Lynx (web browser)

Lynx
Company type	Free software
Industry	Web browsers
Founded	1992
Founder	Lou Montulli, Michael Grobe, Charles Rezac
Headquarters	United States
Products	Text-based web browser
Owner	Volunteers led by Thomas Dickey
Website	lynx.invisible-island.net

Lynx is a highly configurable text-based web browser developed for cursor-controlled character cell terminals. As of now, it holds the distinction of being the longest-standing web browser still actively maintained, having first been introduced in 1992.

History

The origins of Lynx trace back to the Distributed Computing Group at Academic Computing Services of the University of Kansas. Created in 1992 by a team including Lou Montulli, Michael Grobe, and Charles Rezac, it was initially designed as a hypertext browser to distribute information across campus through a Campus-Wide Information System and to navigate the Gopher network. The beta version was publicly announced on Usenet on July 22, 1992. By 1993, Montulli enhanced Lynx with Internet capabilities, leading to the release of version 2.0.

By 2007, the browser’s protocol handling was based on a forked version of libwww, supporting protocols such as Gopher, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, NNTP, and WAIS. NNTP functionality had been incorporated into libwww stemming from Lynx's development efforts in 1994. Due to encryption challenges, HTTPS support was introduced later via patches.

In April 1994, Garrett Blythe developed DosLynx and subsequently became part of the Lynx development team. Foteos Macrides ported Lynx to OpenVMS and managed its maintenance for a period. The browser was released under the terms of the GNU General Public License in 1995 and continues to be maintained by volunteers under the leadership of Thomas Dickey.

Features

Navigation in Lynx is accomplished by moving through links using cursor keys or by entering link numbers directly. Modern releases include support for SSL and a variety of HTML elements. Tables are rendered using spaces for alignment, while frames are identified by name and can be navigated similarly to individual pages. Although Lynx cannot render graphical content like images or videos internally, it can invoke external applications to handle such media.

Distinct from most browsers, Lynx does not incorporate support for JavaScript, which restricts functionality on numerous websites.

The text-only browsing approach offers performance benefits on slower network connections or legacy hardware.

Privacy

Due to its absence of graphic content, Lynx inherently avoids retrieving web bugs commonly used for user tracking, providing stronger privacy protection than graphical browsers. Nevertheless, it does accept HTTP cookies, which can be used for tracking purposes. Users have options to whitelist, blacklist, or completely disable cookies within Lynx.

Additionally, features like browsing history and page caching are supported, which may introduce privacy considerations similar to those present in standard browsers.

Configurability

Lynx provides a high degree of customization through 142 command-line parameters and 233 configurable options within the lynx.cfg file. While some settings can be adjusted using both methods, certain parameters, such as -restrict, are exclusive to command-line execution. Users have the ability to modify preferences during operation via an options menu, with the option to save these adjustments to a writable configuration file. This design flexibility traces back to Lynx’s role as a dial-in interface in the mid-1990s.

Accessibility

As a browser that operates solely with text, Lynx facilitates web access for users with visual impairments by supporting refreshable braille display devices and compatibility with text-to-speech applications. It replaces graphical elements like images and frames with descriptive text derived from alt, name, and title HTML attributes, improving accessibility when used alongside affordable screen reading technologies. A Windows-specific variant optimized for screen reader functionality was developed at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

Remote access

Despite its long history and text-only interface, Lynx continues to serve as an effective tool for browsing websites remotely without graphical environments. It supports contemporary web activities, including interactive functions such as editing Wikipedia entries.

Web design and robots

Lynx’s capacity to accept input from text files makes it valuable for automated processes like data entry, navigating websites, and web scraping. It is utilized by certain web crawlers and by designers seeking insight into how search engines and bots interpret their webpages. Additionally, some online platforms offer page previews powered by Lynx.

Moreover, Lynx assists in testing website performance by enabling remote connections via protocols like Telnet and SSH, which facilitates simultaneous testing from multiple geographic points. It is also frequently employed for rapid verification of hyperlinks during website development.

Supported platforms

Initially created for Unix-like operating systems, Lynx was soon adapted for VMS, DOS, Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, and OS/2. From OpenBSD version 2.3 (May 1998) through 5.5 (May 2014), it was included by default before transitioning to the ports collection. Lynx is readily available in repositories of most Linux distributions as well as macOS package managers including Homebrew, Fink, and MacPorts. Ports have also been developed for platforms such as BeOS, MINIX, QNX, AmigaOS, and OS/2.

The source code can be compiled on a wide array of systems, including Google's Android platform.

References

External links