Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Orion Browser

kagi.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 99 posts

Re: Orion Browser

#31

Post by niam »

roughly wrote: post #11

I really like Kagi, but I'm starting to get that same sense of anticipatory melancholy I used to get when I found a really good drug dealer back in the day - this product or service is fantastic, and I'm very happy to be able to give it money, but I recognize this is a short term affair and some day I'll be back to having to search for it again. I would continue to pay Kagi $10 a month forever for exactly the product…

Kagi and Orion both entered public beta at the same time[1]. Even if they didn't: it kind of seems unfair to indict this as an additional ambition. It's not as though browsers and search engines have an exotic relationship, and there's pertinent strategic threats that operating a browser protects against.

[1]: https://blog.kagi.com/kagi-orion-public-beta

Re: Orion Browser

#32

Post by n8cpdx »

throwup238 wrote: post #3

I love Kagi and I’ve been using the Orion browser on iOS for months because it support uBlock Origin but its bugginess is emblematic of Kagi stretching its resources way too thin (and the tshirt thing…) The iOS browser is buggy as all hell: the jump to top click around the notch stops working regularly, reflow/layout breaks throwing all the buttons and url input off screen, the entire page just go blank if it’s too l…

I have many of these same issues. I actually think ublock is causing some of them; removing and reinstalling fixed some of the hangs for a while, but they eventually came back. I think I also switched from Firefox to chrome version or vice versa.

The general “chrome” of the app is unfortunately a buggy mess regardless of extension config.

I still think it’s easily worth it because for some critical sites it adds so much value. I just accept I’ll have to force quit a few times a day.

Also, PSA, extensions don’t automatically update on desktop.

Re: Orion Browser

#33

Post by dang »

Related:

Bits 0x02: switching to Orion as a browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44681616 - July 2025 (28 comments)

Kagi Is Bringing Orion Web Browser to Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43302073 - March 2025 (226 comments)

Orion Browser by Kagi: Lightweight, WebKit Based - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43203394 - Feb 2025 (3 comments)

A three month review of kagi search and the orion web browser (2024) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42652125 - Jan 2025 (160 comments)

Orion Browser by Kagi - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38441139 - Nov 2023 (188 comments)

Orion Browser 0.99.126.1 Release Notes: Orion+ Lifetime License Now Available - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38088208 - Oct 2023 (3 comments)

Kagi search and Orion browser enter public beta - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31584791 - June 2022 (201 comments)

My next main browser: a review of Orion - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30610651 - March 2022 (149 comments)

Orion is a new WebKit-based browser for Mac - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28799049 - Oct 2021 (184 comments)

Re: Orion Browser

#34

Post by freediver »

roughly wrote: post #11

I really like Kagi, but I'm starting to get that same sense of anticipatory melancholy I used to get when I found a really good drug dealer back in the day - this product or service is fantastic, and I'm very happy to be able to give it money, but I recognize this is a short term affair and some day I'll be back to having to search for it again. I would continue to pay Kagi $10 a month forever for exactly the product…

Kagi founder here. I like simplicity too, but if that is the only thing I cared about I would have never attempted to build a paid search engine.

We started working on the browser before we started working on search. There were many browsers and search engines before us, and all of them failed because you can not compete with an ecosystem company (Google) with a single product. If your customers use your search engine, but then use Gmail and Chrome, your main competitor has means (friction) with them to attempt to win them back over (and you are paid, they are free!) if you ever become more than a nuisance.

This is why it was clear to me from day one that we need to offer a hollistic replacement for big tech for consuming the web - and search, browser and email (yes, we are building that too) account for 99% of consumption of the web.

Yes, it makes our job everything but simple, but without it we will not survive long term - I am 100% sure. (and in the meantime generative AI showed up and made things even more complicated)

I still love my job and the challenges it brings, every single day. While we live as a company in a complex environment we try to remove the complexity for our customers and make high quality products. I have pretty high standards for browsers and have been using them for almost 30 years - and Orion is by far the most powerful option on the market (speed/energy/privacy/features). Inviting you to give it a try.

Re: Orion Browser

#35

Post by eviks »

is there any idea when they're going to have the full ~99% API support for extensions as currently a lot of extensions don't work properly?

Re: Orion Browser

#37

Post by als0 »

Can anyone comment on how fast it is on macOS compared to Safari or Brave? On browserbench speedometer I'm getting 29.3 on Orion and 7.70 on Safari. I'd appreciate more comparisons.

Re: Orion Browser

#38

Post by eviks »

gtirloni wrote: post #12
catlikesshrimp wrote: post #7

Why is going open source more difficult than not? isn't it enough to make sure all the code is legal and dump it as is? The community might even help cleaning it. Documentation might or could come at some point in the future.

Once it's fully open source, there are certain expectations and a lot of overhead involved in maintaining the community, governance, etc. I can understand if they delay it while they are still figuring out the initial vision and want to stay focused. There are many examples of open source maintainers burning out due to that overhead, and it seems Kagi might be stretched too thin right now.

If it's not fully open source, there are certain expectaions of fully open sourcing it. Just like they continue to ignore them, they can ignore the ones you mentioned and do not do any community/governance etc. No focus lost. Also, those many examples burning out are of unpaid individuals, not commercial companies

Re: Orion Browser

#39

Post by autoexec »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #25

I guess Safari is the only major browser left that is just a browser. Google is an ad company. Microsoft is an ad company. Mozilla is an ad company. Brave is a crypto company. And these next wave of browsers are all going to be infested with AI, I suppose. Apple sells phones.

Apple takes huge amounts of cash in exchange for making a search engine their default and they go out of their way to stop users from removing search engines or adding their own. Those apple sanctioned search engines are effectively paid ads, and apple users end up getting sold to those other ad companies with no option to use anyone else as their default.

The last good browser is Lynx

Post reply on HN