Everyone used to browse website on different web-browser but do you know how to do browsing on Linux Terminal, Most users doesn’t know that they can browse the web from the command-line.
w3m is simple Text-Based Browser support for SSL Connetions, Tables, and frame color and inline images on suitable terminal. Generally, it renders pages in a form as true to their original layout as possible. With w3m you can browse web pages through a terminal . Moreover, w3m can be used as a text formatting tool which typesets HTML into plain text.
It’s got a few tricks up its sleeve, including support for images, tabs, tables, frames and other features not usually included with terminal web browsers.
If you are used Linux for a while, you probably remember using a terminal browser to Google up a solution for your hardware when the X server refused to load. On that time you can use W3m with inline image support.
Features:
- You can follow links and/or view images in HTML
- Internet message preview mode, you can browse HTML mail
- You can follow links in plain text if it includes URL forms
- With w3m-img, you can view inline image and more…
Installing W3M:
W3M is not included by default on most Linux distributions. You will want to install the main w3m package and the w3m-img package if you want inline image support.
#sudo apt-get install w3m w3m-img
For Downloading from the source code try this link
After installing W3m, it has quite a few command-line options, but none are mandatory. The only thing you need to specify is a web page address.
You can use the arrow keys to move the cursor around or click at a desired location to move the cursor there. If you want to type in a text box, select the text box with your cursor and press Enter before typing your text. W3M treats your keystrokes as commands if you just start typing.
Load a hyperlink by selecting it with your cursor and pressing Enter. You don’t have to select hyperlinks manually a press the Tab key to position your cursor over the next hyperlink on the page.
Shift-B will take you back a page. If you want to load a different URL, press Shift-U and you’ll get an URL prompt. Press Shift-H to view the help page if you want to see a more complete list of keyboard shortcuts.
Another feature that doesn’t work in GNOME Terminal or Konsole is W3M’s right-click menu.
W3M supports images, so where are they? Well, terminals like GNOME Terminal and KDE’s Konsole can’t display W3M’s images. Other terminals, such as Xterm, can
Install Xterm:
#sudo apt-get install xterm
Now execute W3m in xterm in your machine
How did we ever live without tabs? They are an essential feature for desktop web browsers. W3M includes tabs, too. Just press Shift-T to open a new tab.
You can switch between tabs by clicking them, but were trying to be terminal ninjas here. Use the { and } keys to switch between tabs without touching your mouse (that’s Shift-[ and Shift-]).
In addition to pressing Shift-H to view W3M’s help page, you can view the full manual on W3M’s website. The manual lists all of W3M’s command-line switches and key bindings.
W3M still doesn’t compare with desktop browsers notably, it doesn’t support JavaScript. There’s an experimental w3m-js extension you can compile and install yourself.
Now i’m just using W3m to browse my facebook account
