this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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Any mac users out there who tried this browser? Linux alpha is coming this month so will try it myself then.

It sounds like they are building a new browser from the ground up.

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[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 2 points 18 hours ago

I use it in iOS too and it’s great. I haven’t tried it on Mac, but I would. Id prefer open source solutions but for an iOS browser it’s solid.

[–] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 1 day ago

"From the ground up" and "WebKit" seem contradictory. Why can't they use words by their meaning, I wonder?

But if it can be configured the way Firefox before dropping XUL was, then would be nice.

[–] ryan_@lemmy.world 5 points 23 hours ago

I’ve been using it exclusively on my iPhone and iPad for about a year with zero issues and zero regrets. I’ve been looking forward to this release so I can also replace Firefox on my Linux pc

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Oh heck yeah. I’ve been using it on iOS a ton, and dying for this on Windows/Linux.

Fun trivia: what browser supports HEIFs, JPEG XL AVIF, AV1, all with correctly rendered HDR?

Not Chrome. And not Firefox, nor anything based on them I’ve tried: https://caniuse.com/?search=image+format

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 21 hours ago

jpeg xl! wow! that's cool!

[–] RightEdofer@lemmy.ca 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

Doesn't seem to. And has a subscription attached. Made by kagi.

I don't have personal Apple devices, so I can't try it.

[–] vogi@piefed.social 35 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Not really from the grounds up as it uses WebKit.

Used it very shorty on a mac, but as it really is very similar to safari there is little to no reason to use it.

On a linux maybe, but i think i will stay on firefox until servo is usable. (Which is actually being made from the grounds up)

[–] coolmojo@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Servo was developed by Mozilla between 2012 and 2020. In 2020 they layed off the people who were working on it and transferred to the Linux foundation. Servo was partially integrated into gecko as part of the Quantum project.

[–] 20dogs@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not sure Servo will ever be usable. Is it still in active development?

[–] vogi@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It is. After development broke down in 2022 development is more active than it ever was. https://blogs.igalia.com/mrego/servo-2025-stats/ I have a binary on my machine and use it for light browsing every now and then just to check in how things are going. Its "usable" for that but would not use it for banking even if it worked.

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

On Linux there is Falkon. Windows too. (QT WebKit) And the reason I won't use this will likely be the same as Falkon. Missing plugins etc. Other than that they are fine. Bitwarden has a desktop app. (Electron? Dunno but it would be ironic) But no auto fill ability. Darkreader? Nope. There may be some limited adblocking, but no greasemonkey type functionality.

[–] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Falkon stopped useing QTWebKit a few years ago. Now it's just an other Chromium-based browser.

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 6 points 1 day ago

Aaaah so even less reason to use it sadly.

[–] Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Orion supports chrome and Firefox plugins

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 2 points 1 day ago

Really, that's actually interesting.

[–] puppinstuff@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I like that it can run both Firefox and Chrome extensions. I… don’t like much else about it.

It seems like it doesn’t use multiple cores efficiently. When I’m taxing my GPU for video transcoding all other web browsers hold up but this one always stalls.

It’s a shame. I use Kagi for search and id love to see them succeed together but the browser is not yet there. It went “out of beta” officially but not practically.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

That aside, gpu- video transcoding in the browser?? That's not what webbrowsers are made for.

[–] puppinstuff@lemmy.ca 3 points 17 hours ago

No I meant same machine.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

I think they meant background transcoding while using the browser.

I don’t even want to speculate on what’s going wrong there, heh. But I can definitely see that being a quirk.

[–] KhantoBlackhand@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Would you be cool if I shared this feedback to the Kagi team? I love Kagi and want to help it improve and grow. 

[–] puppinstuff@lemmy.ca 1 points 17 hours ago

Please do. More browsers that aren’t Google-based or Firefox forks make go a healthier ecosystem.

[–] aMockTie@piefed.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've used it on both macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) and iOS.

On macOS it's been fine, but nothing about it was unique or beneficial enough to make me switch to it as my default browser. I imagine the experience on Linux will be similar.

On iOS, I've been daily driving it for almost exactly a year. At first it was very buggy, and I once lost all of my opened tabs. But for the past 6-8 months it has been very solid, and is the only browser on iOS that allows me to use both ad and sponsor block plug-ins to my knowledge. Tab groups are also fantastic and easy to manage.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That sounds hopeful. :) Even if its just like any browser on Linux, fun to try it for a while.

[–] aMockTie@piefed.world 1 points 19 hours ago

I hope the launch goes well, I'll certainly give it a try.

I didn't find anything wrong with it on Mac, it was a perfectly cromulent browser. And anything that can help dethrone the chrome monopoly is a win in my book.

[–] Superorbit@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've used it on iOS and iPadOS. It's not bad and I didn't find that it breaks too many sites, but the plugin support can be a bit buggy. Specifically I tried to install Ublock Origin (as one does) but I got some errors and the plugin didn't work. That being said it's built in adblocker is usually good enough. Overall I give it a 6/10, but if they update it so I can put Ublock origin on it I'll probably switch over to it in an instant.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Full Ublock is a mixed bag on mobile because it eats battery/performance, and (if you add all the same filter sources), integrated blockers like Orion’s are just about the same anyway.

[–] galaxy_nova@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Yeah, it’s buggy as hell every time I’ve tried it. Lots of random bugs that were open for a long time. Also not open source so I realize that doesn’t matter to everyone but for me it does especially for a browser.

[–] CatsGoMOW@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I’ve tried the iOS version of it a few times but the browser extensions I wanted to use did not work with it (both Chrome and FF extension versions). Oh well.

[–] scytale@piefed.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah I have uBO installed and it doesn't seem to work. I just use it as a spare browser now outside for Safari and Firefox Focus.

[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You really don’t need uBO in Orion though. It has adblocking and zero-telemetry out of the box.

[–] scytale@piefed.zip 3 points 1 day ago

Right, but the point still stands that extensions are hit-or-miss.