Editing GNOME Web (section)

==== WebKit-based ====
[[File:GNOME Web 40 (released in 2021-03) -- Web Inspector.png|thumb|Web Inspector, showing a [[Safari (web browser)|Safari]]-like user interface]]

The development process suffered from major problems related to the Gecko backend. Notably, the release cycles of the two projects did not line up efficiently. Additionally, Mozilla increasingly disregarded third-party software that wished to make use of Gecko, until it became viewed as an integrated Firefox component.<ref name="webkit-announcement" /> To address these issues, in July 2007, the Epiphany team added support for [[WebKit]] as an alternative rendering engine.<ref name="port-buddha" /> On {{dts|2008|4|1}}, the team announced that it would remove the ability to build it using Gecko and proceed using only WebKit.<ref name="webkit-announcement" />

The size of the team and complexity of porting the browser to WebKit caused version 2.22 to be re-released with bugfixes alongside GNOME 2.24,<ref name="epiphany-loves-webkit" /> so the releases stagnated until {{dts|2009|7|1}}, when it was announced that 2.26 would be the final Gecko-based version.<ref name="gecko-eol" />

In September 2009, the transition to WebKit was completed as part of GNOME 2.28.<ref name="ars_garden" />