Re: Why do you want LYNX

[William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com>]

On Thu, 1 Aug 1996, Jon Bell wrote:

>  Brad Shue <jshue@comp.uark.edu> wrote:
> > > > Where can I get a copy of Lynx?
> >
> > Why do you want LYNX?  It's only a text browser [...]
>
> Amazingly enough, there are still some beknighted folks whose access to
> the Net is via a serial connection with character-mode terminal emulation
> (e.g. VT100 or VT220).  :-)

I use lynx just because I'm weird.

Actually, since windows is big and slow, and netscape is bigger and
slower, I use lynx for all my web searching.  It's like having a T1 line!
If you click on a link and the page loads in typically 1 second, while
netscape takes 15 seconds, then you can zip through websites searching for
good ones.  I usually build bookmark collections this way, then days later
(when I have lots of time to waste!) I go and explore them with Netscape.

Also, I write my webpages using pico editor on unix shell.  I can
instantly flip back and forth between the editor and lynx to check the new
page, try links, etc., while the page is actually online.  No
upload/download style "publishing."  This has let me build my website to
about ten times the size it would have been if all I had was Netscape.

And last, the people visiting my science projects page are often using
freenets, libraries, 10 year old computers in public school, etc., all
which have only vt100 and Lynx available.  There are LOTS of schools out
there which have only Apple-IIs, PCs, XTs, etc., no Windows.  If my pages
were aimed at Netscape users, I would be cutting off many schoolkids,
people using library terminals, the poor who only have a $20 XT with
Procomm on a public Freenet, etc.  I try to do everything in Lynx, with
diagrams in ASCII graphics which can be printed out on any ancient
printer. 


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William Beaty  voice:206-781-3320   bbs:206-789-0775    cserv:71241,3623
EE/Programmer/Science exhibit designer        http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/
Seattle, WA 98117  billb@eskimo.com           SCIENCE HOBBYIST web page