01 / Onda
Why a design studio builds a browser
Onda is a Chromium-based browser. It is built on Helium, a privacy-focused browser made by imput, and changes the interface as a separate patch series on top. The engine, and with it the way pages render, stays Helium's.
Most days we build websites, brand identities and online shops for other companies, and we spend those days inside a browser. None of the browsers we used felt like something we would have shipped ourselves. Onda is the project where we are our own client. How it is built is written up in the Onda case study.
03 / Onda
What is in the window today
Sidebar
No tab bar on top. Essentials, the workspace with its saved tabs and folders, and below a line today's tabs, which you clear with one click.
Workspaces
Separate sets of tabs, for example for work, reading and home, each with its own colour from a choice of eight and its own symbol.
Command bar
Ctrl+L opens one floating bar for search, open tabs and history; typing > lists about 35 commands.
Glance
Alt-click a link and it opens in a floating window over the page you are on. Esc closes it.
Split view
Up to four pages side by side in one window.
Notes
A note is a tab with plain text, saved as you type and kept only in your local profile.
Live folders
A folder that follows an RSS or Atom feed, checks it every 30 minutes and shows the latest ten entries. The feed is fetched without cookies.
Per-site switches
JavaScript and cookies on or off for the site you are on, from the shield menu in the sidebar.
05 / Onda
Helium underneath
Onda is a downstream fork of Helium, which imput builds from Chromium and ungoogled-chromium plus its own privacy patches. Onda's changes sit in a separate patch series and never modify one of Helium's patches, so Onda can follow Helium's releases.
- Kept as Helium ships it: Helium's privacy protections, the sandbox, site isolation and the built-in uBlock Origin.
- Added by Onda: the sidebar, workspaces, Essentials, folders and live folders, the command bar, Glance, split view, notes, reading mode, and mods, which are themes as plain data and cannot run scripts.
- Not in Onda: accounts, telemetry of its own, AI features.
- Through Helium's services: some things go through services that imput runs, for example installing extensions, because Helium proxies the Chrome Web Store. Helium's first-run setup asks you about these services.
06 / Onda
Measured against Helium
Every Onda release is benchmarked against the Helium release it is built on, on the same machine (AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, GNOME on Wayland). Medians of five runs per browser; tab switches were measured 300 times. Onda uses more memory than Helium, and that gap is still open.
| Measurement | Onda 0.9.5 | Helium 0.21.1.1 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time until the window is visible | 207.6 ms | 213.1 ms | Onda 2.6 % faster, within the measurement noise |
| Tab switch, the browser's own work | 2.3 ms | 2.6 ms | Onda faster, within the measurement noise |
| Memory with 50 tabs open, all processes | 1760.9 MB | 1662.5 MB | Onda uses 5.9 % more |
07 / Onda
Status and limits
- Version 0.9.5 is in private testing. There is no download and no release date yet.
- Linux only, on 64-bit Intel and AMD processors (x86-64). Windows and macOS are planned for later, without a date.
- Unsigned builds: the packages are not signed yet.
- No automatic updates: Onda does not check for new versions by itself yet.
- No sync between devices: there are no accounts, so there is nothing to sync through.
- Source code: Onda is free software under the GPL-3.0. The source and Onda's patches go public together with the first download.
08 / Onda
Hear when Onda is out
Send us a message with “Onda” and the Linux distribution you use. We let you know when there is a public build.
FAQ
Common questions
01When can I download Onda?
There is no date yet. Onda 0.9.5 is in private testing on Linux. Write to us through the form on this page, with “Onda” and your distribution in the message, and we let you know when it is out.
02Is Onda Chromium?
Underneath, yes. Onda is built from Helium, which is Chromium with ungoogled-chromium's changes and Helium's privacy patches; today that is Chromium 157 and Helium 0.21. Websites see a Chromium-based browser. Onda changes the interface, not the engine.
03Does Onda phone home?
Onda adds no telemetry of its own and has no accounts, and Helium's privacy protections stay as they are. Some things go through Helium's own services, run by imput, for example installing extensions. A new profile also starts with one Essentials tile for tanomedia.com, so the first start loads that page like any other website, with nothing sent beyond a normal page load. Closing the tile removes it for good.
04Can I use Chrome extensions?
Yes, as in Helium, which proxies the Chrome Web Store through its own service. uBlock Origin is already built in. Extensions you pin appear in the sidebar header.
05Is Onda open source?
Yes. Onda is licensed under the GPL-3.0, like Helium. The source code and Onda's patches go public together with the first download.