Lynx (web browser) facts for kids
An older version of this article displayed in Lynx
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| Original author(s) | Lou Montulli, Michael Grobe, Charles Rezac |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Thomas Dickey |
| Initial release | 1992 |
| Stable release |
2.9.2
 / 31 May 2024 |
| Written in | ISO C |
| Operating system | Unix-like, DOS, Windows, VMS |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Text-based web browser |
| License | GNU GPLv2 |
Lynx is a special kind of web browser that only shows text. Imagine browsing the internet without any pictures or videos – that's Lynx! It's designed for computers that don't have fancy graphics. Even though it's old, starting way back in 1992, it's still being updated today. This makes it the oldest web browser that's still actively worked on!
Contents
History of Lynx
Lynx was created in 1992 at the University of Kansas. A team of students and staff, including Lou Montulli, Michael Grobe, and Charles Rezac, developed it.
At first, Lynx was used only to share information around the university. It also helped people browse "Gopher space," which was an older way to organize information on the internet. In 1993, Lou Montulli added a way for Lynx to connect to the wider internet.
Since 1995, Lynx has been free for anyone to use and change. It is now kept up-to-date by a group of volunteers led by Thomas Dickey. Lynx can connect to many different internet systems, like HTTP (for websites) and FTP (for transferring files).
Key Features of Lynx
Browsing with Lynx is a bit different from other browsers. You use your keyboard's arrow keys to move between links on a page. Or, you can see numbers next to each link and just type the number you want to visit.
Lynx shows web pages as plain text. It can't display images or videos directly. However, it can open these files using other programs on your computer. For example, if you click an image link, Lynx can tell your computer to open an image viewer.
Since Lynx only loads text, it's very fast. This is helpful if you have a slow internet connection. It also works well on older computers that might struggle with graphics.
Your Privacy with Lynx
Lynx can help protect your privacy online. Since it doesn't show graphics, it won't load "web bugs." These are tiny, hidden images that some websites use to track what you do.
However, Lynx does support "cookies." Cookies are small files that websites store on your computer to remember you. Lynx lets you choose to block cookies, or only allow them from certain websites. This gives you more control over your privacy.
Like other browsers, Lynx keeps a history of pages you've visited. It also saves copies of pages you've seen (called caching). You can clear these if you want to keep your browsing private.
Changing Lynx Settings
You can change how Lynx works in many ways. There are lots of options you can set when you start the browser. You can also change settings while you are using it. This lets you customize Lynx to fit your needs.
Lynx for Accessibility
Because Lynx is text-based, it's great for people with visual impairments. It works well with special devices called "refreshable braille displays." These devices let visually impaired users read text using touch.
Lynx also works easily with "text-to-speech" software. This software reads the text on the screen aloud. Lynx can hide extra parts of the browser, making it even easier for screen readers to use.
Using Lynx Remotely
Lynx is very useful if you need to access websites from a computer far away. This is common when you connect to a server that doesn't have a graphical screen. Even though Lynx is old and text-only, you can still use it to browse most modern websites. You can even use it to edit pages on Wikipedia!
Lynx for Web Design
Web designers sometimes use Lynx to see how search engines view their websites. Search engines often "crawl" websites by reading their text, similar to how Lynx displays them. This helps designers make sure their sites are easy for search engines to understand.
Lynx can also be used to test how fast a website loads from different places. Since you can run Lynx from many locations, you can check a website's speed from various parts of the world at the same time. It's also a quick way to check if all the links on a website are working.
Supported Platforms
Lynx was first made for Unix-like computer systems. But it was soon made to work on many other systems too. These include DOS, Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, and OS/2.
Today, you can find Lynx in the software libraries of most Linux systems. It's also available for macOS and other operating systems like BeOS and AmigaOS. You can even build Lynx to run on Google's Android phones and tablets.
See also
In Spanish: Lynx (navegador) para niños
