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Links is great for work, while lynx is great for home.

If the quality of the browser isn't an obstacle, and battery life is your only really concern, then I'll wager Links has everything else beat for battery life. What's more, it's probably the safest browser ever made.

On the other hand, such a certificate may be redundant in the case of a properly P2P process, as TFS suggests re their app. However, I can't see any reason why they need one for their homepage, which (from having looked at the content in Links) shouldn't need https at all.

You've clearly never used a terminal web browser.

Are you talking about "Lynx" the text based browser?

No, I'm talking about "links" the text based browser. Who did you buy that UID from, anyway? Did they how how to use google?

No, Links.

try links then.
Speed: it doesn't run javascript or display images. That's a huge boost in rendering a page.
Ad-blocking: you only see the text-only ads that are included when the page loads.
Security: when's the last time there was a security bug found in links? Also, no security advisories listed by Secunia.
Privacy: there's no direct connection made from Links to Google, Microsoft or any other search provider, unless you type in their respective URLs and open their respective search pages. AFAIK, page history is only kept until you close the browser.

How about adding usability to the things you care about? A nice GUI perhaps, or the ability to display (or use) key elements in today's popular web pages?

Mostly in that it handles tables and frames.

http://www.jikos.cz/~mikulas/links/

It is *possible* to cache YouTube videos and the like, but you'd need some technical skill to pull it off. Basically, you'd write a Squid pre-filter that replaces embedded YouTube videos with an embedded call to a local cgi-script. On the first invocation, the cgi-script would download and cache the video while streaming it to the client. Subsequent calls would skip the download process.

Of course, this only saves bandwidth when you re-watch the same video over-and-over.

Even in the pre-YouTube days of the internet, Squid didn't help with bandwidth all that much. I once set up a Squid cache in transparent-proxy mode at an ISP with around 400 dial-up customers. I gave it 4 GB of cache space, which doesn't sound like much now, but our biggest drives were 500mb full-height SCSI bricks. I tuned every configurable option and pulled every trick in the book to maximize the caching. The experiment lasted around a month, during which time Squid saved us around 30% on our inbound bandwidth, according to log analysis. We finally had to shut it down because customers started to notice that they weren't seeing real-time data (like stock quotes) and some of them threatened to sue.

Bottom line: If you want low-bandwidth internet, use one of the these:

Lynx

Links

ELinks

w3m

Using the links browser in a terminal with mouse support is almost exactly like using a browser with images turned off...

Witness:
http://www.jikos.cz/~mikulas/links/screenshots/png.html

You know, 14mb seems like a hell of a lot for this.

Commercial-wise, my "favorite" (I am not affiliated with them or anything - I just like the tech) company doing this is a company called AirFiber. What is most cool about the tech is that they have an "auto-alignment" system to compensate for any angular/distance changes in the laser. That would be cool unto itself, but what gives it geek cred (and is little known - though I remember reading an article about it either here or on some other site a few years ago) is that the mirror alignment system was originally designed and prototyped (perhaps even uses it today - dunno) using an automobile electric-mirror positioning system (basically a fancy pushbutton external mirror alignment).

Of course, any discussion about LaserComm or LEDComm wouldn't be complete without mentioning the homebrew Twibright Labs Ronja Project. There are also a few other such projects out there (none as advanced as Ronja, IMHO) - I have mentioned them in other comments on such articles here on /. - search for them if you care...

Ronja (Reasonable Optical Near Joint Access) is an Open-Source project of optical point-to-point data link. The design is released under the GNU Public License: you get all the necessary documentation and construction guides free.

The fact is, 802.11x communication systems ARE REGULATED BY THE FCC. If they chose (or were ordered), they could easily deem the spectrum used by 802.11x to be off-limits to anyone! Sure, I have heard the comments like "but businesses have invested millions in 802.11 - they would howl" - perhaps they might. Or perhaps a transition would occur to make the larger companies happy, by providing some form of wireless that isn't available to the average consumer like 802.11x is - but still gives those communications companies a foothold in wireless comms, while making consumers happy, and also possibly providing an easy place for the feds to tap, while making community nets a thing of the past (think it impossible? Try to buy, as a consumer, your own TXRX system for a cell phone - good luck, if you can even afford it). Everyone (mostly) wins - except for the citizen, ne - consumer...

I have said many times that the government has this (unelected, unrepresented) power via the FCC to do this (think I am joking? Do a search on my past comments, if you don't believe me). In these same comments, I have presented a solution that very few have worked on (at least on the homebrew front), that could keep community networks alive, a solution the government (FCC) cannot regulate (but oh how they would try - and if they succeeded, well - then that is the cue for true revolution):

Laser/LEDComm

I daresay RONJA is probably the most advanced "homebrew" system out there (if anyone has links to more advanced stuff - such as on the order of homebrew sighting/retargeting systems like AirFiber's System - please post links!). Other links of interest:

http://www.alphalink.com.au/~derekw/upn tcvr.htm

http://www.hut.fi/Misc/Electronics/circu its/laserlink.html

http://www.geocities.com/Silic onValley/Lakes/7156/laser.htm

http://www.n1bug.ne t/tech/laser/laserfr.html

http://www.n1bug.net/te ch/laser/alc_wa6ejo.html

http://www.repairfaq.org /sam/lasersam.htm

http://www.qsl.net/w1vlf/techin fo/optical_transmitters.html

http://misty.com/peo ple/don/laserdon.html

So - these systems have problems (line of sight being the largest) - but all systems have problems. At least one company (AirFiber) is using similar tech to run a business for WAN layouts - so it should be possible for a homebrew solution to be worked out. Are we going to simply wait until 802.11x really gets "outlawed" before we do something? What kind of shit is that?

Oh - wait - this is /. - where apathy seems to almost be the rule when it comes to politics...

Depending on how far you want to go there's always RONJA.

see Ronja Homepage http://ronja.jikos.cz. There is a detailed free guide how to build this technology from scratch for 50$, and make 10Mbps full duplex over 1km. Just ordinary parts like stove pipes and loupes are necessary, and a week of funny, nonboring work,
no special education.

"NTT also used optical communications technology to make the 120GHz system possible. ...After modulation, the signal is picked up by a special photodiode capable of responding with the high-speed signal. ...In order to extend the range of the transmission, a 20cm-diameter lens was used to focus the beam."

Also known as Fast Ronja. Cool as hell though.