Kagi's Orion browser hits public beta on Linux

#1

Post by bwoah » Tue, May 05, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

Kagi's Orion browser hits public beta on Linux
omgubuntu.co.uk

Re: Kagi's Orion browser hits public beta on Linux

#2

Post by bigyabai » Tue, May 05, 2026, 5:11 PM UTC

> Orion isn’t a recoloured Chromium or another Firefox fork, but a native Linux app built in GTK4/libadwaita

Oh cool!

> and WebKitGTK

Oh.

Re: Kagi's Orion browser hits public beta on Linux

#3

Post by kajman » Tue, May 05, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

Such a bizarre boondoggle for a company that otherwise seems to have smart and focused offerings. They may as well announce a Slack or Jira replacement next.

Re: Kagi's Orion browser hits public beta on Linux

#4

Post by wpm » Tue, May 05, 2026, 7:25 PM UTC

What a shame they went with GTK. Not only does it look awful but it looks awful on KDE too despite me being able to make KDE not look awful.

Re: Kagi's Orion browser hits public beta on Linux

#5

Post by anon7000 » Tue, May 05, 2026, 11:42 PM UTC

bigyabai wrote: post #2

> Orion isn’t a recoloured Chromium or another Firefox fork, but a native Linux app built in GTK4/libadwaita Oh cool! > and WebKitGTK Oh.

I mean, they’ve been building Orion around WebKit very deliberately for a while: https://blog.kagi.com/orion

Re: Kagi's Orion browser hits public beta on Linux

#6

Post by bigyabai » Wed, May 06, 2026, 3:29 AM UTC

anon7000 wrote: post #5

bigyabai wrote: post #2

> Orion isn’t a recoloured Chromium or another Firefox fork, but a native Linux app built in GTK4/libadwaita Oh cool! > and WebKitGTK Oh.

I mean, they’ve been building Orion around WebKit very deliberately for a while: https://blog.kagi.com/orion

The GTK/GNOME project already has a native WebKit browser, and it's FOSS. Orion will have a hard time fitting in.

Re: Kagi's Orion browser hits public beta on Linux

#7

Post by eipi10_hn » Wed, May 06, 2026, 10:34 AM UTC

kajman wrote: post #3

Such a bizarre boondoggle for a company that otherwise seems to have smart and focused offerings. They may as well announce a Slack or Jira replacement next.

Orion is their first product, before Kagi.

Re: Kagi's Orion browser hits public beta on Linux

#8

Post by kajman » Wed, May 06, 2026, 8:31 PM UTC

eipi10_hn wrote: post #7

kajman wrote: post #3

Such a bizarre boondoggle for a company that otherwise seems to have smart and focused offerings. They may as well announce a Slack or Jira replacement next.

Orion is their first product, before Kagi.

I wasn't aware, and I even paid for their search for a time.

I still do not understand the market for a proprietary browser aimed at privacy-conscious power-users. There is a non-proprietary option that is many years ahead, along with another proprietary browser marketing to the same niche demographic. Good luck to them.