Gemini - a internet protocol made for endeavour enthusiasts :D

gemini - an internet protocol made for EndeavorOS

Lately there has been a (small) hype about the gemini project (view via http proxy):

Gemini is a new internet protocol that:

  • Is heavier than gopher
  • Is lighter than the web (http)
  • Will not be replaced either
  • Strives for maximum power-to-weight ratio
  • Takes user privacy very seriously

There are some clients out there…graphical as well as terminal-based. It takes almost nothing to get involved, the clients are lightweight and all one needs to create content is a text-editor and fire up a small server - as gemini is all about textual content.

Maybe someone wants to give it a try :slight_smile:

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I’ve been using Kristall as my Gemini browser - works nicely, and it’s a really nice change of pace to have pages with text to read rather than adverts and flashing images all over the place.

This is the theme I put together:

image

[General]
background_color=#f9f3dc
blockquote_color=#f3f3f3
cross_scheme_link_color=#a40000
external_link_color=#ce5c00
external_link_prefix=\x21b1
h1_color=#4e9a06
h1_font="IBM Plex Sans,20,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0"
h2_color=#4e9a06
h2_font="IBM Plex Sans,15,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0"
h3_color=#4e9a06
h3_font="IBM Plex Sans,12,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0"
internal_link_color=#4e9a06
internal_link_prefix=\x21b3
margins=55
name=Plex
preformatted_color=#000000
preformatted_font="IBM Plex Mono,10,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0"
standard_color=#000000
standard_font="IBM Plex Serif,10,-1,5,57,0,0,0,0,0"
theme=0
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Interesting. If I find the time I’ll try it out.

My main client is amfora, a nice terminal client - recently promoted to the arch community repos.

2 Likes

Interesting, but what’s the deal with Gemini?
It’s like anarco-primitivist protocol movement to bring up early 90s and go full GNU ? :slight_smile:

Don’t get me wrong, it do look nice and all…but a little weird at that point, like reinventing the wheel :upside_down_face:

disclaimer: i was not involved nor directly followed gemini development, so this is just my impression reading this and that and following the mailing list for a few weeks.

One key assumption is that the “modern web” is bloated by all means, which i agree is true for most of the sites. Ads, tracking and distracting users from the “content” in various ways has become a standard nowadays.
Thus the aim was to create a protocol focused on publishing written content which avoids as much as possible features that will allow user tracking. Another goal was to allow for “simple” server and client implementations, a contradict to what modern web browsers have become.
There are argues that instead of inventing the wheel again a subset of http would suffice this as well, but the extensiblity would sooner or later again lead to scope creep.

This is just a short summary what i’ve come around.
Additional reading:
https://drewdevault.com/2020/11/01/What-is-Gemini-anyway.html
https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/faq.gmi

2 Likes

@joekamprad
So…When this forum will be ported to Gemini? :grin:

What is this Gemini thing anyway?

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:+1:

From Gemini FAQ, section 1.5:

1.5 What’s with the name?

It’s a reference to the pre-shuttle era of US manned spaceflight, which consisted of three projects. The first was Project Mercury, which was a fairly minimalist “proof of concept” and part of the race to put a human in space soonest (which the Soviet Union won with their Vostok project). Mercury was a one-man capsule with no ability to adjust to its own orbit after launch and only one Mercury flight lasted longer than a single day. The last was Project Apollo, which was large, heavy, complicated and expensive but could, of course, fly three men to the moon and back.

Less well known to the modern public, Project Gemini was the “middle child”: a two person capsule which could rendezvous and dock with other craft in orbit, could be depressurised and repressurised in orbit to facilitate spacewalks, and whose longest flight was almost two weeks - longer than any Apollo mission! In terms of size, weight and cost Gemini was much closer to Mercury than to Apollo, but in terms of capabilities it was the other way around - there were even plans (which never eventuated) to do circumlunar Gemini flights!

Hopefully the analogy is obvious: Gopher is akin to Mercury, and the web is akin to Apollo. Gemini hopes to sit between the two, doing more with less.

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