Is Lynx the fastest browser? Is Lynx any good?

Discuss various technical topics not related to Mozilla.
Lin X.
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Is Lynx the fastest browser? Is Lynx any good?

Post by Lin X. »

Has anyone used Lynx ? Can you recommend something smaller/faster that you've used? Thanks.
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Äkiidoll
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Post by Äkiidoll »

kmeleon is fastest browser I ever used.
Its also a Gecko like Mozilla and Firefox.
http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/
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Tzephtan
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Post by Tzephtan »

Lynx is a really good and fast browser. Of course, it's text only.
It's amazing how much faster things are when you don't need to load pictures or flash or anything.
The most important thing is getting newbies to use Thunderbird and Firefox.
Otherwise they'll be using Outlook and Internet Explorer and clogging up our bandwidth with their virii.
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logan
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Post by logan »

<a href="http://w3m.sourceforge.net/">w3m</a> is better than lynx with table stuffs, it lays 'em out as they should be. :)
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Moparx
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Post by Moparx »

logan wrote:<a href="http://w3m.sourceforge.net/">w3m</a> is better than lynx with table stuffs, it lays 'em out as they should be. :)

this man speaks the truth :D
w3m > all other text-based browsers
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scratch
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Post by scratch »

Caetck wrote:kmeleon is fastest browser I ever used.
Its also a Gecko like Mozilla and Firefox.
http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/


try lynx. it's loads faster.
mastavic
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Post by mastavic »

Lin X. wrote:Has anyone used Lynx ? Can you recommend something smaller/faster that you've used? Thanks.

scratch wrote:
Caetck wrote:kmeleon is fastest browser I ever used.
Its also a Gecko like Mozilla and Firefox.
http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/


try lynx. it's loads faster.

Very interesting =P

On a different note, what does "text-based browser" mean? I've only used IE and Firefox to a great degree, although I have tried Opera and a few other leading browsers before. Are Lynx, Kmeleon, w3m, and similar browsers better than Firefox in any way at all?

Thanks,
-=MaStA ViC
Budrick
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Post by Budrick »

A "text-based" browser is one that doesn't need a graphical environment to run. Hence, it can't display images or other media embedded in pages. The three most common text-based browsers are Lynx, Links and w3m.

The key point about them is that they don't run in a GUI environment (like IE, Firefox, Opera et al), they use a console to display text in web pages. They typically can't display images without some sort of external helper app. The Links screenshot page shows Links running in a Unix terminal, but it could just as easily run without X.

Whether Lynx (or any other text browser) is better than Firefox is a matter of opinion really. The package size of Lynx is very small, it does run lightning-fast, but it has no mouse support (Links does, just fyi), and you won't get "rich" displays of content as you will in Firefox or any other modern graphical browser. That said, Lynx is a very useful tool for web designers, as it allows you to quickly test the accessibility of your site.
Midnight Mick
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Post by Midnight Mick »

Wow!
What an archaic way to browse today's Internet?!
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fleeb
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Post by fleeb »

Archaic, maybe, but very fast. Sometimes preferable to graphical interfaces.
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jrduncans
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Post by jrduncans »

MaStAViC wrote:Very interesting =P

On a different note, what does "text-based browser" mean? I've only used IE and Firefox to a great degree, although I have tried Opera and a few other leading browsers before. Are Lynx, Kmeleon, w3m, and similar browsers better than Firefox in any way at all?

Thanks,
-=MaStA ViC


Kmeleon isn't like the Lynx or w3m. It is not text-based. <a href="http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/">K-Meleon</a> is a Mozilla-based (it uses Gecko for layout) browser only for Windows that's much more light-weight than Firefox even, and is also faster from using a native GUI, instead of Firefox/Mozilla's cross-platform GUI.
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logan
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Post by logan »

Midnight Mick wrote:Wow!
What an archaic way to browse today's Internet?!

Actually it's quite handy.
Lost User 49637
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Post by Lost User 49637 »

The latest bigbang branch build from 8/22 is by far the fastest I've used so far... things are coming together nicely for firefox.
tyir
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Post by tyir »

links!
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Post by mastavic »

Thanks a LOT to Budrick and jrduncans for all the info! I can definitely see how text-based browsers can be useful for certain people, and now I understand why a computer user like me, the type that only uses computers for "regular" activities and not actually program and such, would have never heard of these types of browsers before: for one, they are not as mainstream as IE and, heck, Firefox (less than 5% of my friends have actually heard of Firefox - the only Web browsers most of my friends have heard of are IE and Netscape).

REALLY appreciate the help,
-=MaStA ViC
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