Goanna is an
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
browser engine
A browser engine (also known as a layout engine or rendering engine) is a core software component of every major web browser. The primary job of a browser engine is to transform HTML documents and other resources of a web page into an interacti ...
and part of Unified XUL Platform that was
forked from
Mozilla
Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...
's
Gecko
Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates. They range from .
Geckos are unique among lizards ...
. It is used in the
Pale Moon
Pale Moon is a free and open-source web browser licensed under the MPL-2.0 with an emphasis on customization. There are official releases for Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, macOS, and Linux.
Pale Moon originated as a fork of Firefox, but has subs ...
and
Basilisk
In European bestiary, bestiaries and legends, a basilisk ( or ) is a legendary reptile reputed to be a Serpent symbolism, serpent king, who causes death to those who look into its eyes. According to the ''Natural History (Pliny), Naturalis Histo ...
browsers. It underlies the ''Interlink'' mail client,
Hyperbola's fork of Basilisk known as Iceweasel-UXP, and other
UXP-based
applications
Application may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks
** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...
. It was also unofficially ported to
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...
for the
K-Meleon
K-Meleon is a free and open-source, lightweight web browser for Microsoft Windows. It uses the native Windows API to create its user interface. Early versions of K-Meleon rendered web pages with Gecko, Mozilla's browser layout engine, which Moz ...
browser and Mypal.
History
Goanna as an independent fork of Gecko was first released in January 2016.
The project's founder and lead
developer, M. C. Straver,
cited technical- and trademark-related motives to do this in the context of
Pale Moon
Pale Moon is a free and open-source web browser licensed under the MPL-2.0 with an emphasis on customization. There are official releases for Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, macOS, and Linux.
Pale Moon originated as a fork of Firefox, but has subs ...
's increasing divergence from
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...
. There are two significant aspects of Goanna's divergence: it does not have any of the
Rust language components that were added to Gecko during Mozilla's
Quantum project, and applications that use Goanna always run in single-
process
A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic.
Things called a process include:
Business and management
* Business process, activities that produce a specific s ...
mode, whereas Firefox became a multi-process application.
References
{{Browser engines
2016 software
Cross-platform software
Free layout engines
Free software programmed in C++
Gecko-based software
Software forks
Software that uses Cairo (graphics)
Software using the Mozilla Public License