4 ms·

This was discussed in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17487552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17487552 A number of people made this point, but this

This was discussed in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17487552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17487552 A number of people made this point, but this doesn't address one of the key advantages of Lynx at all: what if I need to use it while ssh'ed to a server that doesn't have X, doesn't have a browser (headless or otherwise) and I cannot or do not want to install those on it? And I have to trust your package integrity, quality of your secure coding practices, and judgement/diligence in your use of dependencies and tracking CVEs. This barely has any advantages for me over port-forwarding to the x server and using a local client, functionally, and it introduces a large potential liability. It's a cool project and you have my admiration, but making grandiose claims like this is counterproductive for (at least a good part of your target demographic) increasing Browsh adoption.

pronoiac 8y ago
It's a use case the author didn't consider, likely for a snappier article. Even if Lynx were dead, other text-only browsers followed, and were available in, say, Ubuntu, like Links2 and ELinks.
gojomo 8y ago
Clearly the next step is server-side Browsh formatting via HTTP content-negotiation. (Further, via 3rd-party proxies if a particular site can't offer it.)
tombh 8y ago
Author of the software here, not the author of the article. Browsh is primarily aimed at those without fast and/or cheap bandwidth, yet still want access to the modern web. There are vast swathes of the world where downloading a 10Mb website is non-trivial. There are traditionally 2 solutions to such a problem, lynx et al or VNC. Lynx et al do not support the modern web and VNC is not a text-native application. Browsh somewhat ironically also has a browser client (although not yet at feature parity with the TTY client), that further improves accessibility to the modern web for those aforementioned citizens of the slow and expensive web. Edit: Why do you think my coding standards are under any more suspicion than anyone elses? Just because Browsh is new?
- logfromblammo 8y ago
  For some, "not supporting the modern web" is a feature. In electing to engage with it, we are substituting our mistrust of .JS and .CSS files out on the web with whatever engine you use to chew those up and re-render the output as text-mode approximations. It's fewer people to trust, to be certain, but the trust-by-default model has long been broken. Trust is earned, and easily lost. So absolutely yes, because it is new.
  - tombh 8y ago
    I totally sympathise with those that are suspicious of the modern web. But Browsh is fundamentally not for them. It is for all those that don't have the luxury of cheap and fast internet, I want them to access the same information everyone else does. OK well I'm glad that the scrutiny upon me is the same as every other newcomer.
- zamadatix 8y ago
  Has Browsh's terminal approach been compared to traditional data proxy methods in units of quality or usability per byte?
  - tombh 8y ago
    I'd love to see a serious breakdown of this. All I know is that anecdotally Browsh is very similar to a well configured VNC connection.
- throwaway5752 8y ago
  "Why do you think my coding standards are under any more suspicion than anyone elses" Because my presumption is that this is running on my servers (where I'm likely to need lynx, currently). The domain where it's running, nothing personal.
  - tombh 8y ago
    The domain where it's running? What does that matter if you install it yourself. You don't need any external Browse services of you run it yourself.

pronoiac 8y ago

It's a use case the author didn't consider, likely for a snappier article. Even if Lynx were dead, other text-only browsers followed, and were available in, say, Ubuntu, like Links2 and ELinks.

gojomo 8y ago

Clearly the next step is server-side Browsh formatting via HTTP content-negotiation. (Further, via 3rd-party proxies if a particular site can't offer it.)

tombh 8y ago

Author of the software here, not the author of the article. Browsh is primarily aimed at those without fast and/or cheap bandwidth, yet still want access to the modern web. There are vast swathes of the world where downloading a 10Mb website is non-trivial. There are traditionally 2 solutions to such a problem, lynx et al or VNC. Lynx et al do not support the modern web and VNC is not a text-native application. Browsh somewhat ironically also has a browser client (although not yet at feature parity with the TTY client), that further improves accessibility to the modern web for those aforementioned citizens of the slow and expensive web. Edit: Why do you think my coding standards are under any more suspicion than anyone elses? Just because Browsh is new?

logfromblammo 8y ago
For some, "not supporting the modern web" is a feature. In electing to engage with it, we are substituting our mistrust of .JS and .CSS files out on the web with whatever engine you use to chew those up and re-render the output as text-mode approximations. It's fewer people to trust, to be certain, but the trust-by-default model has long been broken. Trust is earned, and easily lost. So absolutely yes, because it is new.
- tombh 8y ago
  I totally sympathise with those that are suspicious of the modern web. But Browsh is fundamentally not for them. It is for all those that don't have the luxury of cheap and fast internet, I want them to access the same information everyone else does. OK well I'm glad that the scrutiny upon me is the same as every other newcomer.
zamadatix 8y ago
Has Browsh's terminal approach been compared to traditional data proxy methods in units of quality or usability per byte?
- tombh 8y ago
  I'd love to see a serious breakdown of this. All I know is that anecdotally Browsh is very similar to a well configured VNC connection.
throwaway5752 8y ago
"Why do you think my coding standards are under any more suspicion than anyone elses" Because my presumption is that this is running on my servers (where I'm likely to need lynx, currently). The domain where it's running, nothing personal.
- tombh 8y ago
  The domain where it's running? What does that matter if you install it yourself. You don't need any external Browse services of you run it yourself.