Very unfortunate news: was looking forward to another browser based on webkit available for the Linux community. The good news is that they’re at least open sourcing the code for the community.
TLDR; Kagi is ending development of Orion for Linux and Windows, but they’re open-sourcing both so the community can carry them forward. Kagi is stepping back from developing these platforms directly so the team can put more focus on Orion for macOS and iOS.
<Full Article in this spoiler>
Today we have an important update. We are ending development of Orion for Linux and Windows, and we’re open-sourcing both so the community can carry them forward. Kagi is stepping back from developing these platforms directly so our team can put more focus on Orion for macOS and iOS.
Orion is built by a very small team, just a handful of developers, funded entirely by Kagi users. We also chose to build it the hard way by not forking Chromium. That independence matters more than ever. The web needs more than one engine, and more than one company deciding what a browser should be.
When we announced Orion for Linux, the response was overwhelming. Many of you were thrilled, tested early builds, filed bug reports, and told us how much you wanted a WebKit-based browser on Linux that respects your privacy. Thank you. That work will soon belong to everyone.
Why we’re doing this When we decided to take Orion beyond the Apple ecosystem, we knew it was a big bet for a small, independent company. We made it because we believe owning the whole experience beginning with the browser, matters.
Building a cross-platform browser is something usually done by companies backed by venture capital or by large open-source communities. Kagi is neither. One thing we hear often from members is that they want us focused. They’re right. Rather than spread a small team across three platforms, we’re putting our energy where we can do our best work and opening the rest to people who want to take it further.
What this means for Orion on macOS and iOS Orion for macOS and iOS isn’t changing, except to get better. The team and resources that were split across platforms are now focused on making Orion on Apple devices faster, more stable, and more capable. Expect steady improvements in the coming months.
Download Orion for macOS Download Orion for iOS What open-sourcing looks like We’ll release the source code for Orion for Linux and Orion for Windows. A lot of good work went into it, and it deserves a future even if we aren’t the ones who finish it now. We’re thinking about this carefully and will release details in the next 30 days.
We’ve also reached out to open-source foundations and organizations about long-term stewardship. To be clear about our role: Kagi won’t be the core maintainer. These projects need people who want to own them.
Get involved If you’re a developer, maintainer, or organization interested in stewarding Orion for Linux or Windows, we want to hear from you. Reach us at [email protected].
What this means for current users Linux: The current Linux Beta will keep working, but it will stop receiving updates from Kagi after October 2, 2026. We don’t recommend using it as your main browser.
Windows: We had planned to launch Orion for Windows in late 2026. That release won’t come from Kagi. Instead, the code will be available for the community to build on. If you signed up for the Windows newsletter, this will be the last update you receive from that list.
Thank you To everyone who tested, reported bugs, and believed in an independent browser beyond the Apple ecosystem: thank you. You helped build something worth sharing, and we’re glad to share it with the community.
Thank you for your patience, your enthusiasm, and your trust.
— the Kagi team
That is unfortunate, I was looking forward to seeing them expand beyond Apple platforms only.
Maybe the community will take interest in it. Good on them for open sourcing it
Oh so it doesn’t want to be taken seriously. Too late… what a joke.
I think this is the right move. They started on MacOS. They expanded to Linux and Win for reasons that were unclear (to me). If they can’t keep all three going, open-sourcing the code is appropriate. If people want to keep going, awesome. If not, well… And they refocus their resources to the platform that they presumably consider their primary home, else they wouldn’t have started with MacOS first.
I have Orion installed and occasionally use it. But I’m also a browser junky and can’t resist trying every new browser I read about. (I’m posting this from the recently announced Search browser and it’s using impressively low system resources. I recommend test driving it if you’re curious. I’m not affiliated in any way).
If i wanted a Webkit based browser on Linux, Gnome Web (aka, Epiphany) it is.
No idea who would touch this AI browser slopware.
Tbh Orion is not stable on macos, they shouldnt have made the stable release, it still feels like a beta product. Memory hogging is a big issue in it. I stopped using it and switched to Librewolf.
I tried them out and there is no version of any universe where I would pay a monthly fee to use a browser. What an idiot idea that is.
So, DDG is is!
yeah, it’s free. Kagi search costs money, but the browser doesn’t cost anything.
Okay. Here comes my ignorance, but what’s the difference? The browser is what searches the internet. No?
a browser is firefox/chrome. A search engine is duckduckgo/kagi/google. You access a search engine with a browser, but you can also access other websites, such as piefed.ca, with a browser. I’m sure someone else can explain better, but that’s my attempt :)
Apparently iOS doesn’t differentiate. I have Kagi installed and if I enable it, it forces the search engine to be used and there is no option to select it as a browser.
Every time I open the internet now it is asking me to pay. Had to turn it off and delete it.
Ahh. The browser is the interface. Right? I’ve just always called them both the same ring it seems.
Sad, but makes sense. I always wondered how they could fund the dev effort for Linux/Windows.
These comments though, whoa… it seems everyone either loves or hates Orion.
But there’s not a good way to debug for Orion on mobile without using the Kagi browser and Orion on iOS does behave differently than Safari even though in the US they are both built on WebKit
What are they built on outside the US?
My only complaint about Orion was that it wasn’t open source so that’s good at least
I’ve been using kagi for some time and have foggy idea what orion was and why would anyone use it beyond ‘it’s a browser’.
At the same time it feels really weird as in they are making it bigger then it is, there were (is?) multiple webkit based browsers that were doing fine with very small teams of mainteiners.
It’s like Safari in terms of performance and battery usage, with extension support that isn’t pants-on-head stupid like Safari’s, better customization, and some advanced features. That’s all I really want.
Safari is just too basic for me to use as an everyday browser (especially on iOS).
I think the original impetus was that Safari makes it unreasonably difficult to change its search engines.
Orion on iOS is my favorite iOS browser.
It has the ability to use Firefox and chrome extensions so you can use uBlock Origin.
Many people would rather use Brave but I don’t trust Brave as they own an ad network.
Ladybird if anyone wants to watch this space, I’m most excited to see them succeed.
Ladybird is a new browser engine built from scratch. Not a fork. No user monetization. Backed by a 501©(3) non-profit. Status: In active development Target: Alpha 2026 (Linux & macOS) Get involved Support us About
The web is the most important platform in computing, yet only a small number of browser engines power the entire thing, each controlled by a company with its own agenda.
Ladybird is building something new: an independent engine, driven by web standards, and free from conflicts of interest.
Our first Alpha release for Linux and macOS is coming in 2026.
What makes Ladybird different Truly independent
We’re building a new browser engine from scratch, based on web standards. Not a fork of an existing engine. Singular focus
We are focused on one thing: building a web browser. No monetization
No “default search deals”, crypto tokens, or other forms of user monetization.
This + fact Kling started slop-rewriting project with rust killed my interest to it.
Noooooooooo I’ve been so excited for Ladybird 😭
Why are so many people in FOSS weird fascists?
Weird fascists are overrepresented in tech + some FOSS communities have a weird sense of what it means to be “apolitical” (e.g. “being apolitical means I have to ignore that this guy is racist” type shit)
FOSS also atracts in general a lot of radicals, from all sides, as they all see it as anti establishment, as it goes well with their general anti establishment rethoric and often as a politcal stance to support FOSS as a form fighting against or acting against or just generally dissent against the establishment
I canceled my Kagi subscription a few years ago when they jumped back on the AI bandwagon and saw all the resources being moved off their core product and into AI features no one asked for.
No only can you disable all ai features, they also have a report button for slop that will downrank ai generated results.
All their AI is opt in, can be turned off everywhere with one switch, and even support small web.
I didn’t want my money funding AI development.
As someone in the same position, it’s a difficult line to manage.
I’ve criticized Kagi before, but it’s still unfortunately the best model for search on the market. I pay them money, they give me search results. As the prior post said, they’ve introduced switches to disable all of the AI. And if you believe what they’ve said about costs, then search is more expensive for them than AI — so if you use a lot of search (as I do, ≈1.2K/Mo), and don’t rack up AI usage, then that money isn’t going to AI, viewed in a vacuum of course.
They’re not developing AI. They give you access to a bunch of AI models, but they don’t train/create them. And as the guy above says, it’s completely optional. You don’t even get an AI answer like Google unless you add a ? to your search.
So if I, the customer, pay money, and this money gives me (optional) access to a bunch of commercial models… Does that not fund AI?
You can see exactly where every penny went on your account page. Search and AI use are separate line items. If you don’t use it, no money will go to it
Well that’s a pretty good system, I have to admit.
Don’t forget that money is fungible.
Well that’s complicated. You are not funding AI development. Kagi is not an AI developer.
Is purchasing product from a company who uses an AI chatbot on their website or to take phonecalls funding AI? I wouldn’t think so, but if enough people are using it, maybe it is…? Guess it really depends on how you look at it.
Money coming from me that ends up with a company that supplies an AI product, directly or indirectly, funds AI. Am I wrong in saying that?
If I’m not wrong, it’s not complicated. But maybe I’m missing something. I don’t think I can easily see in which way you are looking at it in your example. 🫣
If I’m not wrong, it’s not complicated. But maybe I’m missing something. I don’t think I can easily see in which way you are looking at it in your example. 🫣
I’m looking at it from both ways, because as I said, it’s complicated. Half of the companies you deal with these days are using AI in some form, whether it’s your internet provider, TV manufacturer, local grocery store, etc.
As another example: Your local grocery store used AI to write short descriptions for products for an ad or display. First of all, can you even tell it’s AI from a short description…? And second of all, does that mean buying groceries from that business is funding AI…?
I personally don’t think having a Kagi subscription is considered “funding AI”, especially considering another comment that points out they are transparent about where your subscription goes, but depending on where you draw the line, maybe you would.
You might dig Uruky.
Thanks!
building a browser from scratch is just an insanely difficult task to begin with. Building a browser from scratch tailored to each specific platform instead of doing something like QT is just idiotic. There’s a very good reason why the majority of todays browsers are forks of Chromium or Firefox and why very few are their own from scratch. Building a web browser is probably one of, if not the most, complicated bits of software to build other than building an OS from scratch.
I’m not a fan of Kagi, I can’t justify paying for a search engine especially after honestly trying it and getting mediocre search results. I was optimistic about Orion but after following the development for awhile I knew it wasn’t going to pan out. they spread themselves too thin on that project and it sows further doubt for Kagi overall.
Kagi’s search results, in my experience, have been worth every penny.
Yeah Qt + Webkit would have rocked for cross platform.
That’s dissapointing. Was looking foward to trying it. At least they are open sourcing those versions though.
