Orion for Linux

RaulKong898

RaulKong898 I would like to use the version as it is now for a secondary browser, until it becomes better and more stable, so I can then switch to it as my main one.

Nexis

I wonder if Orion on Linux will have such wonderful animations as those on macOS.

Vlad

The latest dev update went out yesterday.

Nexis

I have one more question — I haven’t seen any discussion about this yet. Will Orion provide video acceleration support for NVIDIA GPUs?
Currently, no other browsers seem to offer this (I know Firefox has a VA-API bridge, but that’s not quite the same — likely because most modern browsers are Chromium-based under the hood).
If WebKit has NVENC support, will Orion take advantage of it as well? This could significantly boost Orion’s popularity, especially among NVIDIA users.

Vlad

Nexis

At Kagi, there is no lack of ambition, only lack of resources.

Vlad

Really grateful to OMG Ubuntu for coverage https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/08/orion-browser-linux-milestone-2-webkit-alternative-chromium

GonzaloLorenzo

hey there! first of all, love to see the progress being made with Orion for Linux, I'm really considering getting your products now. just wanted to ask if there are plans to support native hardware decoding for Orion on Linux, as this is an area where a lot of browsers fall behing in Linux, particularly with NVIDIA graphics cards. thank you!

oh damn, I just saw the person 4 posts aboved me asked the exact same hahaha. what a coincidence!

nzo

Hello there,

First, thank you for your work and your ambition to bring such a great browser on Linux (and may be other platform).
I don't know if It has already been said but on which Linux distribution do you do the tests ?

Thank you 🙂
Cheers.

InternetChunk

I heard that Orion will use WebKit similiar to Gnome Web or that it borrows some features from Gnome Web - please don’t. Gnome Web is correctly categorised by the community as one of the worst browsers/front-ends (i don’t know the exact terminology) as one of the slowest and buggiest out there and borrowing from its design in any way is not impressive in any way.

Secondly, I really hope Orion for Linux will be the same across different desktop environments. I wouldn’t want to see any differences in speed, security, privacy, bug presence between e.g. Gnome and KDE.

I will not use Gnome as I don’t like it so I hope Orion will function in every way the same on KDE as it would on Gnome. All this worry is because GNOME mimics macOS using webkit etc while KDE does not from my understanding.

alexjsteffen

InternetChunk

While I am a Gnome user (I think KDE is too clunky and buggy for me), from my understanding, the browser will likely use WebKit for linux -- whether that is WebKit GTK or QtWebKit I am not aware -- but have a custom front end for that engine. Integrating Orion's custom extension support in addition to other features will likely make this version very different from Gnome Web. Personally, I am happy that WebKit is being used rather than just another Chrome clone or somethign like the Firefox-based Zen Browser or Waterfox.

We shall see in time but I would not do a like-for-like comparison between Gnome Web and Orion for linux other than the fact that the renderer (WebKit vs Blink vs Gecko) is the same.

eganonoa

Vlad

I learnt of the linux browser and immediately signed up for lifetime! A cross-platform webkit browser is a big deal, and as a long-time linux desktop and Gnome user, I am very happy with the direction being taken. Here are some thoughts on my side, mostly based on some years of use of Gnome Web (epiphany):

PWAs: I've made a couple of Reddit posts about creating PWAs for Kagi apps. Chromium-based browsers do not work well as they restrict PWA-creation to one per base domain, so you can only have a PWA for kagi.com, kagi.com/assistant, kagi.com/summarizer, but not all three. Gnome Web is a much better as it doesn't have that limit, so you can have PWAs for all. There can be a bit fiddly to sign in and keep the PWA logged in but you can do it by making sure Web is the default browser and/or setting additional url links in the webapp so that login pages open in the web app. It would be good for the Orion browser to have worked that out so PWA creation and login is simple.
WebRTC: As per my Reddit post, the biggest weakness of Gnome Web currently is its struggles with WebRTC. This limits its usefulness as an all-encompassing browser and it would be amazing if Kagi could sort that out in Orion. It has one big impact in Kagi services: currently whether as a PWA or just in the browser, trying to use the microphone in Kagi Translate crashes the browser. You can turn it on and have it access the microphone, but it then crashes the browser.
Extensions: The second biggest weakness of Gnome Web is its lack of functionality with extensions. Extension functionality is theoretically built in, using Firefox extensions, but it doesn't work with some key extensions for me (e.g. Bitwarden, Dark Reader). Given what was done with Orion on MacOS, allowing for both Firefox and Chrome extensions this would be an absolutely killer feature.
OS Search Integration: If you set Kagi as the default search engine in Gnome Web you get the ability to search Kagi directly from the OS's inbuilt search functionality because that search can call Web. This is excellent functionality. However, it does mean that when you run that search it will open Gnome Web and do the search there. If there is some way that Orion browser could be set as the browser called when performing the search in the system it would be amazing. Then you'd have Kagi and Orion fully-integrated with the OS, something that no other browser does.

Vlad

eganonoa Thanks for posting this. We plan to pretty much deal with all isues you highlighted there. Hopefully first alpha for Orion+ subscribers (thank you for your support!) in the next month or two.

InternetChunk

I hope Kagi will feature extensive customisation options including browser appearance. I’ve seen the Linux preview in a few photos and the 3 buttons on the upper right corner seem too small (functions should extend to the browser window corners) along with the browser looking too much like Safari (while on Linux) for my taste so additional options would make me more inclined to use it when it’s ready.

Being able to customise Orion to fit KDE + desktop environments rather than just looking like Safari (and styles being completely mismatched) would be a giant positive addition.

eganonoa

Vlad Much sooner than I expected! Thank you very much for your work on this. Meeting a genuine need in a way that also bolsters much needed efforts to ensure browser engine competition. So it's very important work.

Not sure how you are planning to distribute, but if there's any way at some point to release it in a flatpak it would be amazing. I've been using immutable desktops for years now and rely on flatpaks for proper system integration. I can always install via distrobox and deal with some lack of integration with my system theme, which I assume will be the case during these development stages. But at some point I'd love a flatpak.

Dustin

Vlad I went as far as to pick up a little x86 machine to run Linux to test Orion. I am really looking forward to see what you have cooked up for a platform which has probably the weakest browser ecosystem at the moment.

Stardread1997

eganonoa 2 months. I think it is better to assume a longer wait period. Rather have a good product than a rushed product. We are ok waiting a bit longer if it means the devs can relax for a day or two here and there.

GammaRay

eganonoa I think they have previously stated the final release will be distributed as a Flatpak. Not sure about the beta though.

eganonoa

Stardread1997 True but I will gladly give up my time to help test it out. I imagine the more people using the Alpha and providing feedback the shorter the timeframe to the official release.

GammaRay

I also hope the stable release of Orion will have significantly better performance than GNOME Web, because GNOME Web has terrible performance. Regardless, it looks like you have been making great progress!

Out of curiosity, how much have you modified the WebKit engine itself to create Orion - are the changes limited to adding extension support, or have you also made other changes to WebKit to improve performance, compatibility etc.?

Vlad

GammaRay

have you also made other changes to WebKit to improve performance

Orion is faster than Apple Safari in Speedometer 🙂

We also tend to release security patches faster than Safari.

Finally the biggest modification is support that goes back all the way to macOS 10.14 currently, which Apple abandoned supporting in Safari 3 years ago. Basically someone running Orion in Mojave 10.14 will usually have newer WebKit than someone running Safari in latest macOS 🙂

All this is very resource intensive to maintain for us as a small team and so we are grateful for Orion+ members supporting the project.

GammaRay

Vlad sounds like you have to make a lot of changes to the WebKit engine on top of developing the browser itself to make this all happen. Which is considerably more work than a lot of other browsers, which take Chromium or Firefox as a base and don't really modify the engine itself. Considering the size of your team, this is really impressive 😯

It also puts into context why you're reluctant to go fully open source until you're more established, because Apple could probably absorb a lot of those WebKit changes back into Safari if it was open source, which would give people less reason to use Orion.

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