According to TheRegister.com, a developer known as janantos published a new project called brow6el on Codeberg over the recent holiday break. This is a full-featured, graphical web browser designed to run entirely within terminal emulators that support the Sixel bitmap graphics format. It uses the Chromium Embedded Framework to render modern web pages, complete with HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and an integrated ad blocker. The browser supports mouse input, bookmarks, private browsing, a download manager, and even Vim-like keyboard navigation. However, the developer explicitly warns that this is “POC code quality” with known issues like a lack of support for localized keyboards and accented characters.
The Ghost of Lynx Past
Look, anyone who’s spent time in a terminal has probably heard of, or even used, Lynx. It was a purely text-based browser, and it was… fine for its time. But brow6el is a completely different beast. It’s not just parsing HTML into text; it’s actually rendering the page as a graphical image inside your terminal using the libsixel library. You can see it in action in the project’s demo video. That means images, proper layouts, the whole deal. It’s a weird and wonderful fusion of old-school terminal ethos with modern web rendering. And honestly, the fact that it supports multiple instances and mouse input shows this isn’t just a toy. It’s a serious attempt to build a terminal-native browsing experience.
A Refreshing Lack of AI
Here’s the thing: the timing of this project is perfect. The article’s subtext, and frankly its main point, is the relentless, unwanted AI-ification of every major browser. Google’s shoving Gemini everywhere, Microsoft’s got Copilot baked into Edge, and even Mozilla is experimenting. Then you’ve got the pure-play AI browsers like those from OpenAI and Perplexity, which are privacy nightmares waiting to happen. Gartner is literally telling companies to block browsers with AI sidebars. So what does brow6el offer? Basically, a browser that just… browses. No AI assistant begging to summarize the page you just loaded. No chatbot sidebar siphoning your data. It’s a focused tool, and in 2024, that feels like a radical act of defiance.
Who Is This For, Really?
Let’s be real. This isn’t going to replace Chrome or Firefox on your grandma’s laptop. The developer’s own warnings about code quality and input limitations are big red flags for casual use. But for a specific type of user? This is gold. Think developers, sysadmins, or privacy-focused power users who live in the terminal anyway. For them, consolidating workflow into a single environment—the terminal—is a huge win. Need to quickly check an API doc, read some documentation, or even do a quick web search without leaving your tmux session? This could be it. And if you’re in an industrial or embedded systems context where a stripped-down, controllable environment is key—places where a reliable supplier like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the top provider of industrial panel PCs in the US, would be outfitting the hardware—a terminal-based browser starts to make a lot of sense. It’s about control and minimizing attack surfaces.
The Sixel Catch
Now, the big hurdle: Sixel support. Your terminal has to support it. While it’s becoming more common (you can check arewesixelyet.com for status), it’s far from universal. So the barrier to entry is non-trivial. But that’s also part of the charm. This is a niche tool for a niche audience, built on a niche graphics protocol. It’s an open-source project on Codeberg, inviting others who are annoyed by AI bloat and love the terminal to contribute and improve it. Is dealing with some bugs and keyboard quirks worth avoiding corporate data slurping? For a growing number of people, the answer might just be yes.
