From 53f5125a041ad82f212c7e063eca317fca4ba30d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Yann Esposito (Yogsototh)" Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2020 11:31:08 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] gemini article --- src/posts/0016-gemini/index.org | 71 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 71 insertions(+) create mode 100644 src/posts/0016-gemini/index.org diff --git a/src/posts/0016-gemini/index.org b/src/posts/0016-gemini/index.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cdbed0c --- /dev/null +++ b/src/posts/0016-gemini/index.org @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ +#+TITLE: Gemini +#+AUTHOR: Yann Esposito +#+EMAIL: yann@esposito.host +#+DATE: [2020-11-09 Mon] +#+KEYWORDS: internet gopher gemini +#+DESCRIPTION: How I discovered gemini +#+OPTIONS: auto-id:t toc:t + +This weekend I read an article about gopher and gemini. +I already seen articles about gemini pass. +Somehow, it was more appealing to me than gopher space for totally +subjective reasons I think. +Anyway this time I really digged into it, and I loved the experience. + +At first sight gemini is like a parallel web for nerds. +It has fundamental changes that I would have really liked to see from the +modern web. +The client decide the design, no user tracking, calm, minimalistic, simple. + +Right now, on the web, most news website make the experience terrible to +read the article. +The page is bloated with a lot of animations, popin asking you to accept +the cookies, ads with videos, strange fonts or design, plenty of +javascript, trackers, etc... + +Gemini make those kind of anti-design impractical. +In gemini space there is no: + +- CSS: the client decide the look of the page, the fonts, the colors, the + width of the columns, etc... +- inline image: you can still link to images, but images should not be + displayed in the middle of the text. +- inline links: If you link to an external resource, it is clearly visible + as an element on its own line. +- cookies +- HTTP headers used to track users +- scripts on the client side +- hard to parse format (no HTML, XHTML, etc...) + +Another strength of Gemini is its protocol's simplicity. +It is easy to write your own gemini server as well as your own gemini +client within a few hours of work in your programming language of choice. + +And last but not least, gemini is unfit to serve "big" files. +So we should not experience people going to gemini for music/movie piracy. +If you want to serve "big" files you should link to another protocol. + +Personally I started to browse gemini directly from emacs with elpher. +But I know there are a lot of clients. + +I liked gemini so much I hacked my blog to also publish in the gemini sphere. +I serve my pages with a rust based server. +And I hacked a quick script to transform my org mode files to gemini format. +Gemini file format is a kind of super simplified markdown. +I really like the simplicity of it. + +Here are a few links to get you started. + +Web: + +- [[https://gemini.circumlunar.space][gemini homepage]] +- [[https://thelambdalab.xyz/elpher/][elpher emacs gopher and gemini client]] +- [[https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/gemini.circumlunar.space/][Explore gemini from the web]] + +Gopher: + +- [[gopher://thelambdalab.xyz/1/projects/elpher/][elpher]] + +Gemini: + +- [[gemini://her.esy.fun][my website in gemini]]