Lynx is dead - Long live Browsh for text-based internet browsing

The standard for browsing the web over a text-=based terminal is Lynx, right? It's the legendary text web browser that you can read about at https://lynx.invisible-island.net/ or, even better, run right now with

docker run --rm -it nbrown/lynx lynx http://hanselman.com/

Awesome, right? But it's text. Lynx runs alt-text rather than images, and doesn't really take advantage of modern browser capabilities OR modern terminal capabilities.

Enter Browsh! https://www.brow.sh/

Browsh is a fully-modern text-based browser. It renders anything that a modern browser can; HTML5, CSS3, JS, video and even WebGL. Its main purpose is to be run on a remote server and accessed via SSH/Mosh

Imagine running your browser on a remote machine connected to full power while ssh'ing into your hosted browsh instance. I don't know about you, but my laptop is currently using 2 gigs of RAM for Chrome and it's basically just all fans. I might be able to get 12 hours of battery life if I hung out in tmux and used browsh! Not to mention the bandwidth savings. If I'm tethered or overseas on a 3G network, I can still get a great browsing experience and just barely sip data.

You can even open new tabs! Check out the keybindings! You gotta try it. Works great on Windows 10 with the new console. Just run this one Docker command:

docker run -it --rm browsh/browsh

If you think this idea is silly, that's OK. I think it's brilliant and creative and exactly the kind of clever idea the internet needs. This solves an interesting browser in an interesting way...in fact it returns us back to the "dumb terminal" days, doesn't it?

There was a time when I my low-power machine waited for text from a refrigerator-sized machine. The fridge did the work and my terminal did the least.

Today my high-powered machine waits for text from another high-powered machine and then struggles to composite it all as 7 megs of JavaScript downloads from TheVerge.com. But I'm not bitter. ;)

Check out my podcast site on Browsh. Love it.

If you agree that Browsh is amazing and special, consider donating! It's currently maintained by just one person and they just want $1000 a month on their Patreon to work on Browsh all the time! Go tell Tom on Twitter that you think is special, then give him some coins. What an exciting and artful project! I hope it continues!

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