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> I love Lynx because of this Pseudonymous user so concerned about privacy that they use the browser with by far the greatest density of exploitable flaws.

StableAlkyne 3y ago
Friend, it is okay to enjoy things. Lynx is just a cool project :)
- tombert 3y ago
  Well wait, I don't think jeffbee was saying it's bad to enjoy things, but rather that the person they were responding to was implying something, namely "Lynx is (in some way) better than Firefox because it doesn't take telemetry data." Lynx definitely takes less telemetry data than Firefox, but it also gets substantially fewer updates, including security updates. I think text-based browsing is pretty fun but I don't really use it in no small part because of the infrequency of updates.
  - StableAlkyne 3y ago
    I can see how the post could be interpreted that way. I've added an edit at the bottom to clarify that I'm not suggesting people actually use it as they main one.
  - s3p 3y ago
    The person you are replying to is the same person that they are replying to. you can just say "you".
    - tombert 3y ago
      I didn't see that! Silly me!
JadeNB 3y ago
> Pseudonymous user so concerned about privacy that they use the browser with by far the greatest density of exploitable flaws. "I love Lynx" is different from "I use Lynx for security-sensitive browsing," and "greatest density of publicly documented exploitable flaws" is, even if true (I don't know), not the same as "greatest density of exploitable flaws."
yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
If it doesn't run JavaScript it immediately loses most attack surface relative to other browsers.
- TylerE 3y ago
  It also doesn’t (nor can it) load images, which is #2
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    Yeah, right after I hit post it occurred to me that assorted media codecs (pictures, video, audio) were probably the next largest attack surface that lynx would also necessarily be immune to :)
    - jraph 3y ago
      I don't know about Lynx, but terminal browsers can display images. w3m is able to do it on virtual terminals and terminal emulators that support it if you install the right packages (w3m-img on Debian for instance).
- astrange 3y ago
  Attack surface matters for unknown attacks. If the browser just never gets security updates, it's got more than enough known attacks.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    https://lynx.invisible-island.net/current/CHANGES.html https://lynx.invisible-island.net/current/CHANGES.html seems to show it still getting updates; can you point to these known attacks that aren't getting fixed?
    - astrange 3y ago
      I don't know nothing about Lynx, except that I always wanted to write a CLI web browser that did support all web features like JavaScript, just to see if it'd work. This advice mainly applies to people using old OSes or who don't update their browsers.
SkyMarshal 3y ago
And also probably one of the most distinct footprints.
downWidOutaFite 3y ago
I just went through Lynx's the <20 CVEs over the last 20 years and couldn't find any that haven't been fixed. Same cannot be said for Chrome or Firefox which have dozens every year.

StableAlkyne 3y ago

Friend, it is okay to enjoy things. Lynx is just a cool project :)

tombert 3y ago
Well wait, I don't think jeffbee was saying it's bad to enjoy things, but rather that the person they were responding to was implying something, namely "Lynx is (in some way) better than Firefox because it doesn't take telemetry data." Lynx definitely takes less telemetry data than Firefox, but it also gets substantially fewer updates, including security updates. I think text-based browsing is pretty fun but I don't really use it in no small part because of the infrequency of updates.
- StableAlkyne 3y ago
  I can see how the post could be interpreted that way. I've added an edit at the bottom to clarify that I'm not suggesting people actually use it as they main one.
- s3p 3y ago
  The person you are replying to is the same person that they are replying to. you can just say "you".
  - tombert 3y ago
    I didn't see that! Silly me!

JadeNB 3y ago

> Pseudonymous user so concerned about privacy that they use the browser with by far the greatest density of exploitable flaws. "I love Lynx" is different from "I use Lynx for security-sensitive browsing," and "greatest density of publicly documented exploitable flaws" is, even if true (I don't know), not the same as "greatest density of exploitable flaws."

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago

If it doesn't run JavaScript it immediately loses most attack surface relative to other browsers.

TylerE 3y ago
It also doesn’t (nor can it) load images, which is #2
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  Yeah, right after I hit post it occurred to me that assorted media codecs (pictures, video, audio) were probably the next largest attack surface that lynx would also necessarily be immune to :)
  - jraph 3y ago
    I don't know about Lynx, but terminal browsers can display images. w3m is able to do it on virtual terminals and terminal emulators that support it if you install the right packages (w3m-img on Debian for instance).
astrange 3y ago
Attack surface matters for unknown attacks. If the browser just never gets security updates, it's got more than enough known attacks.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  https://lynx.invisible-island.net/current/CHANGES.html https://lynx.invisible-island.net/current/CHANGES.html seems to show it still getting updates; can you point to these known attacks that aren't getting fixed?
  - astrange 3y ago
    I don't know nothing about Lynx, except that I always wanted to write a CLI web browser that did support all web features like JavaScript, just to see if it'd work. This advice mainly applies to people using old OSes or who don't update their browsers.

SkyMarshal 3y ago

And also probably one of the most distinct footprints.

downWidOutaFite 3y ago

I just went through Lynx's the <20 CVEs over the last 20 years and couldn't find any that haven't been fixed. Same cannot be said for Chrome or Firefox which have dozens every year.