TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Ask HN: How would you download a browser without a browser?

16 pointsby swidiabout 5 years ago
Theoretically, let's say you have a brand new laptop that is fully functional but has no built-in browser. (You also don't have a phone or any other separate device.) How would you download a web browser without being able to see the web?

16 comments

gulatoabout 5 years ago
Wait for the AOL cd to come in the mail?
评论 #22889098 未加载
DeathArrowabout 5 years ago
In Windows you can use FTP in Explorer. Or, if you want to do it from the command line, type in Powershell:<p>&gt;Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $output<p>On *nix you might have curl or wget installed.<p>On Android and iOS use their respective app stores.
luizfzsabout 5 years ago
Most of the curl&#x2F;powershell answers assume you know the URL to download it from, which might not be correct since they are usually long and not easy to memorize.<p>However, considering the scenario on the question, I would assume that browser vendors would create very easy-to-remember URLs so you could get their browser without having to memorize 100-character-long URL e.g. mozilla.org&#x2F;firefox.[exe,bin,sh,deb]
评论 #22891058 未加载
评论 #22889707 未加载
raceconditionerabout 5 years ago
If you&#x27;re stuck on windows maybe you could try this:<p>curl -o fi.exe -L -C - &quot;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;download.mozilla.org&#x2F;?product=firefox-stub&amp;os=win64&amp;lang=en-US&quot;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;download.mozilla.org&#x2F;?product=firefox-stub&amp;os=win64&amp;...</a> &amp;&amp; .&#x2F;fi.exe
thanksforfishabout 5 years ago
Debian based OS is easy: apt install firefox<p>Other Linux OS, consult your package manager of choice.<p>Mac should have curl or wget that you can use (plus safari, but we&#x27;ll ignore that).<p>Windows has Invoke-WebRequest in Powershell that you can use (plus IE&#x2F;Edge, but we&#x27;ll ignore).<p>You can do a Google search with those command line tools to find the firefox install page and download the installer.<p>What prompted this question? Real problem?
wuhaaabout 5 years ago
Keep a liveboot USB handy with OS that has a browser. Boot with it. Save a few installers for common browsers on a USB&#x2F;SDC&#x2F;local NAS etc. If your on *nix, wget&#x2F;curl&#x2F;ftp&#x2F;scp&#x2F;sftp the files from a known location. You can do the same in Windows in powershell or CMD
abjKT26nO8about 5 years ago
<p><pre><code> sudo apt install firefox</code></pre>
WheelsAtLargeabout 5 years ago
You download lynx, text based browser, via ftp and download Firefox with lynx.
jamiewebabout 5 years ago
Some devices that claim not to have a browser do actually have a browser, as it is used solely for Wi-Fi captive portals.<p>I seem to remember that the Nintendo Switch has one of these &#x27;hidden&#x27; browsers.
raszabout 5 years ago
&gt;new laptop that is fully functional but has no built-in browser<p>doesnt exist, either its fully functional and has a browser, or its missing operating system.
mtmailabout 5 years ago
MacOS: install <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;brew.sh&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;brew.sh&#x2F;</a> , then &#x27;brew cask install firefox&#x27;<p>Linux, e.g. &#x27;sudo apt install snapd&#x27;, then &#x27;sudo snap install firefox&#x27; (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;snapcraft.io&#x2F;install&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;ubuntu" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;snapcraft.io&#x2F;install&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;ubuntu</a>)
评论 #22885245 未加载
icedchaiabout 5 years ago
In the 90&#x27;s, the answer was FTP.
runjakeabout 5 years ago
Homebrew, Chocolatey, apt, or curl.
Rzorabout 5 years ago
wget, curl.
cocktailpeanutsabout 5 years ago
Bittorrent or FTP
评论 #22884925 未加载
wprapidoabout 5 years ago
wget &#x2F; curl or your OS package manager