Boxee eyes HTML5 goodness, ditches Gecko for WebKit

Boxee, everyone's favorite open-source underdog in the emerging entertainment-center-in-a-box market, has been using Gecko for its on-board browser for years now. That's all about to change, according to Boxee's Lead Apps Developer Rob Spectre, who told GigaOM that the team was looking to make good use of HTML5, and saw a shift to WebKit as the best way to get there. Boxee users should expect to see the shift sometime soon, with the release of the anticipated update to version 1.0 -- a milestone that's sure to be somewhat of a momentous occasion all on its own.

Boxee's performance while browsing is expected to "dramatically improve" after the shift, and when the long-awaited Boxee Box finally releases this coming November, it'll be shipping with WebKit firmly in place.

Interesting to note, the Boxee team is so impressed with WebKit, even after so many years of Gecko-use, that Spectre went on to state that it "absolutely should be the future for the browsers you use on your TV." Between Google TV and Boxee, it looks as though a great many living rooms are set to be equipped with WebKit this coming holiday season.

Tags: boxee, Boxee Box, BoxeeBox, Gecko, Google TV, GoogleTv, HTML 5, Html5, news, opensource, Webkit