Internet software includes applications you typically would use for Internet-related tasks -- reading e-mail, chatting with friends, and surfing the web.
There are likely many Internet tools installed on your computer. Programs such as ping and netstat are primarily diagnostic tools. Other software such as Mutt and w3m exist for reading e-mail or websites, but are text-based.
A web browser is a useful application to have even if you do not have Internet access at home. In addition to visiting websites on the Internet, you can also use a web browser to view much of the documentation installed on your computer.
Depending on the capabilities of your system, you might have a number of different web browsers on your system. Dillo and Links are somewhat limited in functionality, but they run well on most computers. Opera is a more powerful browser, but due to licencing restrictions we may not distribute it freely. Firefox is an excellent web browser, but it requires a lot of memory to run well.
One of these web browsers is set to be the default on your system. The default web browser is activated when you click the icon in the IceWM program menu or toolbar. In addition, programs that make use of a web browser will generally call the default browser. It is possible to change the default browser if you have an alternative installed. For instructions, see [WHERE?]
In the following sections we will briefly describe some of these web browsers and their quirks.
When first started, Links presents a rather blank screen, offering nothing but a "back button" in the top left corner of the screen. [SCREENSHOT] However, Links does support menu options. You can activate them by clicking on the topmost grey bar, or by pressing the Esc key.
Links was originally developed as a text-only browser, and so it has good keyboard support and not a lot of graphical features. However, it is fast and light and displays many websites reasonably well. [SCREENSHOT OF AMAZON.COM? A BANK?]
To visit a website in Links, click -> or press the g. A box will open up where you can type the website you wish to visit. [SCREENSHOT]
You can also visit local directories on your computer, but there is no nice graphical selection screen to do so. Instead, you must type in the location, prefixed by file:// . For example, to browse the documentation in /usr/doc/debian/ you would type file:///usr/share/doc/debian in the Enter URL field. [SCREENSHOT] Note that you type in three slashes after file:.
Although it is a reasonable browser, Links has some quirks and deficiencies you should know about:
Dillo is a lightweight web browser designed with security in mind. It is a fairly simple browser, but it is capable of rendering most Internet sites. Like Links, it is often a good browser to use when reading documentation. [SCREENSHOT]
Here are some quirks and deficiencies you should know about Dillo:
Like Links, Dillo has no support for CSS or plugins. Unlike Links, Dillo does not support Javascript, a programming language used for animations, popup windows and some fill-in forms on the Internet.
Dillo uses the file ~/.dillo/cookiesrc to control the websites that can use cookies. For security reasons, by default Dillo disables all cookies. [WILL WE CHANGE THIS?] If you require the use of cookies (for example, to log into websites) you may need to edit this configuration file using a text editor such as Nedit. Instructions about the cookie format can be found in the file /usr/share/doc/dillo/Cookies.txt
Opera is a commercial web browser. It is fairly complete, and runs reasonably well on any computer with more than 32MB of RAM. [IS THIS TRUE?] Because it is a proprietary commercial product, we cannot distribute it freely. However, if you wish you may download the browser from http://www.opera.com. If you choose to do so, you should get the Debian package, which ends in .deb. You probably want to get the version that has "QT statically compiled", and you will want the version for Debian Sarge. [THIS WILL GO STALE]
After you have downloaded the package, see [WHERE] for instructions on how to install the package.
An instant message client is an program you use to chat with others online, using chat protocols such as AIM, Yahoo! chat, or IRC. Gaim is a multi-purpose client that supports the most popular chat protocols used today.
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