Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ELinks VS Texttop

Compare ELinks VS Texttop and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

ELinks logo ELinks

ELinks - Full-Featured Text WWW Browser

Texttop logo Texttop

Interactive X linux desktop rendered to ASCII
  • ELinks Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-08-24
  • Texttop Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-03

ELinks features and specs

  • Lightweight
    ELinks is a text-based browser, meaning it is lightweight and requires minimal system resources compared to graphical browsers. This makes it suitable for older systems or environments with limited resources.
  • Speed
    Due to its text-based nature, ELinks loads pages much faster than many graphical browsers, especially over slow internet connections.
  • Customizable
    ELinks supports various customization options, allowing users to modify keybindings, themes, and user interfaces to suit their preferences.
  • Security
    Running a text-based browser can provide an additional layer of security by avoiding some of the vulnerabilities associated with rendering complex web pages, scripts, or plugins that are common sources of exploits.
  • Scripting Support
    ELinks has support for scripting in languages such as Lua and Guile, allowing advanced users to automate tasks and enhance browser functionality.

Possible disadvantages of ELinks

  • Limited Multimedia Support
    Being a text-based browser, ELinks has limited support for multimedia content such as videos, animations, or interactive elements that rely heavily on JavaScript and CSS.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    ELinks can be challenging for new users due to its reliance on keyboard shortcuts and configuration files, which may be unfamiliar to those accustomed to graphical interfaces.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Some modern websites may not render correctly or be fully functional due to ELinks' limited support for advanced web technologies and dynamic content.
  • Lack of JavaScript Support
    ELinks does not support JavaScript in the way graphical browsers do, which can lead to incomplete loading or functionality of certain websites that rely heavily on JavaScript.
  • Limited User Base
    As a niche browser, ELinks has a smaller community and less extensive documentation, potentially making it difficult to find resources or support for uncommon issues.

Texttop features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ELinks and Texttop)
Web Browsers
65 65%
35% 35
Rental Property Management
Mobile OS
0 0%
100% 100
Automation
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using ELinks and Texttop. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Texttop might be a bit more popular than ELinks. We know about 9 links to it since March 2021 and only 7 links to ELinks. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

ELinks mentions (7)

  • Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
    And elinks as well. It had better handling of page layout. http://elinks.or.cz/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • MacLynx beta 4: now with scrollbars and dialogue boxes
    Thanks for mentioning elinks (http://elinks.or.cz/). I was about ¾ of the way through that article and thinking "as an academic exercise, sure. otherwise this just looks like 'its been done a thousand times before... But not by me.'" which was leading me to share the page for elinks. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • SW etc needed.
    Some text browser like elinks or a converter like pandoc. Hopefully you have Linux. :). Source: over 2 years ago
  • The what?
    Time to audit firefox code, compile it manually, application firewalls, full content inspections to avoid any private data leaking. Get stressed and move to elinks. Source: over 3 years ago
  • /etc/elinks.conf can't display images
    ELinks is a text browser (unmaintained since 2012) and according to your description the setting appears to be working just as described in the fine manual, i. e. The browser always displays the text "IMG" and not the filename, title, or alternate text when rendering tags. Source: almost 4 years ago
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Texttop mentions (9)

  • Lynx is the oldest web browser still being maintained
    There is browsh, which uses Firefox underneath: https://github.com/browsh-org/browsh And looks like Carbonyl uses Chrome: https://github.com/fathyb/carbonyl. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Lynx Browser: The Land That Time Revived (2022)
    There are also options like Carbonyl[1] and Browsh[2] which do images and js in the terminal. 1: https://github.com/fathyb/carbonyl. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Russia starts blocking VPN at the protocol (WireGuard, OpenVPN) level
    > If you are using a JS based browser, you don't deserve security in first place. In some cases, that is true, but not all, and I suggest not even most. In many cases, I think people are just as liable for being unwilling to use Whonix. > If I had time I could set up a tutorial not to use SSH as a proxy, but as a client to a remote VPS/tilde to use the offpunk client there to browse web/gemini and gopher sites... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Using Carbonyl of Browsh in emacs?
    I use EWW as a browser in emacs but sometimes I need a browser that is more GUI oriented. I stumbled on two such browsers that can be used in a terminal: Carbonyl and Browsh. Source: about 2 years ago
  • I saved their bookmarks tho
    As far as I know, browsh is one of the very few CLI browsers (if not the only one) that can deal with the modern JavaScript riddled web, and it's actually a text-based fronted for Firefox. So in that regard you're set... Source: over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing ELinks and Texttop, you can also consider the following products

Links - Links is a graphics and text mode web browser, released under GPL. Links is free software.

Browsh - A fully-modern text-based browser, rendering to TTY and browsers

W3M - w3m is a text-based web browser as well as a pager like ' ...

Jasper - Jasper is an open source platform for developing always-on, voice-controlled applications.

Carbonyl - Carbonyl is a Chromium based browser built to run in a terminal.

Lynx.invisible-island.net - Thomas Dickey is the maintainer/developer of the Lynx text-browser. This page gives some background and pointers to Lynx resources.