[12][13] As of July 2007[update], the support of communication protocols in Lynx is implemented using a version of libwww,[14] forked from the library's code base in 1996.

[17] Support for HTTPS was added to Lynx's fork of libwww later, initially as patches due to concerns about encryption.

In 1995, Lynx was released under the GNU General Public License, and is now maintained by a group of volunteers led by Thomas Dickey.

[22] The speed benefits of text-only browsing are most apparent when using low bandwidth internet connections,[23] or older computer hardware that may be slow to render image-heavy content.

[21] As with conventional browsers, Lynx also supports browsing histories and page caching,[24] both of which can raise privacy concerns.

[26][27][21] Because Lynx is a text-based browser, it can be used for internet access by visually impaired users on a refreshable braille display and is easily compatible with text-to-speech software.

[28][10][16] As Lynx substitutes images, frames and other non-textual content with the text from alt, name and title HTML attributes[29] and allows hiding the user interface elements,[30] the browser becomes specifically suitable for use with cost-effective general purpose screen reading software.

[31][32][33] A version of Lynx specifically enhanced for use with screen readers on Windows was developed at Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

[35][36][37] Despite its text-only nature and age, it can still be used to effectively browse much of the modern web, including performing interactive tasks such as editing Wikipedia.

It was ported to VMS soon after its public release and to other systems, including DOS, Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS and OS/2.