtk-and-webkitgtk2-and-can-they-co-exist-please-4175589659/


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