Supported by the Nokia Institute of Technology (iNdT) in Brazil, developers around the world are working on the first pure Qt5 web browser. It's great to see that the initial version runs exclusively on the N9.
About iNdT and Qt/QML
iNdT (Nokia Institute of Technology) based in Brazil, is an independent non-profit institute founded by Nokia to do researches and develop products and solutions related to internet and mobile technologies. N9 users might know their applications like the management tool "Money Manager" (not available in all countries) or the game "PathWind".
iNdT supports a community of various developers around the world in building a browser called Snowshoe. Based on Qt5 and WebKit2 technologies using QML user interface, Snowshoe can be called the first Qt browser.
Qt is a cross-platform application framework which is widely used to build applications by several companies of various sectors, including Adobe Photoshop Elements, Skype, ESA, DreamWorks, Samsung, Volvo and more. The Qt project was originally produced by the Norwegian company Trolltech until it has been acquired by Nokia which is the actual main promoter of the Qt project.
QML (Qt Meta Language) is a user interface (UI) creation kit developed by Nokia to complement the Qt project. An user interface provides the interaction between user and device. QML is a convincing way to add a modern and flexible UI to an application and is mainly used in N9 and Symbian applications.
Snowshoe on Nokia N9
The first pictures of Snowshoe browser on Nokia N9 look very promising. The final version could be a great alternative to the standard web browser - or even replace that one. Since Snowshoe is an open source project you are free to try out any available version or contribute your ideas and knowledge to the project.
In the future not only the N9 should profit from this browser; iNdT wants to focus on the usability and user experience on different platforms like desktop computers, mobile phones and tablets.
In case you are anxious to try out Snowshoe, use the following installation guide (source). Please don't expect a fully working browser.
1. Enable Developer mode and install the "Utilities" set.
2. Install the wget package
3. Install the Qt5 repository package
4. Use MeeCatalog (a package manager) to install Snowshoe Mobile. Since the package will install certain dependencies, the download is about 41Mb big.
5. Reboot your phone
For more information visit the website of Snowshoe under http://snowshoe.qtlabs.org.br/
Alternatively Github project website under https://github.com/snowshoe/
Alternatively Github project website under https://github.com/snowshoe/
