Down the `gemini` rabbit hole

Project Gemini has been around–and I’ve been aware of it–for most of a year. It’s really picked up momentum lately, as evidenced by the number of servers and regularly updated content out there. If you’re not familiar with gemini, it’s a lot like gopher. Textual information, organised primarily hierarchically. The big differences between gemini and gopher is that gemini mixes indexes and text, and offers more fluid text. Overall the feel is very early–web, right down to how the few gui clients out there sort of reminding me of Cello. It’s also very much of a type with the tildeverse.

If you have the time, and a fond memory of the early “web surfing” days, I recommend getting into gemini. There’s some great writing, and neat toys on there. It’s also a chance to see a new protocol being fleshed out in the open, and the implementation is simple enough that most people even slightly techie can get what’s going on.

If you’re on a Mac, and have brew installed, bombadillo is a great tui client. I’m sure it’s in other package managers as well. There are also two great proxies for viewing gemini content in the browser:

• https://proxy.vulpes.one/ - very app–like, but a bit hard to read for font choice and contrast
• https://portal.mozz.us/ - a bit uglier, but probably closer to what the Project Gemini folks envisioned (for example, it uses browser default colours and fonts, which you can change yourself in settings).