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This article is about how to use a command-line browser to surf the Internet on a Linux terminal. The editor thinks it is very practical, so share it with you as a reference and follow the editor to have a look.

The best terminal Web browser for Linux users

Note: this list is ranked in no particular order.

1 、 W3M

W3m is a popular text-based open source terminal Web browser. Although its initial project is no longer active, another developer, Tatsuya Kinoshita, is maintaining an active branch of it.

W3m is quite simple and supports SSL connections, colors, and embedded images. Of course, the situation on your side may be different depending on the resources you are trying to access. According to my simple test, it doesn't seem to load DuckDuckGo, but I can use Google on the terminal.

After installation, you can simply type W3m into the terminal to get help. If you are interested, you can also go to GitHub to check its warehouse.

How to install and use w3m?

W3m is available in the default repository for any Debian-based Linux distribution. If you have an Arch-based distribution but do not have a directly available package, you may want to check out AUR.

For Ubuntu, you can install it by typing:

Sudo apt install w3m w3m-img

Here, we install the w3m package with the image extension to support embedded images. Next, to start the installation, you just need to follow the following command:

W3m xyz.com

Of course, you need to replace xyz.com with any website you want to visit or test. Finally, you should know that you can use the arrow keys on the keyboard to navigate and press enter when you want to take an action.

To exit, you can press SHIFT+Q and return to the previous page is SHIFT+B. Other shortcut keys include opening a new tab with SHIFT+T and opening a new URL with SHIFT+U.

You can learn more by visiting its man page.

2 、 Lynx

Lynx is another open source command line browser that you can try. Fortunately, many websites tend to work well when using Lynx, so I say it is definitely better in this respect. I can load DuckDuckGo and make it work.

In addition, I also noticed that it allows you to accept or reject cookie when accessing various Web resources. You can also set it to always accept or reject. So, this is a good thing.

On the other hand, the window does not resize well when used on the terminal. I haven't found any solution yet, so if you're trying this, you might want to do it. In any case, it works well, and when you start it on the terminal, you will get instructions for all the keyboard shortcuts.

Note that it does not match the system terminal theme, so no matter how your terminal looks, it will look different.

How do I install Lynx?

Unlike W3M, you can indeed find some installers on Win32 if you are interested in trying. On Linux, however, it is available in most default repositories.

For Ubuntu, all you need to do is enter:

Sudo apt install lynx

To use it, you just need to follow the following command:

Lynx examplewebsite.com

Here, you only need to replace the sample website with the resources you want to access.

If you want to find other Linux distribution packages, you can check their website resources.

3 、 Links2

Links2 is an interesting text-based browser that you can easily use on your terminal with a good user experience. It provides a good interface, after you start it, just enter the URL.

It is worth noting that the theme will depend on your terminal settings, which I set to "dark green", so this is what you see. When you launch it as a command-line browser, you just press any key and the URL prompt appears, or press the Q key to exit. It is quite easy to use and can render text from most websites.

Unlike Lynx, you do not accept or reject cookie functions. Besides, it seems to be working well.

How do I install Links2?

As you might expect, you will find it in most default repositories. For Ubuntu, you can install it by typing the following command on the terminal:

Sudo apt install links2

If you want to install it on other Linux distributions, you can refer to its official website for packages or documentation.

4 、 eLinks

ELinks is similar to Links2, but it is no longer maintained. You can still find it in the default repository for various distributions, so I keep it in this list.

It will not be integrated with your system terminal theme. So, if you need it, as a text browser without "dark" mode, this may not be a beautiful experience.

How do I install eLinks?

On Ubuntu, it's easy to install. You only need to enter the following in the terminal:

Sudo apt install elinks

For other Linux distributions, you should be able to find it in the standard software repository.

Thank you for reading! This is the end of the article on "how to use a command-line browser to browse the Internet at the Linux terminal". I hope the above content can be of some help to you, so that you can learn more knowledge. if you think the article is good, you can share it for more people to see!

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