Command Line
Tutorial
Not only is it possible to browse the web from the CLI, it's mightily useful, too, as we demonstrate in this article.
A few months ago, I was stranded at an airport – my plane was delayed, so I had a couple of hours to kill. Fortunately, it was past beer-o-clock (i.e., 1800 hours), so I headed to the bar and then cracked open my laptop for some Reddit-browsing antics. But there was one big problem: The airport's Internet connection was slow.
I'm talking horrendously slow here – it was like using some 300-baud modem from the 1980s. I pretty much couldn't do anything on the Internet, and I saw other grumbling passengers desperately trying to reconnect multiple times in hope of a teensy bit of better bandwidth. They soon gave up.
Because I'm a turbo-geek, though, I came up with a solution. Somehow, I needed to drastically reduce my bandwidth but still be able to surf the web. I tried disabling images and JavaScript in Firefox; this resulted in a slight improvement, but browsing was still agonizingly slow. And then it struck me: I could SSH into a Raspberry Pi I have at home and browse from there.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs Transitions to Linux
Another major organization has decided to kick Microsoft Windows and Office to the curb in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.