The web browsing part is obsolete. In the last LibrePlanet he said he now uses the GNU IceCat browser (free software distribution of Firefox + several privacy protection add-ons, http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/) with Tor.

Also, keep in mind that one of the reason he wasn't using a web browser was that he often only had time to read articles and other material from the web when he did not have access to the internet (airplanes, trains, cars, taking a rest while hiking in a mountain, etc...), so he used this technique to treat the internet like offline emails.

It also, intentionally or not, allows him to remain uninformed through an email thread. Stallman makes a claim (perhaps about some projects licensing policy), someone refutes the claim with a link to the policy, stallman dodges with "I can't browse the web, but based on what I was told..."