Using w3m Terminal-Based Browser As Your Daily Browser

I have recently been trying to match my ordinary apps via terminal-based options. Not because I have no activity, yet because it’s fun and periodically these CLI gadgets confer more than their GUI matchings. I recently attempted a terminal-based schedule, which turned out to be rather commendable. Riding on the heels of that triumph, I established to try a terminal-based browser. It’s labelled w3m, and I have been making serviceability of it for the last two weeks after scrapping Chrome. The debacle has been commendable, yet would certainly I stick to it? Not actually.

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What Is w3m?

w3m is a unshackle and amenable-source text-based net browser that you application in a terminal window. The moniker “w3m” stands for “WWW wo miru” (Japanese for “to see the net”), which clues at its purpose. It was initially honed in 1995, and while the initial openings is currently lethargic, a fork preserved by programmer Tatsuya Kinoshita preserved w3m alive for the majority of years. As of 2024, a brand name-modern metropolitan-preserved fork has swiped over its technology.

Numerous earlier text-single internet browsers such as Lynx, w3m can take care of more of the modern-day net’s HTML variables. It help things appoint tables, structures, and also inline images within the terminal. In other words, it tries to perform web pages via a attractiveness more clarified to their visual layout, instead of altogether dumping raw text. It alike help forms and cookies, so you can log proper into websites that wear’t rely on heavy scripting. Singularly, w3m executes not stabilize JavaScript at all, which restraints what content it can sufficiently brandish.

Regardless of its obstacles, w3m is rather feature-lush for a terminal app. It has tabbed reading, criterion computer mouse stabilize in well-versed terminals, and also the aptitude to brandish images if seated up sufficiently. Basically, w3m gives you a net reading debacle cleared down to text and links, via a miniscule fragment of formatting and color. It’s accessible on Linux and other Unix-appoint systems by default, and can also rushed on Abode windows (via Cygwin) or macOS (via Homebrew).

Placement Upwards w3m

Deriving w3m upward and dashing was uncomplicated. On the majority of Linux systems, you altogether need to amenable the terminal and void it via the scheme manager:

sudo apt install w3m w3m-img

This command fetched the foremost w3m scheme along via w3m-img, an add-on that enables photograph teddy peek stabilize. For Fedora or other RPM-based distros, the installment is alike raw (sudo dnf install w3m). On a Mac, you can application Homebrew (brew install w3m), and on Abode windows, you would certainly require Cygwin to merge and rushed it.

Once ranked, making serviceability of w3m is as uncomplicated as typing w3m in the terminal. For example, dashing w3m maketecheasier.com will number our homepage within the terminal window. There is no visual consumer interface opening upward, the webpage’s text altogether renders in your terminal.

In yesteryear scuba swooping in, familiarize yourself via a couple of of w3m’s criterion manages and sooner means. You can navigate via the arrow primes, making serviceability of Upwards and Down to scroll, Vacated to go recommend, and Apt or Get in to adhere to a web linkage.

My Familiarity of Making serviceability of w3m as a Day-to-day Browser

Making serviceability of w3m as my day-to-day browser was a mixture of likable attracts and unavoidable annoyances. Its greatest experiences is velocity. Pages number practically quickly since single text is fetched without heavy JavaScript, images, or video. On slow-sliding-sliding relationships or mobile phone information, this truly felt appoint a commissioning. It alike preserved my laptop fashionable and sooth, also via multiple tabs amenable. Reading long posts or paperwork was structured and reminded me of the early net.

w3m executes a commendable openings via HTML. Headings, lists, and paragraphs were posed cleanly, and tables packed in a justifiable ordinance. By default, images perform not brandish. You single see alt text or placeholders.

The fulcra-board-single workflow expanded on me quickly. Entering URLs via sooner means and relocating via links truly felt knowledgeable once I loved the primes. Tabs are embraced also, though they are marginal, altogether numbered text access you cycle via. There is no session conserving, so every little thing goes away once you close w3m.

Logging proper into criterion landmarks or lookout engines was okay, yet anything forcing JavaScript was unusable. Gmail’s criterion observe did not number, though the criterion HTML difference functioned in a banned means. Modern, manuscript-heavy landmarks were either fractured or cleared to their bare minimum.

Navigating was one of the greatest obstacles. There is no omnibox or autocomplete. To go somewhere brand name-modern, I had to amenable the provoke each time and kind the full address. For brushing, I preserved a tab on DuckDuckGo and keyed in queries there. It functioned, yet it was confusing compared to Chrome’s provoke lookout. Browsing in w3m necessary more calculated movings, which decelerated me down.

On the seclusion front, I literally truly felt more comfy. Using no JavaScript, the majority of promotions, trackers, and pop-ups altogether never ever before appeared. Cookie banners and other aggravations were gone. It was rejuvenating to peruse a net cleared of all that farces.

Why I Wouldn’t Prescribe It Over a GUI Browser

After two weeks via w3m, I came to value its potencies, yet alike why it cannot match a modern-day browser. It works as an experiment or in truly precise vessels, yet not for day-to-day application.

The scarcity of JavaScript is the greatest woe. Without it, landmarks appoint Gmail, Google Docs, or social media altogether perform not responsibility. The majority of of the modern-day net depends on scripts, and w3m suppresses it to fractured or cleared-down web pages. Media is another weakness. There is no indigenous video or solid stabilize, images require supplemental movings, and hefty layouts collapse proper into confusing text.

Gain serviceability of is alike trickier. Every little thing depends on fulcra-board sooner means, via no conflicting address nightclub, bookmarks, or background. Brushing is confusing since there is no fused lookout-and-address nightclub or ideas. Features we visualize in internet browsers, such as password supervisors, syncing, extensions, or programmer gadgets, are meticulously lacking.

That said, w3m is miraculous in its own precise corner. It glimmers once you need to bring information over SSH, job-related on a mechanism without a desktop computer, or peruse distraction-unshackle. For obsessed reading, it is remarkably effective. If you pine a browser that literally render makes serviceability of the openings implemented, analyze these eight strong suit net internet browsers you’ve arguably never ever before tried out. You may alike pine to continue to be translucent of AI internet browsers for currently.