Section A.6. Lynx

A.6. Lynx

First released in July 1993, Lynx (see [click here]) was originally designed for Unix-based computers, but it will now run on Windows if you install the version found at http://csant.info/lynx/.

Oh my gosh! Where are the pictures? Where's the styled text? Where are the colors? Is something broken?

Nope, nothing is broken. Lynx is a text-only browser: it doesn't display pictures, or fancy fonts, or anything other than plain text. You can't even use a mouse with it; to move around, you use arrow keys; to follow a link, you press Enter. It's not too difficult once you get used to it. Really!

A.6.1. Background

Lynx was developed at The University of Kansas in the early 1990s. Although it began life on Unix, it's been ported to other operating systems, including DOS, VMS, Mac OS, and, of course, Windows. In 1995, Lynx was released under the GPL, a free software license, and it is now maintained by a group of volunteers working in collaboration.

Its primary competitors in the text-only browser space are Links, ELinks, and w3m. All are free, so it's not a problem to try out all of them and pick the one you like.

A.6.2. What's Cool About Lynx?

I'm sure many of you are wondering why anyone would use such a browser when Firefox and other browsers with beautiful GUIs are available. Actually, there are a number of good reasons:

Speed

Since Lynx doesn't render images, Java applets, movies, or anything, really, except text, pages load really fast. If you want to cruise around the Web on a rocket instead of in a sports car, try out Lynx. The Web ain't pretty that way, but you'll get what most web sites offertextand quickly!

Slow Internet connections

Bogged down by a super-slow Internet connection? Lynx may be your best choice. It'll sure be a heck of a lot faster than any GUI-based web browser.

Accessibility

For a time, Lynx was used by a lot of folks with visual disabilities, since they could couple Lynx with a text reader and still access and use the Web. There are specialized tools that provide this service now, but Lynx can still be used to satisfy those needs.

If you design web pages and want to know how people with disabilities see your site, fire up a copy of Lynx. You may be horrified to discover how antithetical your site is to good accessibility practices.

A.6.3. What Needs Work?

Lynx is actually very advanced for what it is. If you accept Lynx as a text-only browser, it will do a great job; if you absolutely must have a graphical browser, Lynx is unacceptable.