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The incredible story of the oldest web browser still being maintained
The Internet has come a long way since its inception in the late 1960s, and web browsing has become an integral part of our daily lives. However, few people know the incredible story of the oldest web browser still being maintained: Lynx.
Lynx is a customizable text-based web browser that allows users to browse the web without graphics or multimedia content. It was first developed in 1992 by a team of students and staff at the University of Kansas as a hypertext browser used to distribute campus information and browse the Gopher space. At the time, the web was still in its infancy, and graphical web browsers were not yet popular.
Lynx was initially designed to be used on cursor-addressable character cell terminals, and it quickly became popular among Unix users. As the web evolved, Lynx kept pace, adding support for new protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, NNTP, and WAIS. However, Lynx remains a text-only browser, and it is not capable of displaying non-text content such as images and videos.
Despite its limitations, Lynx has remained popular among a small but dedicated user base. In fact, as of 2023, Lynx is the oldest web browser still being maintained. Its development is now led by a group of volunteers led by Thomas Dickey, and the browser is released under the GNU General…
