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Orion 1.0

blog.kagi.com

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Re: Orion 1.0

#51

Post by igrunert »

MrAlex94 wrote: post #21

I hope I don't come across too harsh in my criticism here, but this is in my wheelhouse and I like to keep tabs on the privacy browser market in comparison to Waterfox. > A bold technical choice: WebKit, not another Chromium clone I don't find this a bold technical choice at all for a macOS only browser? I think this would be more impressive if it was Windows as well, as back (maybe ~5 or so years ago) when I was inv…

WebKit on Windows has progressed since ~5 years ago. The gap between the Windows port and the Linux WPE/GTK ports is shrinking over time.

Every JIT tier has been enabled for JSC on Windows[1], and libpas (the custom memory allocator) has been enabled.

The Windows port has moved from Cairo to Skia, though it's currently using the CPU renderer AFAIK. There's some work to enable the COORDINATED_GRAPHICS flag which would enable Windows to benefit from Igalia's ongoing work on improving the render pipeline for the Linux ports. I go into more detail on my latest update [2], though the intended audience is really other WebKit contributors.

Webkit's CI (EWS) is running the layout tests on Windows, and running more tests on Windows is mostly a matter of test pruning, bug fixes and funding additional hardware.

There's a few things still disabled on the Windows port, some rough edges, and not a lot of production use (Bun and Playwright are the main users I'm aware of). The Windows port really needs more people (and companies) pushing it forward. Hopefully Kagi will be contributing improvements to the Windows port upstream as they work on Orion for Windows.

[1] https://iangrunert.com/2024/10/07/every-jit-tier-enabled-jsc... [2] https://iangrunert.com/2025/11/06/webkit-windows-port-update...

Re: Orion 1.0

#52

Post by dinodev90 »

MrAlex94 wrote: post #21

I hope I don't come across too harsh in my criticism here, but this is in my wheelhouse and I like to keep tabs on the privacy browser market in comparison to Waterfox. > A bold technical choice: WebKit, not another Chromium clone I don't find this a bold technical choice at all for a macOS only browser? I think this would be more impressive if it was Windows as well, as back (maybe ~5 or so years ago) when I was inv…

Orion Tech Lead here: Thank you for your patience — the issue has now been fixed. Please try updating now :)

Re: Orion 1.0

#53

Post by warkdarrior »

z64 wrote: post #46
barnabee wrote: post #15

I like the direction and keep checking in on it, but while Orion remains closed source there's no chance of it ever being more than a curiosity for me.

(I work at Kagi, but do not work on Orion) There's a lot of different reasons that people ask for open sourcing of Orion / software in general; could I ask you to expand a bit more as to which issues being open source would address for you? I can assume of course, but I'd rather listen to you articulate it, even if it's usual reasons.

Can't speak for OP, but open source allows the community to check for spyware inserted to exfil data to the company and its partners.

Re: Orion 1.0

#54

Post by NetOpWibby »

I switched my mobile browser to Orion a few weeks ago and it's so great to have built-in support for Kagi. Before, I'd have to manually go to the Kagi page when I wanted to search for something since Safari doesn't support custom search engines.

Currently looking to switch from Arc to Orion. The one thing I'm gonna miss is Arc's Portrait Mode.

Re: Orion 1.0

#55

Post by mulderc »

NetOpWibby wrote: post #54

I switched my mobile browser to Orion a few weeks ago and it's so great to have built-in support for Kagi. Before, I'd have to manually go to the Kagi page when I wanted to search for something since Safari doesn't support custom search engines. Currently looking to switch from Arc to Orion. The one thing I'm gonna miss is Arc's Portrait Mode.

There is a Kagi extension that makes Kagi the default search engine.

Re: Orion 1.0

#56

Post by tdub311 »

Really liked orion when trying it out but extensions that changed the theme (namely using dark mode with RES) flashed the original theme first, so I was getting flash banged any time I changed the page.

There was a bug[0] for this that was marked as done but I tried after the fact and it was still happening. And looking at the comments on that report suggest I am not the only one still experiencing it.

If it weren’t for that I would probably be using it as my daily browser.

[0] https://orionfeedback.org/d/324-dark-reader-has-a-slightly-d...

Re: Orion 1.0

#57

Post by tingle »

dinodev90 wrote: post #44
darkwater wrote: post #5

Downloaded the dmg/installer (not from the App Store), launched it and I get Update Error! An error occurred while parsing the update feed. [ Cancel Update ] and clicking the button it exists, and that's it. Disappointing for a 1.0 release. Maybe it's related to PiHole? I'm on MacOS 26.1

Orion Tech Lead here: Thank you for your patience — the issue has now been fixed. Please try updating now :)

Confirm, update was finally successful.

Re: Orion 1.0

#58

Post by tucnak »

z64 wrote: post #46
barnabee wrote: post #15

I like the direction and keep checking in on it, but while Orion remains closed source there's no chance of it ever being more than a curiosity for me.

(I work at Kagi, but do not work on Orion) There's a lot of different reasons that people ask for open sourcing of Orion / software in general; could I ask you to expand a bit more as to which issues being open source would address for you? I can assume of course, but I'd rather listen to you articulate it, even if it's usual reasons.

Only my 2c, but being able to modify commodity software (including, but not limited to browsers, text editors, etc.) I am running on my computer is table stakes.

Re: Orion 1.0

#60

Post by redserk »

warkdarrior wrote: post #53
z64 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(I work at Kagi, but do not work on Orion) There's a lot of different reasons that people ask for open sourcing of Orion / software in general; could I ask you to expand a bit more as to which issues being open source would address for you? I can assume of course, but I'd rather listen to you articulate it, even if it's usual reasons.

Can't speak for OP, but open source allows the community to check for spyware inserted to exfil data to the company and its partners.

As much as I'd appreciate more open source for the sake of transparency, binaries provided on websites aren't guaranteed to match the source code provided and I'd assume most users are pulling binaries versus building themselves.
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