Kagi is abandoning its Orion browser on Windows and Linux, but the code is going open source

Published Nov 15, 2026, 8:00 AM EST Former radio and TV guy (I Heart Radio and PBS). Now a writer, researcher, and musician who writes about the absurdity of our modern world and other offbeat topics. Specializes in weird music, the old web, retro video games and tech, and researching strange, yet interesting things. His work has appeared in Vice, Tedium, Star Trek.com, Today I Found Out, Typebar, SyFy Wire, and How To Geek. Currently working on a variety of music, web, and writing projects. Visit him on the web at https://djbuckfreelance.neocities.org/. The modern internet can really suck sometimes. There was a time when being online wasn't so bleak. Now, I'm not here to wax nostalgic about the “good old days of the ‘Net.” The pre-Google, pre-social media internet did have its problems, but things just seem to have gotten worse over the past decade or so. A lot of people have ditched Google for modern search engine Kagi, and it's easy to see why. While they're doing some amazing things, they made a recent announcement about their Orion browser that's going to change the way it gets developed moving forward. Kagi is rewriting what it means to search the web But its browser is undergoing some changes The web should be a friendly place, but it largely isn't for many users these days. Ads are a problem. Privacy isn't exactly a top priority for companies. AI slop abounds, often being pushed by the companies we use the most (ahem, Google, ahem). Unless you've been offline or don't use any Internet services whatsoever, you're likely aware that the unnecessary and aggressive pivot to AI has thoroughly worsened a lot of things. It's a big enough problem that DuckDuckGo’s app saw a 30% surge in installations back in May 2026 (peaking around May 25 after Google made its I/O announcements), and there's a growing backlash against the tech. The search engine, Kagi, addresses these issues by trying to help resurrect a version of the “better Internet experience.” While they do have some integrated AI stuff, it isn't the core of the search engine, and it's entirely optional. This makes a huge difference. Users like me aren't completely against the tech, but we want the option to use it instead of having it forced into everything we use. That's why I pay for a Kagi subscription and typically keep the AI features toggled off. For a while, Kagi worked on their own browser, called Orion (a fast WebKit browser with zero built-in telemetry that can also handle extensions), up until recently. It's a very cool browser on Linux (I was a beta tester) and very different from Chromium-based browsers. But in early October of this year (2026), Kagi announced they are dropping development of their Orion browser for Windows and Linux. Instead, they decided to shift their internal focus to further developing it for macOS and iOS, because a lot of its user base is there. But don't worry; it's going open-source on Linux and Windows (Windows never received a public version of the port, but Linux got an alpha and a beta) instead, and it'll be up to the community to continue its development. Open-source has the potential to make Orion great But there might also be some downsides Orion promised to be a great browser, so it was a little surprising to hear about the abrupt end of development. If you tried the alpha version or the more recent Beta version of Orion on Linux and were impressed with what you saw, just think about how well an open-source version could go. Kagi users want them to stay focused on what they do best. The company addressed this in their announcement. Basically, they're a small team, and building a functional browser is a tremendous undertaking. So they're allowing the open-source community to further develop the browser’s Linux and Windows versions. The FOSS community as a whole is pretty awesome, so there's potential for some amazing new features and performance enhancements on an open-source version of Orion. I look forward to seeing what some of the intelligent and hardworking folks in the community come up with. The only thing I'm a bit worried about right now is that some folks (who don't know anything about development) might try vibe-coding a version of Orion using the source code as a base. I don't know if that's going to happen, but I've been seeing it pop up a lot online lately. I'm not inherently against LLM coding assistance. But I do feel vibe coding is better suited to pet projects and hobbies rather than something that's supposed to keep you safe and private online. Plus, if you're trying to get away from the whole AI thing in the first place, it doesn't make sense to let an AI code it for you. But to each their own, I suppose. Orion browser is no longer supported or secure on Linux If you're still using the beta version, you should probably stop Keeping your browser updated is one of the most critical things you can do from a cybersecurity standpoint. So that's where Kagi’s decision to drop internal development might lead to some issues for users who continue to use the beta version of Orion on Linux. As cool as the beta release was, it's never a good idea to keep using a browser once it's no longer being updated or supported. Kagi itself said that the Linux beta isn't going to receive any more patches or updates after October 2, 2026. So if you're still using Orion on Linux, it's probably a good idea to stop for now for security purposes. For an alternative, you could try GNOME Web or one of my personal favorites, LibreWolf (which is a privacy-focused browser forked from Firefox). Kagi search is available in any browser, so no matter what you pick, you're still able to use it. Once a developer releases an open-source version that actively handles safety, privacy, and security patches again, it should be safe to use. It's kind of a bummer, too, because I liked the browser. Unlike Perplexity’s Comet browser, which I didn't care for, this one showed some promise in its beta release. It'll be interesting to see what the future holds. So it goes. Looking toward an open-source Orion Orion was a promising browser, and I enjoyed my time with the Linux beta. Kagi said it would provide more details about releasing the source code within 30 days of its announcement. As of November 14, 2026, it hadn't yet published the source code or announced anything about the repositories. Even so, I'm looking forward to what the open-source community comes up with once the source code is available. I sincerely hope it isn't vibe-coded. But if the project keeps going, I'm going to be eagerly anticipating an updated open-source release.