# Text based web browser with jre support

## hypeboyz

Hello

I wondered if there's such web browser that supports jre. I live in a dormitory that limits the internet access as every time I have to login on a page that was written by js and java. I don't get any further information except the wlan controller's name NXC 2500. And on the page it claims that javascript and jre are both required. 

As I don't wanna bring up gnome or KDE so please provide some clues about the browsers that support both javascript and jre. Thanks a lot

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## Roman_Gruber

well two things, you can install a small desctop like i3 for example

emerge i3

and i think firefox-bin can do the job

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## i92guboj

Regarding javascript (or ecmascript, whatever...) I think that elinks and links provide partial support for it. I don't remember if w3m does, you will have to check yourself.

Regarding Java, well, for that, unless you are able to find a text-based browser that can handle netscape plugins (and I really doubt you will), you are out of luck. I don't know of any of them that has that functionality built-in, and dealing with java is a science in itself that I doubt any of the maintainers of such a browser will be interested in that kind of thing.

As someone said above, though, you don't need a desktop to get a browser. If you want the less possible dependencies you might want to give Opera a try, it's a binary self-bundled blob that won't push much dependencies in your system, and it's a bit lighter in ram than the alternatives (at least it used to). I dislike it for a number of reasons but it might work for you.

You can use any window manager of your choice, there are dozens of them in portage and a handful more in the internet. No need for a desktop. If you have no idea on what to choose, I can suggest openbox as a simple, light and powerful alternative. Else, try Jwm or IceWM which if you come from some other OS might look and feel familiar.

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## hypeboyz

 *i92guboj wrote:*   

> Regarding javascript (or ecmascript, whatever...) I think that elinks and links provide partial support for it. I don't remember if w3m does, you will have to check yourself.
> 
> Regarding Java, well, for that, unless you are able to find a text-based browser that can handle netscape plugins (and I really doubt you will), you are out of luck. I don't know of any of them that has that functionality built-in, and dealing with java is a science in itself that I doubt any of the maintainers of such a browser will be interested in that kind of thing.
> 
> As someone said above, though, you don't need a desktop to get a browser. If you want the less possible dependencies you might want to give Opera a try, it's a binary self-bundled blob that won't push much dependencies in your system, and it's a bit lighter in ram than the alternatives (at least it used to). I dislike it for a number of reasons but it might work for you.
> ...

 

Oh thanks for your suggestion. I thought browsers like firefox or chromium would strongly depend on desktop packages from Gnome or KDE. Currently I chroot from a ubuntu system to keep my gentoo box updated and that works just fine. Thanks.

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## i92guboj

Cross-platform browsers must remain desktop-agnostic (there's no gnome in Windows or MacOSX). That doesn't mean they are light on dependencies though. But that's understandable since nowadays browsers are like pocket-OSes, they do a lot, and most people spend 90% of their time using one of those.

In this regard, -bin versions are usually lighter in terms of the dependencies they push, because a lot of the required dependencies for the source versions are only required at build time, and you don't need them to run the binary precompiled packages.

So, if you want to avoid heavy downloads, I'd say your choices are google-chrome, firefox-bin or opera.

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