How to open web page from terminal (text mode)

Normally you open web page using standard web browser which is in graphical mode (GUI). But what if i want to open web page from the terminal/console, is it possible to do that?

Yes, it is possible, you can open web page using terminal/console (text mode), and of course you will not see any image/graphics, only text. There is a web browser that runs on console (text mode), it's called lynx.

Lynx is a text only web browser that runs on terminal/console. Lynx available on both windows and linux. On lubuntu 14.04, lynx does not come pre-installed, so you need to install first.

To install lynx browser, simply open up the terminal/console, press CTRL + ALT + T, and then type this command:

sudo apt-get install lynx-cur

Make sure the internet works, because that command will download package from the lubuntu repository over the internet.

Once installed, to open lynx text based web browser, simply type lynx from the terminal/console, just like this:

lynx

Now you need to learn how to use it, because lynx is a text based web browser, to navigate around you can only use keyboard shortcut.

How to use lynx web browser:

1. to open a website, press G on your keyboard and then type the url and hit enter.
2. to click on a link, press arrow key right on your keyboard
3. to go back to previous page, press arrow key left on  your keyboard
4. to scroll up, press arrow key up on your keyboard
5. to scroll down, press arrow key down on your keyboard
6. you can also press space on your keyboard to go to the next page.

Compared with the normal web browser (GUI), lynx is relatively faster, because basically it doesn't load anything else besides text.

I think lynx is a good solution for someone who want to lower their bandwith usage, it's also good for someone who need to browse the web secretly.