Like all other major browser engines, WebKit is a project that evolves very fast with releases every few weeks containing new features and security fixes.

WebKitGTK is available in Debian under the webkit2gtk name, and we are doing our best to provide the most up-to-date packages for as many users as possible.

I would like to give a quick summary of the status of WebKitGTK in Debian: what you can expect and where you can find the packages.

• Debian unstable (sid): The most recent stable version of WebKitGTK (2.24.3 at the time of writing) is always available in Debian unstable, typically on the same day of the upstream release.
• Debian testing (bullseye): If no new bugs are found, that same version will be available in Debian testing a few days later.
• Debian stable (buster): WebKitGTK is covered by security support for the first time in Debian buster, so stable releases that contain security fixes will be made available through debian-security. The upstream dependencies policy guarantees that this will be possible during the buster lifetime. Apart from security updates, users of Debian buster will get newer packages during point releases.
• Debian experimental: The most recent development version of WebKitGTK (2.25.4 at the time of writing) is always available in Debian experimental.

In addition to that, the most recent stable versions are also available as backports.

• Debian stable (buster): Users can get the most recent stable releases of WebKitGTK from buster-backports, usually a couple of days after they are available in Debian testing.
• Debian oldstable (stretch): While possible we are also providing backports for stretch using stretch-backports-sloppy. Due to older or missing dependencies some features may be disabled when compared to the packages in buster or testing.

You can also find a table with an overview of all available packages here.

One last thing: as explained on the release notes, users of i386 CPUs without SSE2 support will have problems with the packages available in Debian buster (webkit2gtk 2.24.2-1). This problem has already been corrected in the packages available in buster-backports or in the upcoming point release.