Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#161

Post by mghackerlady » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:05 PM UTC

EbNar wrote: post #37

hellcow wrote: post #9

It seems weird to run a closed-source browser on an open-source operating system when so many open alternatives exist—I certainly wouldn’t do it, and I’m a Kagi customer. Does Kagi plan to open-source Orion on Linux?

Just curious, but is this really a big deal? As a customer, you already trust Kagi enough to feed them your entire search history, so I guess you don't think they're bad actors. Thus, why you find problematic the (momentary?) "unopeness" of the browser? I'd gladly try it (I'm on Arch), even just out of curiosity (unlikely to make it my main, though). Jeez, downvoted for asking about context? People, calm down.

Because free (as in the FSF definition) software should be a human right. We deserve to know how our tools work and be able to improve them and use them as we please. Free (as in freedom) software doesn't need to be monetarily free either. Make it so the purchase of orion comes with the binaries and a copy of the source code, or provide it on request. This has proved to be sustainable before, arguably the defacto standard for pixel art is (or was before a license change made it so you can't redistribute the source code) free software, despite costing money

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#162

Post by mghackerlady » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:06 PM UTC

freediver wrote: post #115

JohnFen wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Requiring it to be open source is not just about trusting the publisher. There are a bunch of other possible reasons, including wanting to support open source as a counterbalance to proprietary software. For me, it's a big deal (although not a dealbreaker) for that reason. If I have the option of two different pieces of software, one being open source and the other proprietary, I'll choose the open source one every t…

Side thought: nobody's ever asked us to open source Kagi Search. Curious why the expectation differs.

I'm not the one running Kagi on my computer, and the expectations of software ran over a network are and should be different from software I run on my computer

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#163

Post by port3000 » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:07 PM UTC

jorvi wrote: post #81

thisislife2 wrote: post #54

Nice. But I stopped using Orion on macOS when they stopped offering complete offline installers. They taut they are a zero-telemetry browser, as proof that they are privacy conscious about user data, and that was a good feature and overture. But then when they create technical avenues to (possibly) bypass that (like using online installers that can do all kind of data collection) it becomes harder to trust them as it…

I really like Kagi because of all the features and just generally letting me be a user instead of a product, but they have some weird kludges sometimes. The weirdest choice at the moment is by default Kagi sends a referrer when you visit a search result. There's currently ~65.000 Kagi subscribers worldwide, so just that lone data point completely destroys any anti-fingerprinting you're doing. And probably these subsc…

Thanks - I also turned it off. I guess it's a marketing thing for them, but it feels like it goes against the ethos of the company. Particularly given the fact they are clearly aware of this as they put it in the 'Privacy' section.

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#164

Post by mghackerlady » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:08 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #36

phoronixrly wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it was open-source, I already have more than enough webkits on my Linux, I don't need another one.

Aren't most browsers Blinks? (Yes, I know that Blink was forked from WebKit and WebKit was forked from KHTML.)

Yeah. The only webkit browser on linux aside from orion is GNOMEs browser (which frankly kinda sucks, which is why I want orion open-sourced so that GNOME can take its work on webextentions when they become supported)

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#165

Post by Terretta » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

freediver wrote: post #92

hellcow wrote: post #9

It seems weird to run a closed-source browser on an open-source operating system when so many open alternatives exist—I certainly wouldn’t do it, and I’m a Kagi customer. Does Kagi plan to open-source Orion on Linux?

Kagi founder here. Orion isn't open source yet primarily because we're a 5-person team that spent 6+ years building this and created significant IP doing so, and we're not in a position to defend our work against a well-funded company using it as a base (we care very much about the business model of the browser surviving). Restrictive licenses help in theory but enforcing them against a company with a larger legal bu…

We support Kagi across products. We believe alternate browser engines keep the web standard. We give more weight to that than to whether a particular browser's value add (on top of a double digit* but non-hegemonic engine) is open.

We believe software and hardware creators have a right to choose their business model and let that model compete, as Kagi's is competing right here in this thread.

* Having worked at mega banks etc., they do look at these numbers to decide whether to invest in standards support or slap on a "Requires IE" button.

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#166

Post by mghackerlady » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

gr4vityWall wrote: post #110

I hope they upstream their implementation of Web Extensions to WebKit. I'm not interested in using a proprietary browser, and hope for a release under a free license at some point. But a free WebKit-based browser with Web Extensions could have interesting properties regarding battery life on mobile GNU workstations.

If there's one thing they should release as free software it's this. I'd be disappointed if Orion never becomes free software, but it would hurt a little less if GNOMEs epiphany could benefit from the extension support

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#167

Post by michaelmrose » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

zamadatix wrote: post #124

presbyterian wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube does, Netflix doesn't

If you're using a "common browser" on Linux (Firefox/Chrome) Netflix should work, just at 720p for most of the content. If you're using a minor Chromium based fork the customized Chromium package provided by your distro it probably doesn't have Widevine by default. The same is true for running a vanilla Chromium build on Windows, the big difference is the quality of content you can get on Windows can be higher than 7…

If you are limited to 720p you might as well pirate it even if you do pay for it if you intend to watch it on your computer rather than on a TV.

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#168

Post by michaelmrose » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:11 PM UTC

doublerabbit wrote: post #153

rixthefox wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the way. Widevine is a cancer that only serves to lock down the browser market to a small handful of web engines that have been approved by Google. If your browser isn't based on Chrome, Firefox, or Safari you're out of luck. Most people will not use a browser that can't open youtube videos and they know and exploit this with extreme precision.

If you are already paying for the streaming service that offers the content and they restrict you from watching because of your OS are you harming the industry by downloading it? Nothing is stopping you from buying a 4k webcam and recording your computer monitor. You're already paying the monthly fee to stream it, you're just streaming it in a more friendly way. Granted if you cancel the service, you should delete th…

a 4K webcam recording of a screen will produce a trash copy that isn't notably better than ripping off the 720p you can already screen record.

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#169

Post by mghackerlady » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

yellow_lead wrote: post #5

Curious why they would use webkit, I checked their FAQ, but couldn't find any answer.

chromium is the devil and I understand them not using it, and when Orion started development firefoxes engine wasn't really re-usable iirc. Plus it started life on MacOS

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#170

Post by bicepjai » Fri, Jan 09, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

Previously, my comments on Kagi were about one thing: counting queries felt like a chore, so I stayed away. I did give it a try mainly for the privacy angle. After that, I switched to Perplexity and was happy for a year, until the familiar VC backed pattern showed up: ads, even for paying users. This year I upgraded to Kagi Ultimate, and honestly, it feels like they’ve found the sweet spot. I hesitated at $25 at first, but the search experience plus the assistant (and the ability to pick the models I want) along with privacy won me over. I’m also familiar with Orion since I use it as the app for kagi experience for AI chat and search. It could use an update for better assistant experience. Keep up the good work, Kagi.