Links web browser
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 8 text browsers by recommenders
A lightweight text-mode browser for reading pages, debugging, and working in a terminal. Critics say it does not work on sites that need JavaScript.
A lightweight text-mode browser for reading pages, debugging, and working in a terminal. Critics say it does not work on sites that need JavaScript.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works without JavaScript or graphics
“Disable Javascript or use Lynx, Links or Dillo to open the articles from your newsreader.”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “PC Gamer Recommends RSS Readers in a 37MB Article That Just Keeps Downloading” “Text-only, no CAPTCHA, no Javascript, no geo-blocking, no DDoS on blogger”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “The Small-Business Owners Managing Whole Armies of A.I. Employees” “Terminal emulators and lynx/elinks/links/w3c work, too.”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Hacking on the ReMarkable 2” - Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “P99 0 ms* autocomplete for 240M domain names”
Handles Tor and proxy setups
“The best for Tor would just be Links2/Links+ with the socks4a proxy set to 127.0.0.1:9050”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “We found a stable Firefox identifier linking all your private Tor identities” “Links can force to pass all connections to a proxy, so a FW might be redundant.”
Comment from 23 Apr 2026 in “We found a stable Firefox identifier linking all your private Tor identities” Useful for debugging and simple apps
“links2 is still a work horse in 2025 for occasional debugging.”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits” “I built a reservation system that worked in Links2”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight” More usable than Lynx
“more capable than `lynx` and which has graphics support through the framebuffer”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “FIM – Linux framebuffer image viewer” “Links is a bit more usable than lynx, I found.”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “The 49MB Web Page”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Fails on sites that need JavaScript
“It's way better than the crusty old lynx and links on sites that need JS.”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Lightpanda migrate DOM implementation to Zig” “I get a blank page with links2 browser.”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “RISC-V Linux BusyBox Single Board Notebook” Not up to modern browser quality
“are... rough... definitely not of the quality we're seeing elsewhere”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Ratatui – App Showcase” “vscode server and links2 probably wont cut it”
Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: terminal-code – VS Code inside the terminal”
Other text browsers people recommend
The four most recommended other text browsers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lynx web browser | 42 | 10 | 81% | 12 | — | Approved |
| w3m | 19 | 1 | 95% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Links web browserThis page | 18 | 4 | 82% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Chawan terminal web browser | 12 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
| EWW (Emacs Web Wowser) | 8 | 2 | 80% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
28 of the 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“One of the many reasons I prefer l”
“One of the many reasons I prefer links (no graphics)”
“Imagine Lynx, (E)Links(2), W3M on that. Which were perfectly usable then!1!!”
“links (1.4MB static binary)”
“vscode server and links2 probably wont cut it”
“Option 2 links https://www.wired.com/story/mcdonalds-built-a-515-page-dossier-on-me-it-says-ill-never-leave/”
“I built a reservation system that worked in Links2”
“Text-only, no CAPTCHA, no Javascript, no geo-blocking, no DDoS on blogger”
“Links litteraly put your a graphical (X11) or terminal based checkbox to enable that”
“Links can force to pass all connections to a proxy, so a FW might be redundant.”
“The best for Tor would just be Links2/Links+ with the socks4a proxy set to 127.0.0.1:9050”
“more capable than `lynx` and which has graphics support through the framebuffer”
“I get a blank page with links2 browser.”
“Disable Javascript or use Lynx, Links or Dillo to open the articles from your newsreader.”
“Links is a bit more usable than lynx, I found.”
“Browser bookmarks are not practical if you need to access your links from another browser.”
“Install lynx or links2 and you'll get the idea.”
“Links2 is the most intuitive.”
“ladybird? netsurf? links? dillo? netscape 3?”
“links is my favorite file browser and pager”
“It's way better than the crusty old lynx and links on sites that need JS.”
“eliminating everything but text can sometimes help me focus”
“links2 is still a work horse in 2025 for occasional debugging.”
“still missing the and element support on x11/wayland though”
“No modern browser can do that natively at all.”
“Terminal emulators and lynx/elinks/links/w3c work, too.”
“are... rough... definitely not of the quality we're seeing elsewhere”
“Later they also blocked other non-JS browsers like links or w3m”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.