Blisk (web browser)

Last updated
Blisk
Initial releaseMay 9, 2016;7 years ago (2016-05-09)
Stable release(s)
Linux21.0.78.116 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 10 August 2023;7 months ago (10 August 2023)
macOS21.0.78.116 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 10 August 2023;7 months ago (10 August 2023)
Windows21.0.78.116 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 10 August 2023;7 months ago (10 August 2023)
Written in C++ [2]
Engines Blink, V8
Operating system
Platform IA-32, x64, ARMv7, ARMv8-A
Type Web browser
License Freeware under Blisk Terms of Service [3] [note 1]
Website blisk.io

Blisk is a freemium Chromium-based web browser that offers tools for web development and testing for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. It is not designed for regular users but rather for web developers. [4]

Contents

History

Blisk was first released as Windows only in 2016, with Mac support coming one month after release. [5] [6] The initial beta release of Blisk for Linux was announced on April 10, 2021, [7] public Linux release and support of Linux-based OS (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE) was announced by the Blisk team on May 7, 2021. [8]

Features

Blisk comes with a set of phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops that can be simulated, allowing for developers to test how their code renders across multiple devices and browsers, such as the iPhone 15. [9] The feature can be used to compare how the design responds to different screen resolutions and pixel ratios. [10] These devices are shown in a secondary screen next to the main screen. The screens scroll in sync with eachother [9] The device simulation enables developers to test the page behavior in various environments without having to use the actual devices. The devices emulated by Blisk support original their original screen resolution and orientation, pixel ratio, user agent, and touch events. [6] As of May 2019, Blisk supports over 50 devices. [11]

Data breach

According to the Estonian company behind Blisk, the browser was used in web and app development by tens of thousands of corporate clients. In December 2019, a data breach occurred when an Elasticsearch server was left exposed. It contained personal information of thousands of web developers from the companies that used it, totaling 2.9 million records or 3.4 GB of data, including email addresses and user-agent strings. The leak was patched by the Blisk team a day after learning of it, but concerns were raised about the potential operational value of the data to malicious actors with respect to targeting the companies using tailored exploits. [12] The data stored by the browser was left unencrypted before the attack. [13] [14]

See also

Notes

  1. Blink layout engines and its V8 JavaScript engine are each free and open-source software, while its other components are each either open-source or proprietary. However, section 9 of Blisk's Terms of Service designates the whole package as proprietary freeware.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Blisk 21.0.78.116: Auto-save and restore Splitter location, New Universal DevTools mode, Dock DevTools to bottom".
  2. Lextrait, Vincent (January 2010). "The Programming Languages Beacon, v10.0". Archived from the original on May 30, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2010.
  3. "Blisk Terms of Service".
  4. Beck, Kellen (13 May 2016). "The Blisk browser is a web developer's dream come true". Mashable. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
  5. Meiert, Jens Oliver (2020-04-07). The Web Development Glossary: More Than 2,000 Key Terms for Developers. Frontend Dogma.
  6. 1 2 Verma, Adarsh (2016-05-25). "Blisk — A Free Web Browser That Every Programmer And Developer Must Use". Fossbytes. Retrieved 2024-03-31.
  7. "Blisk release 14.1.457.86". Blisk. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
  8. "Blisk release 15.0.221.130". Blisk. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  9. 1 2 Constantinescu, Vlad (2023-11-29). "Blisk Review". Softpedia. Retrieved 2024-03-31.
  10. Mix (2016-05-13). "Blisk is the browser every developer has been longing for". The Next Web. Retrieved May 13, 2016.
  11. "Blisk's supported devices". Blisk team. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  12. Cimpanu, Catalin (March 14, 2020). "Browser vendor leaks data via open server". ZDNET . Retrieved March 31, 2024.
  13. Baran, Guru (2020-03-17). "Blisk Web Browser Exposes User Data Via Misconfigured Database". Cyber Security News. Retrieved 2024-03-31.
  14. Olenick, Doug (2020-03-16). "Blisk browser left open, 2.9 million records exposed". SC Media. Retrieved 2024-03-31.