Rooting for them. I, myself, continue to use Safari.

For macOS.

I still use Safari as my primary browser as the integration with passwords is so seamless, but I pay for Orion because I want it to succeed.

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

Mm maybe hugged to death getting an error on startup

Update Error! An error occurred while parsing the update feed.

I used it on and off many times. I think the main reason has always been able to run extensions in “safari”. Can’t remember what made me switch back, probably integration, or not having Linux versions? I’ll give it another try!

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.

> Most people switch browsers for one reason: speed.

Is that true? Maybe it is and I'm out of the loop but I can't remember the last time someone complained about browser speed. The bottleneck seems to be website bloat more than anything else. Would love to see this argument quantified.

I've attempted to switch to Orion on iOS a few times in the past and could never quite stick with it due to reliability issues. I'm giving it another try now to see if this 1.0 release gets it over that hurdle. Vivaldi is still a lot more polished than Orion on mobile, but Orion's support for Chrome extensions is a pretty compelling feature. I'm a very happy Kagi search user, so I'm rooting for them to succeed here.

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 investigating WebKit on Windows, builds were not on an equal playing field[1]. So the engineering to get that up and running would be impressive.

> Speed by nature

Unfortunately, as of 16:40 UTC, I am unable to run the browser (installer?) to benchmark it due to "An error occurred while parsing the update feed.", but I recall 2 years ago when I tested Orion it was the slowest of all the browsers on macOS and Safari had quite a lead. I'd also be curious, being based on WebKit, how much faster it will actually be on macOS vs Safari?

I dropped speed as a focus point on Waterfox after compilation flags started making less of a difference compared to the actual architectural changes Mozilla were making for Firefox.

> Privacy etc

I think comparing to other major browsers such as Chrome the points are valid, but against Safari I'm not convinced it holds up as much. I know there is some telemetry related to Safari, but privacy is a big selling point for Safari as well and I'd be curious to see actual comparisons to that?

Safari includes iCloud Privacy Relay (MPR based on MASQUE[2]) and Oblivious DNS[3] - arguably two very valuable features that a company at a scale like Apple can subsidise.

The entire AI section also feels like trying to have it both ways as well. They criticise other browsers for rushing AI features, position themselves as the "secure" alternative, then immediately say they'll integrate AI "as it matures." This reads more like "we're behind on AI features" than a principled stance. If security is the concern, explain your threat model and what specific architectural decisions you're making differently? Currently Firefox has kept AI out of the "browser core" as it's been put, and I don't see them ever changing that.

Kudos that they have >2000 people paying for the browser directly, but I will say it doesn't excite me to see another closed source browser entering the market (I don't see any mention here of open-source apart from mention of WebKit being open source).

I do realise this is more a marketing post than an actual technical deep dive, but so much is just a rehash of every feature almost every modern web browser has?

I'll keep updating this comment as and when I can explore the browser itself a bit more.

[1] https://fujii.github.io/2019/07/05/webkit-on-windows/

[2] https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/masque/about/

[3] https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3340301.3341128

I'd love to use Orion but it's just too buggy for me. I downloaded the iOS app to try it out and immediately noticed that when typing in the URL bar, three quarters of it is covered by the toolbar above the keyboard.

Isn't every browser on iOS restricted to being a safari/webview shell?

I switched to Orion from Safari a few months ago and so far loving it. I tried Orion a couple of years ago but it wasn't as reliable. Now it seems very stable and the kagi search integration is really nice.

On a side note - I don't know why Apple still doesn't let you set a custom search engine in Safari even today, so random.

I love everything about Orion except it steals focus when I click a link in e-mail or another application. Does anyone know if there's a way to change the behavior to be like Safari's background link behavior?

The iOS/iPad builds have been getting a bit… rough on their adblocking lately.

For some reason, Orion is now getting slammed by Ad-Shield on my iPad on so many blogs and sites it’s not even funny. Endless “an error occured loading this page” blaming my ad blocker.

Anyone else?

What's the bug situation? It sucked last I checked, over a year ago.

Is there a way to get a useful visualization like a burndown chart out of their bug tracker? https://orionfeedback.org/

I was curious but unfortunately can't get it to launch

Is there any info with a bit more details on extensions on the desktop version? More specifically, is Orion going to have its own extension ecosystem? Is it compatible with chrome or FF extensions? If it is gonna be its own thing, are there dev docs available anywhere?

Asking because I’ve read the article, and I noticed extensions being mentioned a few times (including in one of the subchapter titles). However, I couldn’t find any actual info about extensions there.

I’m using it now, feels so much snappier on my 10 year old iPhone than the previous version on Orion.

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.

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...

Money quote: "In a world dominated by Chromium, choosing a rendering engine is an act of resistance"

I love Orion, but it's pretty unusable with 1Password set up - delay on keyboard input is unbearable with the extension enabled and it slows everything down significantly. I just ran a few benchmarks with BrowserBench Speedometer:

1Password extension disabled: 17 1Password extension enabled: 10 (and the test takes much longer)

Vivaldi with extension enabled: 25

I really, really want to move back to Orion as my daily driver but as a pretty heavy 1Password user this is absolutely a dealbreaker.

>While doing so, it expands Kagi ecosystem of privacy-respecting, user-centric products (that we have begun fondly naming “Kagiverse”) to now include: Search, Assistant, Browser, Translate, News with more to come.

Are people really interested in those other than Search?

>A bold technical choice: WebKit, not another Chromium clone

Only real choice for iOS so not sure what the bold choice is for an Apple-centric browser.

I want to be able to sync Orion with Firefox. I use non Apple operating systems on some computers, and I would love to have Orion sync with Firefox on them.

”We have officially started development on Orion for Windows, with a target release scheduled for late 2026”

Fantastic news!

Begun again the browser wars have.

I’m now using it on iOS, switching from Arc. It’s working surprisingly well, good feel and customization. Might keep it.