Ubuntu Terminal Web Browsers

YouTube Tutorial: Ubuntu Terminal Web Browsers

In this lesson, you will learn how to browse the web right inside your Ubuntu terminal window! This tutorial includes tools to navigate all around the web in text or graphically and specific tools for DuckDuckGo and Wikipedia.

1. Lynx

Lynx is one of the most popular text-based tools used to surf the net. Having started in 1992, it is the oldest web browser still active and still in development. Lynx is easy to use and fully customizable.

Install Lynx on Ubuntu

$ sudo apt install lynx

Search with Lynx

Simply type lynx followed by the url. Let's say we want to navigate to codingcommanders.com.

$ lynx codingcommanders.com

Common Commands

• H - Type H for the Lynx help page.
• Up Arrow - Type the up arrow to navigate up or to the left.
• Down Arrow - Type the down arrow to navigate down or to the right.
• Left Arrow - Type the left arrow to go back.
• Right Arrow - Type the right arrow to follow a link.
• O - Type O for a list of options.
• /<query> - Type / then enter your search query at the prompt to search for a particular string.
• Q - Quit

2. w3m

2) Under the MIT license, w3m is a free and open source text-based web browser that can also display images under the right conditions. First I will show you text browsing then I will show you how to view images right inside the terminal.

Install w3m

sudo apt install w3m w3m-img

w3m navigations

$ w3m <url>

Say we want to go to codingcommanders.com

$ w3m codingcommanders.com

Use the arrow keys and tab to navigate around the page. You can click enter or use your mouse to follow the link. Shift+b will take you back to the last page. Shift + T will allow you to create a new tab. You can use your mouse to switch between tabs. Right-click to bring up a menu of options.

Open Images

You can also use w3m to open images:

$ w3m candy.png

w3m Graphical View

We will use xterm to view the web with images. Download xterm:

$ sudo apt install -y xterm

Open xterm and use w3m with it to view images as you browse the web.

3. Wikit

Wikit is an open source command line Tool that is used to conduct wikipedia queries. It does use NodeJS, so we first need to install NodeJS and NPM.

Check for NodeJS:

$ node --version

If you don't have NodeJS:

$ sudo apt install nodejs

Check for npm:

$ npm --version

If you don't have npm:

$ sudo apt install npm

Install Wikit:

$ sudo npm install wikit -g 

Navigate with Wikit

To search wikipedia for a query:

$ wikit <what you want to search>

Say we want to search Linux

$ wikit linux

4. ddgr

So you want to use DuckDuckGo to search the web command line? ddgr is the tool for you. Because it is built in python, you do need python installed.

Check for python

$ python --version

If you don't have python

$ sudo apt install python3

Check for snap:

$ snap --version

If you dont have snap:

$ sudo apt install snapd

Install ddgr:

sudo snap install ddgr

Search with ddgr

Say we want to search for Coding Commanders with ddgr:

ddgr Coding Commanders

Follow Coding Commanders on:

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Twitch