Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

> I had no idea folks were still seriously using text-mode browsers.  I
> used them back in the days of gopher up until probably a year or two
> after Mosaic was introduced.  Since then I've confined its use to a
> mutt plugin for viewing HTML email (in part so I don't inadvertantly
> set off a trigger that tells the spammer that I opened the message).
>
> Since a couple of you find it practical to regularly browse the web in
> text, I might consider doing the same to some extent.  What would be
> ideal is a Firefox plugin that would switch to text-mode for the ad
> intrusive sites like about.com.

Try Opera with graphics turned off, and toggle images (Shift-G) or right 
click on any one image and Load it. Opera does not leave big blank spaces 
where the images were, like Netscape did.  Opera 8.52 works with BL3 if 
you upgrade glibc first (to Slackware 8.1 glibc 2.2.5 or 9.0) I could not 
get Opera 9 to work (what I downloaded required glibc 2.3 but maybe I got 
the wrong file).

It works at most sites.  Opera 7 offered various display styles including 
black on green text-only, high contrast...

> I've just discovered Yellowpipe Lynx ("YL"), which is a Firefox plugin
> that will show a page in text when triggered from a right click menu.
> I'm going to find it extremely useful for printing hardcopies of web
> pages, because it makes a footnote for every link, and prints the link
> address at the bottom.  The problem with YL is that the links are not
> clickable within the text.  So it would still be useful to be able to
> lauch a Links or Lynx window, which would show links that can be
> followed.

Lynx P prints with all the references, also you can click them.

> What I don't like about text browsing is I'm noticing that sidebars
> sometimes appear at the top of the page.  This makes the ads and
> lesser interesting items /more/ apparent.  I have to scroll down,
> reading through the junk to get to the good stuff.

Can lynx or links be set to not display sponsored links, or are there 
search engines that put those at the bottom or don't have any sponsors?

Sindi