Source code to follow, but further updates won't

Orion browser for Linux axed months after beta launch

Kagi has announced that it is ending the development of the Orion web browser for Linux.

The native GTK port of Orion for Linux was announced in 2025 and a public beta launched earlier this year. The goal was feature parity with the macOS build. Recent beta releases edged closer to realising it but, alas, fell short – and that’s where things will stay.

At least officially.

Kagi says it plans to open source the Orion for Linux codebase, as well its WIP port of Orion for Windows. This could enable the FOSS community the opportunity to step up and “carry them forward”– not that developing an independent web browser will be easy.

“Building a cross-platform browser is something usually done by companies backed by venture capital or by large open-source communities”, it said in a statement, adding that it is neither, employing just a handful of developers funded by users of its paid search engine.

It could’ve made life easier had if it had done what most modern browsers do and build on Chromium. Kagi said it felt the web “needs more than one engine” and, ideally, more than one company able to shape what the web looks like.

I find Orion on macOS to be a genuinely solid browser and I had been hopeful that, despite the herculean task, the Kagi team had the skills and ideas to pull it off – however slow going it was.

Orion for Linux is finally going open source

Orion wasn’t open-source from the get-go, which, for some in the FOSS community, had soured any enthusiasm towards it. Bittersweet news that, now, it is.

Kagi’s business model (i.e., funded by users and thus building only for them) was would’ve meant a browser developed for users, without any need to stuff the UI with attention hijacking gimmicks or integrate partner deals to bump revenue.

And, in a sense, it’s that business model pulling Kagi’s focus back to Orion for macOS and iOS: it’s where its users are.

Hopefully, the decision to open-source where they got to can help drive Orion forward in some guise, or at least have its parts picked over to benefit other independent web browser efforts.

Development on Orion for macOS and iOS is unaffected by this change, but the Linux beta will see no further update. If you installed it, you can keep using it, though Kagi says it doesn’t recommend using it as a daily driver as as security issues will remain unpatched.

Kagi has said it will share more details about the codebase open-sourcing in the coming month.