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Is there any other package other than elinks so that I browse internet inside the terminal using terminal as a browser. I feel elinks is a bit difficult to operate.

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1  
Out of curiosity, why do people want to browse the web in text terminals? – Olivier Lalonde Dec 3 '10 at 14:57
Some times we may be not sure whether the web site from a server is being rendered or not(ISP modem may have to be reset). So we can connect to that server via ssh and check browsing in the terminal and may help to resolve some issues – user3215 Jan 2 '11 at 6:16
How would you define 'practical'? It will be easier to give a good answer if you elaborate on what your practical needs are when it comes to console web browsers. – N.N. Sep 25 '11 at 14:47
@N.N Does this help you? ( also I want something that is easy to use.) – Alvar Sep 25 '11 at 15:08
Not packages, but other commands that can be used to open webpages/links in terminal askubuntu.com/questions/8252/… – Suhaib Mar 30 at 19:01

5 Answers

up vote 29 down vote accepted

There are three families of text web browsers.

lynx Install lynx is the classic text mode web browser. It's slightly older than the web. Its interface is nothing do write home about. It has the advantage of being available on many exotic platforms.

links Install links is a more recent implementation of the same concept. There's an alternate development tree, elinks Install elinks, for which there is an experimental patch for Javascript support (I don't think it's in Ubuntu yet).

w3m Install w3m has an interface with a different (and I think much more nicer) feel. It's better than the others (though links has been improving lately) at rendering web sites with complex formatting, not necessarily the way the designer intended it, but in a readable way. It can display images. There's an Emacs interface, w3m-el Install w3m-el.

My recommendation is to use w3m now but keep an eye on (e)links's evolutions.

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I was wondering if I could get webpages in same format as we'll get on the graphical browsers. lynx and w3m are ok. – user3215 Dec 3 '10 at 9:30
up vote 5 down vote

lynx Install lynx is my favorite. It is available in the Software Center.

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Nice tool and a bit easy to use but asking for the confirmation(y/n/always/never) many time to render a page. – user3215 Dec 3 '10 at 9:32
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you can use the '--accept_all_cookies' option to avoid this. lynx --accept_all_cookies google.com – aneeshep Dec 3 '10 at 9:39
up vote 3 down vote

Elinks is IMHO best to use on a daily basis.

Amongst other features it supports

  • tabs
  • bookmarks
  • javascript
  • tables
  • transparency
  • and you can easily "pipe" a page to any other program like Firefox with vimperator, or scripts if you'd like.

Gmail is still very much workable and as any other page, very fast under Elinks.

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I have only used links2 is it faster than that? – Alvar Sep 26 '11 at 4:52
I've never used Links2, but from what I understand [pupnik.de/links2.html] it's not a console browser. It seems to be much like Links, but able to display graphics. Any console-based browser isn't capable of doing this so Elinks/W3M/Lynx would use less bandwidth. – MJB Sep 26 '11 at 16:09
links is a console browser that is able to show a GUI if the user WANTS to. – Alvar Sep 28 '11 at 15:26
up vote 2 down vote

You can try w3m.
It is Lynx with utf support..

Thanks.

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Good tool. Thanks! – user3215 Dec 3 '10 at 9:35
up vote -3 down vote

If you aren't super-geek, you usually don't use any of them. The best way is to redirect X-server output from the server and run you favorite Firefox remotely. It displays in your graphical interface on the client machine.

See man ssh for details. Use ssh -X ...

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2  
I don't want to have any requirements on the client that connects to the server like; I want to be able to log-in via my iPhone 3G or a computer at my school! I don't want to be limited to one computer. And I like the no GUI, it feels natural if you are using a server. – Alvar Sep 25 '11 at 15:12
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I see absolutely nothing natural on browsing web in text console... – Pavel S. Sep 25 '11 at 15:13
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It's feels natural to not have a GUI if I run on a server, I like it, it gives less requirements on the client. – Alvar Sep 25 '11 at 15:17
You like it, but... It isn´t that 'natural' nowadays... Unless you are talking about 386 or 486 processors. I hope you don't. – Geppettvs D'Constanzo Sep 25 '11 at 18:14
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Btw this doesn't even answer my question. – Alvar Sep 26 '11 at 5:19
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