Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther

Some Picks

This section describes just a few of the applications you can install using Fink. First up is lynx, a text-based web browser that’s great for viewing or downloading web pages quickly. After that, we talk about Pine, an email client and USENET newsreader. Finally, we discuss GIMP, a general-purpose graphics manipulation package that can do all sorts of great things with images.

Browsing the Web with Lynx

There are a number of excellent web browsers available for Mac OS X, including Safari, Camino, Mozilla, and OmniWeb. However, attractive, graphically based web browsers can be slow—especially with flashy, graphics-laden web pages on a slow network.

Tip

To install Lynx, use the command sudo apt-get install fink (see “Installing Packages”, earlier in this chapter).

The Lynx web browser (originally from the University of Kansas and available on many Unix systems) is different because it’s a text-based web browser that works within the Terminal application. Being text-only causes it to have some trade-offs you should know about. Lynx indicates where graphics occur in a page layout; you won’t see the graphics, but the bits of text that Lynx uses in their place can clutter the screen. Still, because it doesn’t have to download or display those graphics, Lynx is fast, which is especially helpful over a dial-up modem or busy network connection. Sites with complex multicolumn layouts can be hard to follow with Lynx; a good rule is to page through the screens, looking for the link ...