Seamonkey, Firefox, etc. You do not need a desktop environment to run a webbrowser.

> How do you browse the Internet then?

I assume by

> using a window manager for ever

I've used WindowMaker as a Window manager for decades. Only recently did I decide to switch to Mate because I wanted a taskbar at the bottom with useful things like applets to show and switch Wifi/network, volume control and often-used icons/launchers.

TBH, if I could get things like tint2 and yabar working with the mate applets, I'd probably switch back to WindowMaker in a heartbeat.

FWIW: most systray applets work with any of WindowMaker's dockapp systrays, and there are a few dockapps (wmappl, wmbutton) that allow you a slightly more compact often-used icons/launcher thing. Mate panel applets do need the Mate panel of course but you can generally find equivalents for just about anything.

I don't run Linux anymore (not natively, for everyday use, in any case) -- like most people in this thread I also think the desktop is a shitshow these days but it's a particularly bad shitshow in Linux, and I was using Linux in 2003 so I know what a shitshow looks like. But when I do still need to touch a Linux machine, WindowMaker is still my WM of choice. It's really good.

use Fluxbox, you could set some applets with standalone software.

Pnmixer for Pulseaudio, NM-applet/connman...

You can use normal applications in a window manager. Window manager ≠ terminal

Lynx? Lynx still works for a lot of sites I frequent.

you can start programs with just X. i use simple WMs but have put kodi in its own dedicated session. its kind of like kiosk mode.