Modern sites, JavaScript and more

Without JavaScript, many web sites look awful or simply don’t work.

Many websites require JavaScript to run at all times. Other question and answer sites, like Stackexchange, run fine without it. Another standard that has a profound effect on web pages is CSS, which is mostly used to style the page. This includes placing the content in columns.

From the browsers on test here only elinks supports CSS and JavaScript, although browsh has all the functions supported by Firefox. Browsh is an exception for many cases. In the end it renders it all for you after having had it all handled by Firefox.

The Lynx browser supports neither CSS nor JavaScript and it probably never will. You get speed and agility but not using these functions. The developers will most likely consider it an insult if you ask for this functionality to be introduced!

W3m, despite having a more modern appearance, doesn’t support JavaScript or CSS. The developers list the lack of this support as a feature because the script often takes much more bandwidth than the information you want. Rendering CSS is also a very CPU-intensive activity.

Links can support JavaScript, but you have to compile it yourself. The support was designed early on in the browser’s development, but it was buggy so it was turned off by default. CSS isn’t supported, and it only renders HTML 4.0.

The browsh browser ignores the issue by letting Firefox take care of it. This means that you can run any site and it will be well rendered. However, because of how it’s rendered, you’ll invariably see big blotches on any visuals. Considering all this, you must decide what you’re going to use your browser for, and whether you’re happy going down the text-only path.