Text mode (console) browsing with tabs with
elinks text browsers - (lynx, elinks, links and w3m) useful HTTP
debugging browsers for Linux and FreeBSD servers
The last days, I'm starting to think the GUI use is making me
brainless so I'm getting back to my old habits of using
console.
I still remember with a grain of nostalgy how much more efficient I
used to be when the way to interact with my computer was primary in
text mode console.
Actually, I'm starting to get this idea the more new a software is
the more inefficient it makes your use of computer, not to mention
the hardware resources required by newer software is constantly
increasing.
With this said, I started occasionally browsing again like in the
old days by using
links text browser.
In the old days I mostly used
lynx and its more advanced
"brother" text browser
links.
The main difference between
lynx and
links is that
lynx does not have any support for the terrible "javascript",
whether
links supports most of the Javascript ver 2.
Also links and has a midnight commander like pull down menus on the
screen top, - handy for people who prefer some more
interactivity.
In the past I remember I used also to browse graphically in normal
consoles (ttys) with a hacked version of
links calledTThere
is also a variation of
links -
xlinks suitable for
people who would like to have graphical browser in console
(ttys).
I used
xlinks quite heavily in the past, when I have slower
computer
P166Mhz with 64MB of memory 2.5 GB HDD (What a
times boy what a times) .
Maybe when I have time I will install it on my PC and start using
it again like in the old days to boost my computer use
efficiency...
I remember the only major
xlinks downside was it doesn't
included support for
Adobe flash (though this is due to the
bad non-free software nature of Adobe lack of proper support for
free software and not a failure of
xlinks developers.
Anyways for me this wasn't a big trouble since, ex
Macromedia
(Adobe) Flash support is not something essential for most of my
work...
links2 is actually the naming of links version 2.
elinks emerged later (if I remember correctly, as fork
project of links).
elinks difference with
links constitutes in this it
supports tabbed browsing as well as colors (links browser displays
results monochrome).
Having a tabbed browsing support in tty console is a great
thing...
I personally belive text browsing if properly used can in many ways
outbeat, graphic browsing in terms of performance and time spend to
obtain data. I'm convinced text browsing is superior for two
reasons:
1. with text there is way less elements to obstruct your
attention.
- No graphical annoying flash banners, no annoying taking the
attention pictures
2. Navigating in web pages using the keyboard is more efficient
than mouse
- Using keyboard shorcuts is always quicker than mouse, generally
keboard has always been a quicker way to access computer
commands.
Another reason to use text browsing is, it is mostly the text part
of a page that matters, most of the pages that provide images to
better explain a topic are bloated (this is my personal view
though, i'm sure designer guys will argue me :D).
Here is a
screenshot of a my links text browser in action,
I'm sorry the image is a bit unreadable, but after taking a
screenshot of the console and resizing it with GIMP this is what I
got ...
For all those new to Linux who didn't tried text browsing yet and
for those interested in computer history, I suggest you install and
give a try to following text browsers:
- lynx
(Supports colorful text console text browsing)
- links
- elinks
- (Supports colors and tabs)
- w3m
By the way having the 4 text browsers is very useful for debugging
purposes for system administrators too, so in any case I think this
4 web browsers are absoutely required software for newly installed
GNU / Linux or BSD* based servers.
For Debian and the derivatives Linux distributions, the 4 browsers
are available as deb packages, so install them with following
apt 1 liner:
debian:~# apt-get --yes install w3m elinks links
lynx
....
FreeBSD users can install the browsers using, cmd:
freebsd# cd /usr/ports/www/w3m freebsd# make install
clean .... freebsd# cd /usr/ports/www/elinks freebsd# make install
clean .... freebsd# cd /usr/ports/www/links freebsd# make install
clean .... freebsd# cd /usr/ports/www/lynx freebsd# make install
clean ....
In
links using the tabs functionality appeared, somewhere
near the 2001 or 2000 (at least that was the first time I saw links
with tabbed browsing enabled). My first time to saw
links
support opening multiple pages within the same screen under tabs
was on
Redhat Linux 9
Opening multiple pages in tabs in the text browser is done by
pressing the
t key and typing in the desired URL to open
isnide.
For more than 2 tabs, again
t has to be pressed and same
procedure goes on and on.
It was pretty hard for me to figure out how I can do a text
browsing with tabs, though I found a way to open new tabs it took
me some 10 minutes in pondering how to switch between the new
opened
links browser tabs.
Hence, I thought it would be helpful to mention here
how tabs
can be switched in links text browser. Actually it turned it is
pretty easy to Switch tabs tabs back and foward.
1 tab to move backwards is done with
< (key), wheter
switching one tab forward is done with the
> key.
On
UK and US qwerty keyboards alignment the movement a tab
backward and forward is done with holding
shift and pressing
< onwards holding both keys simultaneously and
analogously with pressing
shift + >