When comparing Lynx vs GNOME Web, the Slant community recommends Lynx for most people. In the question“What are the best web browsers for UNIX-like systems?” Lynx is ranked 14th while GNOME Web is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose Lynx is:
Being a text-only browser that runs inside the terminal makes Lynx very lightweight and minimal since it doesn't need much resources to run and too many things to render (pictures, videos etc...).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Lightweight
Being a text-only browser that runs inside the terminal makes Lynx very lightweight and minimal since it doesn't need much resources to run and too many things to render (pictures, videos etc...).
Pro Useful for web developers
Since lynx does not load images or any graphical content (just like crawlers) one of these could be to test their website and see how search engine crawlers 'see' each page. Lynx can be used by web developers to test their websites for different reasons and applications.
Pro Get up-to-date web info for other apps like e.g. conky
Since lynx is a command line application, it might not be for every one. But for the curious it is a must-have tool. Have a conky? And you want some specific info in there that really matters to you? Well, let lynx to scrap it (anonymously) of the web for you. Stock quotes and exchange rates every couple of minutes in your conky? Sure you can! Just create your custom bash script to let lynx scrap it of the page of your choice and let it work with sed, grep and awk for example. What do you have to loose? ;)
Pro Useful in case of an UI failure
In case the UI, graphics driver or shell crashes you can still use lynx.
Pro Fits in perfectly with the GNOME desktop
Since it is a GNOME app, you get all the benefits of the GNOME desktop. It's easy to use, Epiphany just works out of the box. It stores your web site passwords in the secure GNOME keyring, and uses your existing desktop settings to launch applications and access the network, so you don't need to configure everything twice.
Pro Excellent alternative to the most popular web browsers
Sometimes my workflow involves using separate browsers. I like mail in app tabs, but some jobs are well suited to a lighter, simpler web browser.
Pro GNOME integrated
Includes features specific to GNOME like turning sites into apps that are managed with GNOME software and the ability to install GNOME extensions.
Pro For Linux and Windows
Available for Linux and Windows 10 with WSL, see here.
Pro Lightweight
Epiphany is pretty lightweight and doesn't require much memory to start up.
Pro Best touchpad navigation
Pinch to zoom, smooth bidirectional scrolling are still far beyond other browsers.
Pro Default in many GNOME versions
Epiphany has been the default browsers for many distributions that use stock GNOME for a long time now (although it's being replaced by the much more popular Firefox lately).
Cons
Con Text-based only
Lynx is a text-based only web browser and it's the oldest browser still in use. Being text-only, it's not very useful anymore outside some niche use cases.
Con Crashes often
Epiphany can crash on a heavy load or when closing/opening tabs. While this only happens every few days, it still happens more often than in most other browsers.
Con Not much room for configuration
The choice for extensions is very limited, although there are decent extensions for the most useful activities and features it still cannot compare to the extensive collections that other browsers may have access to.
The number of tweaks that can be done to the browser from the options menu is also very limited since Epiphany follows a philosophy of "less is more". While this can be enjoyable for some it still hinders a lot of functionality and removes the ability to personalize the browser the way you want it to be.
Con Becomes messy on highly graphical pages
Sometimes struggles to handle complex graphical pages such as Facebook. In these circumstances, it becomes 'messy' - text and graphics get mixed up - and will eventually crash. Even so, this is a light and useful browser.
Con Tends to lag on large pages
Open this page in Epiphany and start zooming/scrolling quickly to see what it.