Lynx works so much faster than other browsers because it operates on a different principle. Most browsers call for a page, which is then transferred over the 'net to your Internet provider, then on to your computer where the browser on your computer interprets the page and displays an image on your screen. By far, the slowest part of this chain is the connection between your provider and your computer
LYNX doesn't do this. With LYNX the page isn't transfered to your computer at all. The browser (the program that interprets the page) is on your provider's computer. The incoming page is downloaded only to your provider's computer and interpreted there. The only thing that is sent over the slower link to your computer is the screen refresh, and your keyboard commands.
It doesn't matter what kind of computer you have. It's only acting as a dumb terminal anyway. Any modem from 9600 and up will refresh your screen faster than you can read it, so any modem you're likely to find works about as well as any other. You should have a solid terminal program however. The terminal programs provided with Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 are the pits. I like the shareware TELIX program. It has some convient features and seems to work well an any machine. I recently received an e-mail from a customer who uses TELIX on his palmtop with an 8088 processor.
The downside to LYNX is that you get text only. Poorly designed pages can be hard to navigate if the writer did not supply text alternatives to the images and icons. However it's easy to capture any images you feel you need to see. You can view them without interrupting your session by either using a separate Window or jumping to your DOS shell if you are using a DOS terminal program like TELIX. Of course you'll have to download any images you want to view, and the speed of that will depend on your modem, etc.
In LYNX you navigate with the keys only. This is much faster that using the mouse. For the most part you will use the arrow keys only, along with the space bar.
You will need to have a UNIX shell account to use LYNX. It's worth finding an ISP who provides one. Encourage your provider to load the latest version of LYNX. It's free! The latest version (2.7) has some useful improvements. I've used three versions, and there's quite a lot of difference among them.
I was going to provide some links to LYNX sites, but they're easy to find. Use your favorite search engine. Try it, you'll like it!