Kagi Ends Orion for Linux and Windows and Promises to Open-Source Both

Kagi said Oct. 2 that it is ending development of its Orion browser for Linux and Windows and will open-source both, leaving Orion for macOS and iOS as the only versions it builds. The Linux beta keeps working but stops getting updates from Kagi after Oct. 2, and the Windows launch the company had planned for late 2026 will not come from Kagi.

The company announced the change in a blog post titled "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows". It is signed by the Kagi team, with no individual named.

What the Linux beta lacks as updates stop

The last Linux build was v0.4.3, which Joey Sneddon covered at OMG! Ubuntu on Sept. 16. It made the toolbar customisation menu work: earlier betas opened a button picker that did nothing, and drag-and-drop now rearranges the toolbar.

It also added Find in Page on Ctrl+F. If that was missing before, in-page search arrived only 16 days before Kagi stopped updating the beta. Sneddon wrote that the jumbo-sized hamburger menu is still unrefined.

The browser is distributed only as a Flatpak and shares the GNOME 50 runtime. Sneddon recommended running it alongside a stable browser rather than as the main one. Kagi's own post says the same thing in effect: it does not recommend the Linux beta as a primary browser from here on.

What Kagi has and has not promised

Platform	Status after Oct. 2	Stated by
Linux beta	Works, no Kagi updates	Kagi
Windows	Late-2026 launch cancelled	Kagi
macOS, iOS	Continue, "steady improvements"	Kagi
Source code	Details due within 30 days	Kagi

Kagi wrote that building a cross-platform browser normally takes venture capital or a large open-source community, and that as a small independent company it chose to put its handful of developers where it can "do our best work". The post says the macOS and iOS versions will get "steady improvements in the coming months" from the people who had been split across three platforms.

Kagi said it has contacted open-source foundations about taking on the code, and that it "won't be the core maintainer". It wrote that the projects "need people who want to own them" and asked interested developers to email support@kagi.com.

The gaps in the announcement

The post names no licence, no foundation and no date for the code. Kagi said details will follow within 30 days, which puts the deadline near Nov. 1. It gives no user numbers for either platform and says nothing about what happens to Kagi subscribers who were using the Linux beta.

The practical effect lands on whoever adopted the Linux beta as a daily driver: future fixes now depend on a maintainer nobody has named. Compare Google's gVisor donation to the CNCF, where Ant Group, Modal and Tines got merge rights. Kagi has not yet named any.

Users who lose a product outright get a date, as when Mozilla set Nov. 30 to delete every Solo site. Orion's Linux users get a working browser and no one on call.

A community forum post at TidBITS Talk on Oct. 3 quoted the announcement and drew one reaction. The next fixed point is Kagi's own 30-day window for publishing source details.