[HN Gopher] Brow.sh: a modern text-based browser
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       Brow.sh: a modern text-based browser
        
       Author : definetheword
       Score  : 148 points
       Date   : 2020-11-17 20:58 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.brow.sh)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.brow.sh)
        
       | soheil wrote:
       | It seems to be incredibly slow which kind of defeats the purpose
       | of having a text-based browser to begin with. I'm not sure, but
       | it looks like it's taking the output of a headless Firefox and
       | turning it into ascii. If that's the case I'd rather stick with
       | something like Lynx, etc.
        
         | fathead_glacier wrote:
         | The point is when you have a connection with limited bandwidth.
         | In such cases you can host browsh in the cloud and connect to
         | it with ssh/mosh. You get a much better experience than text
         | based browsers at a limited bandwidth.
         | 
         | It's great for such cases - I use it when hiking / working away
         | from good internet.
        
           | soheil wrote:
           | In that case it'd be interesting to see a text-based VNC that
           | works system-wide not just as a browser.
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | this is not new, (2018) please
       | 
       | see some previous discussion
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17487552
        
       | definetheword wrote:
       | Looks like the author had to take some of the services
       | temporarily offline. If you use Brow.sh, consider donating!
       | 
       | " Browsh is currently maintained and funded by one person. If
       | you'd like to see Browsh continue to help those with slow and/or
       | expensive Internet, please consider donating. "
        
       | geoffeg wrote:
       | This is really interesting, I'll have to play around it. I've
       | been browsing news sites with "links" a lot more lately as it
       | usually just gets me the content I want and it does so very fast.
       | No ads, no popups, no JS - just the content. I could achieve the
       | same thing with noscript and a few other extensions but those
       | generally still aren't as fast and simple as links.
        
         | throwaway201103 wrote:
         | It's a startling example of how fast the web would be if it
         | didn't have so much bloat.
        
       | trollied wrote:
       | It's good to see terminal-based browsers are still being
       | developed.
       | 
       | I used to use w3m and lynx back in the day, and found them to be
       | very useful at times (such as only having a GPRS signal available
       | - makes browsing on a "full fat" browser impossible). Paired with
       | screen (though I guess mosh would be a good option these days) to
       | enable a resumable session in case the network dropped, of
       | course.
        
         | timdorr wrote:
         | Note that this isn't a "true" terminal-based browser. It's
         | built on a WebExtension running in Firefox that renders out the
         | DOM as text to a Go-based CLI client. It's not a browser engine
         | running in your terminal, it's more of a VNC over TTY.
        
           | trollied wrote:
           | Ah, noted.
           | 
           | Must check and see if w3m and lynx have evolved to cope with
           | the modern JavaScript web!
        
             | Hfdlmsh wrote:
             | w3m hasn't, thank goodness.
        
             | simcop2387 wrote:
             | Elinks is the only one close, but last I tried it there
             | were still issues
        
           | SoSoRoCoCo wrote:
           | Isn't it more like a TTY mode of VNC more apt? E.g.,
           | rendering the X commands as ASCII?
        
       | nchase wrote:
       | last time I tried this it was great on my laptop, but because it
       | uses Firefox in the background for rendering, it brought my t2
       | small instance to its knees.
       | 
       | I wonder if they've done anything clever to make it more
       | efficient since then?
        
       | javier10e6 wrote:
       | Must check. In my console only Raspberry-pi I use elinks to
       | browse and scrape web info.
        
         | enriquto wrote:
         | Elinks is a hauntingly good software. I'm a bit sad that it's
         | not actively developed, but I find solace in the thought that
         | it is already a nearly perfect crystal that cannot be
         | substantially improved upon.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | If curious see also
       | 
       | 2019 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21630423 (a bit)
       | 
       | 2018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17487552 (a lot)
        
       | Zhyl wrote:
       | If people are looking for an actual modern take on text based
       | browsing, old refer them to the work of Igor Chubin.
       | curl https://v2.wttr.in/London              curl
       | https://cheat.sh/rsync
       | 
       | With a supported terminal:                   curl
       | https://v3.wttr.in
       | 
       | And also:                   https://github.com/chubin/awesome-
       | console-services
        
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       (page generated 2020-11-17 23:00 UTC)