ELinks

ELinks

ELinks is an open-source, text-based web browser designed for use in terminal environments. It features customizable keybindings, tabbed browsing, mouse support, SSL encryption, download management, bookmarks, and more.
ELinks image
terminal opensource textbased ssl encryption bookmarks

ELinks: Open-Source Text-Based Web Browsers

ELinks is an open-source, text-based web browser designed for use in terminal environments. It features customizable keybindings, tabbed browsing, mouse support, SSL encryption, download management, bookmarks, and more.

What is ELinks?

ELinks is an open-source, text-based web browser designed for use in terminals and text-only environments. Originally forked from the Links browser in 2002, ELinks focuses on providing a feature-rich browsing experience even without a graphical interface.

Key features of ELinks include:

  • Tabbed browsing, allowing multiple pages open at once
  • Completely keyboard-driven interface with customizable keybindings
  • Support for tables, frames, JavaScript, SSL encryption, cookies, downloading files, and more
  • Mouse support for selections, menus, scrolling
  • Bookmarks management for saving and organizing favorite sites
  • Extensive configuration options for tweaking display, network settings, behavior, etc.
  • Ability to save rendered pages for offline viewing

As a text-based browser designed for terminal environments like the Linux console, SSH connections, serial ports, and so on, ELinks excels at providing a usable and full-featured web browsing experience where graphical browsers may not be available. Its keyboard focus makes web browsing efficient for power users.

ELinks Features

Features

  1. Text-based interface
  2. Tabbed browsing
  3. Mouse support
  4. SSL encryption
  5. Customizable keybindings
  6. Bookmarks
  7. Download management

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Lightweight and fast

Works in terminal environments

Highly customizable

Open source

Cons

Limited functionality compared to graphical browsers

Steep learning curve

Rendering issues on some sites

Lack of extensions/add-ons


The Best ELinks Alternatives

Top Web Browsers and Text-Based and other similar apps like ELinks

Here are some alternatives to ELinks:

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Lynx

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Arachne

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