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

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#321

Post by Mindwipe » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 12:04 PM UTC

zamadatix wrote: post #250

michaelmrose wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One correction to my message above: apparently Chrome on Windows is still 720p for Netflix, it was Edge that had 4k support. Or you can install the Netflix App on Windows too. I agree it's a bit silly, but I think a lot of people don't really care about quality so long as they can watch it. I guess that'd also explain how Netflix gets away with such low bitrates for even the "high quality" versions of content.

Chrome on Windows now has 4K support (if you have the supported hardware).

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#322

Post by radlad » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

radlad wrote: post #118

mikae1 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Webkit on Linux has essentially been relegated to embedded devices or the GNOME epiphany browser Don't forget about https://falkon.org . It's a browser I enjoy using. WebExtension support will be big if it lands in Orion though. EDIT: apparently Orion is not open source. Not particularly interested in a closed source browser, TBH. In 2022 they said they plan to open source "when there is merit"[1], whatever that me…

As a Kagi user for years now, I am very interested in a Firefox/Chrome competitor but I will absolutely not use Orion until it is open source.

In case any Kagi product owners come across this, this comment received 30 upvotes, so this seems to be a fairly common sentiment among HN users.

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#323

Post by BaudouinVH » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 8:28 PM UTC

arm wrote: post #273

BaudouinVH wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we used to pay for browsers 20 years ago I've been online for about 30 years, I have never heard of paying for a browser.

As an example, Opera was payware for the first ten years of its existence. I remember trying out a demo of it included on a CD decades ago!

You're absolutely right ! I had forgotten that.

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#324

Post by msdz » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 1:01 PM UTC

grayhatter wrote: post #146

freediver wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

earlier in the thread I read nhe plan was to release the source "when it has merit" But that instantly left me with the feeling that the authors of the browser, and I have very different opinions on what the word merit means. Such that they would be incompatible, and I'd never want to use it. This is a decision that has lowered my opinion about exactly how much I can trust Kagi. > Kagi founder here. Orion isn't open…

I'm not the founder nor Kagi employee, just a customer, but

> Can you describe or offer any insight into the "significant IP" that you need to protect and defend?

The novel IP is having implemented and still implementing the browser APIs necessary for both Firefox and Chromium extensions to work in a Safari (Webkit)-based browser. See [1] for the significant progress.

> What threats from a larger company are you primarily concerned about?

Integrating said functionality themselves to offer another viable iOS browser, which Kagi is currently the only [2] offerer of (or another viable macOS/future Linux/Windows browser, although more than one exist there already).

[1] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14IgSRVop4psUTgtLZlvY... (via: https://help.kagi.com/orion/misc/technical.html)

[2] Unless the EU steps up, all iOS browsers will continue to have to be Webkit-based with minimal, lackluster extension support. Not viable for anything beyond the most basic of use cases.

Re: Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux

#325

Post by msdz » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 1:03 PM UTC

charcircuit wrote: post #263

Fiveplus wrote: post #35

This is a healthy thing to happen to the Linux browser ecosystem imho. We talk a lot about browser diversity, but on Linux and Windows, it is a lie. You have firefox (gecko) and fifty flavors of chromium. Webkit on Linux has essentially been relegated to embedded devices or the GNOME epiphany browser, which I'll admit while is a noble effort, lags a bit in the stability and power-user features department. Big reason…

Browser engine diversity doesn't matter. The only important browser diversity is in the browser itself. Multiple browser engines makes it harder for developers of websites due to divergence of the engines and it makes it harder on engine developers since there are less resources going to the same engine.

On the other hand, that one same engine would then be under near-full control of a single company (Google), with all the disadvantages a monopoly usually brings.