Why Lynx is Good

I use Lynx most of the time. I do use Netscape as well, and keep up with the latest changes, but I prefer Lynx because I'm a command-line, shell-oriented kind of person. Also: I'm a writer, not an artist, and I'm just not very graphics-oriented.

Lynx has the following advantages:

• Fast.
  Not even counting the fact that I don't have to wait for any graphics, I get the full speed of my ISP's T1 link and mainframe pumped into my shell Lynx requests. The average surfer's souped-up Pentium with a fast 28.8k modem can't compete.

• Accessible.
  There are a large number of blind or visually-impaired people who use Lynx as part of a text-to-speech Web browsing system. (So: If that corporate-scumdog page doesn't work with Lynx -- i.e., lots of image maps and [IMAGE]s with no ALT tag explanations -- maybe it's in violation of the ADA?)

• Efficient.
  No blinking, no fancy feature war Netscape vs. Microsoft oneupmanship, no button bars or non-intuitive command sequences. Just the commands that are needed to get the facts or the text that I want. Keyboard shortcuts are faster than mouse clicks any day.

• Useful.
  I can incorporate Lynx into my scripts (you should see the thesaurus script I use) and automate daily or weekly tasks. Try that with a graphics browser.

• Free.
  No "expiring" versions of Lynx for me to worry about. No begging "evaluation" licenses. It's free, enough said.

• Safe
  I don't have to worry about someone's JavaScript secretly sending a copy of my Quicken datafiles to be posted to alt.2600 while I'm surfing to research about puppies in Prague. Lynx is very secure, even if I have to forego all those opportunities to watch someone's Java applet animate their forehead.

About the only drawbacks: I can't print a useful page in one efficient step (I have to download or select the text first). And many pages are inaccessible to me, due to their heavy graphics content or image maps. The latter, sadly, is becoming increasingly true, cutting into my ability to use Lynx effectively.

Rant time:
Criminy, aren't some people missing the point of HTML? It's NOT a page layout language; it's a description of the logical and functional parts of a page. Paragraphs, lists, links: that's what's important. If you're trying to use HTML to create an exact duplicate of some brochure -- and you end up abusing tags because on one version of a particular browser they recreate an appearance you want -- well, it seems to me you've just limited your audience AND committed the sin of brand loyalty as well. Do you really feel comfortable committing yourself to the whims of programmers living in Mountain View or Redmond? What if their next version breaks your page because you relied on their properietary extensions?

I have an Ode to Lynx that was written on Halloween, 1995, for antiweb and subsequently posted to comp.infosystems.www.browsers.misc. Mike Batchelor (mikebat@batch.com) made a better version of the Ode to Lynx for his home page. (Something about it appealed to him, I guess.)

ENHANCED FOR LYNX

Hit the c key to leave a comment about any of my pages. Lynx will automatically set up a mail form for you to give me feedback.

Other Lynx Links

• Lynx Links
  Subir Grewal's Lynx table of contents.

• Lynx Information
  The Lynxdev team's home page.

• Dehanced for Lynx
  A hall of shame for over-developed pages, including a Manifesto, by Adam Gaffin.

• Lynx Friendly
  D. Joseph Creighton's description of how to be Lynx Friendly (image by Brandi Weed).

• What does your HTML look like in Lynx?
  Steven L. Baur has a nifty script that will show you any page as it appears in Lynx. Hmm, this page has disappeared. Well, try Subir's list of Public Lynx Viewers for now.

• Anti Netscape Page
  Matt Bandy's "Down with proprietary HTML" page has gone, but his anti-Netscape logos are still available.

• Yahoo's Lynx Page

• Best Viewed With Any Browser
  Cari D. Burstein's campaign for browser-equality. I suppose I'm more of a Lynx-partisan, but that's only because it's so maligned. In spirit, I fully support equal opportunity for every browser. Cari's logo is below.

(Actually, I usually hate banners and badges and all that, but this page is my turn at jumping on some bandwagons.)