Project Gemini
geminiprotocol.net

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/24735701

See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol)

It is similar to the old gopher: text files, links, and images form a hypertext optimized for reading. Text is formatted like Markdown - but even simpler.

Clients display text, like an eBook, or images / media.

Servers can run on a PC or Raspberry Pi which needs half a Watt of power. No FAANG companies needed. No expert knowledge needed - not more difficult than running a file sharing client.

I think it is the right thing for defense of democracy and sharing your voice in the digital realm.

Edit: If you see comments here which kinda miss the point, appeal to emotions, have faulty logic, or depart from entirely incorrect assumptions: Please keep in mind that big US tech companies can’t say “that’s bad, how will we shovel money with this?”. Please use your critical thinking skills - they are much needed here!

  • Levi@lemmy.caEnglish
    4·
    8 hours ago

    Out of curiosity, how do you find gemini sites to read? If there aren’t forms I assume there isn’t a search engine?

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
      3·
      3 hours ago

      See section 2.2 of the FAQ

      https://geminiprotocol.net/docs/faq-section-2.gmi

      Thete are aggregators. For example

      gemini://warmedal.se/~antenna/

      or gemini://rawtext.club/~sloum/spacewalk.gmi

      gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/capcom/

      or comnunity interest sites, like

      gemini://tilde.green/ ,

      which is in turn a site of

      gemini://tildeverse.org

      https://gemini.tildeverse.org/

      Then there are systematic directories, like

      gemini://medusae.space/

      and search engines like

      gemini://geminispace.info/

      see section 2.2.3 of the above FAQ.

  • Flying_Lynx@lemmy.ml
    51·
    9 hours ago

    But that’s not modern. Most websites need to recreate basic HTML functionality with a GB of javascript libraries. iow. cut that unnecessary out and internet will become a better experience while saving much storage, throughput, and dissipated energies at every substation.

  • b000rg@midwest.socialEnglish
    161·
    22 hours ago

    I’ll just pop in here to add a link to my favorite Android Gemini browser: Rosy Crow

    It’s fully featured, even supporting tokens for authenticated sessions.

  • IanTwenty@piefed.socialEnglish
    14·
    21 hours ago

    This reminds me of RSS, designed for reading and pared back to the minimum required to deliver the message and nothing more.

  • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
    10·
    23 hours ago

    Ah, and one little useful tidbit for Emacs users:

    Emacs has a builtin client of course. It also dislays images.

    Just

    guix install emacs-elpher

    then restart Emacs and

    M-x elpher
  • ColonelThirtyTwo@pawb.social
    2·
    16 hours ago

    I’ve looked into Gemini before. It seems neat but it also seemed like a lot of the links and clients for it on the main info site were dead.

  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    25·
    1 day ago

    Sounds interesting, what is the benefit of this compared to HTTP though? You can still host text or basic html that way and it works on any web browser.

    • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml
      7·
      20 hours ago

      what is the benefit of this compared to HTTP though?

      For me, it’s kind of the novelty of it. Gemini is separated from the mainstream internet, there’s a mild barrier to entry, so it has a distinct culture and vibe to it

      • Tenebris Nox@feddit.ukEnglish
        42·
        17 hours ago

        Mild is an understatement. It’s likely beyond the ability of most people to set up. To the extent it’s exclusionary.

        • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          17 hours ago

          I mean, to make a website, that’s probably true. But accessing the Gemini protocol is as simple as installing a web browser

          • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
            4·
            5 hours ago

            Writing a page means editing a file with a simple syntax like markdown (called gemtext).

            Running a gemini server is about as difficult as running a file sharing client.

            There are pre-built server packages as part of Debian and its derivatives.

            Or, one can install Rust and download and build the agate server. That’s what I did on my Raspberry Pi B. That Raspberry has an Ethernet port and USB port which can power it from my FritzBox. Needs half a Watt of Power when idle. Then, one needs to start the server on bootup. This is done via a service file for systemd.

            • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
              2·
              15 hours ago

              And after that, one only has to configure a folder for the gemini page files, and configure the home router to allow access to that port of the Raspberry Pi.

              The alternative is to get a shell account to a shared gemini server like tildeverse. This is usually free of cost since the software is almost maintenance-free and the power draw is a few Euros per year for the entire server.

    • IanTwenty@piefed.socialEnglish
      36·
      1 day ago

      Gopher guarantees readers that there will never be anything other than text and media served on a site. They don’t have to trust the publisher, the protocol enforces it.

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
      24·
      1 day ago

      It is much more lightweight and simpler: While you can, but typically won’t write HTML directly with a text editor, you can and typicall would write gemtext markup manually like markdown.

      You can run it on a small rasberry pi, using a server like agate, which automatically generates certificates, and if you fancy, you can write your own client browser in a weekend (that’s why there are a lot of clients).

      It is very deliberately designed to be minimalistic, to depart from the enshittified modern web flooded with ads, tracking, and slop.

      And because of this, pages load instantly.

      Myself, I have witnessed the birth of the World Wide Web, designed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, to share information, new ideas and knowledge, and run the first Mosaic browser in 1994, and gemini is very close to the hearth of this original idea.

    • tabular@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      1 day ago

      can work on any web browser

      Gemini can have competition of browsers: it’s feasible for one person to create a Gemini client completely, correctly and securly.

      There are only ~2 web browsers left and making a new one at all is near impossible (forks with minor size changes are great n’ all but not meaningfull enough to stop Google basically being in control).

          • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
            5·
            18 hours ago

            One problem is that with this monopolization of the web, browser vendors like Google can yank the standard in any direction they like (for example for more tracking and more ads, or surveillance). And you can’t make another browser because the protocol and features are needlessly way too complex, so it is legally an open standard but practically not. In the end, everyone will have to use Googles browser and suffer the included tracking.

            • breadguy@kbin.earth
              1·
              16 hours ago

              aye I’m with you, though for practical purposes currently Gemini seems a lot like throwing the baby out with the bath water

              • tabular@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                2 hours ago

                Seperating the modern web browser into discrete parts and each doing them well seems to be the only logically answer to me. (If we ignoring the task of convincing the general public to do anything in their best interests). We already have dedicated video/music player software on our OSs.

          • F04118F@feddit.nl
            6·
            21 hours ago

            It provides a way to share “web” pages (text, images, links) that can be read by a simple minimal client. Without needing a web browser

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
      10·
      24 hours ago

      See also point 1.1.2 in the FAQ:

      1.1.2 The gentler answer for everybody else

      Gemini is a group of technologies similar to the ones that lie behind your familiar web browser. Using Gemini, you can explore an online collection of written documents which can link to other written documents. The main difference is that Gemini approaches this task with a strong philosophy of “keep it simple” and “less is enough”. This allows Gemini to simply sidestep, rather than try and probably fail to solve, many of the problems plaguing the modern web, which just seem to get worse and worse no matter how many browser add-ons or well meaning regulations get thrown at them.

      Gemini might be of interest to you if you:

      • Value your privacy and are opposed to the web’s ubiquitous tracking of users Value your attention and your time and want to read with deep focus, free from distractions
      • Are sick and tired of nagging newsletter subscription pop-ups, obnoxious adverts, autoplaying videos that chase you as you scroll and other misfeatures of the modern web
      • Live somewhere with slow internet, can’t afford fast internet, or live off-grid and need to conserve precious battery power and minimise expensive satellite data use
      • Are a hobbyist programmer with a “do it yourself” attitude who enjoys building their own tools and getting real use out of them every day

      If multiple points above apply to you and you’ve been finding the web an increasingly unpleasant place for several years, Gemini might feel like a real breath of fresh air, even an oasis - but it’s not necessarily for everybody. In order to make sure that Gemini remains a simple, lightweight technology which respects its users’ privacy and autonomy not just now but into the future, the feature set has been deliberately kept quite minimal. It’s definitely not too minimal to be useful, but it certainly can’t do everything you might be used to, and maybe it’s missing something that’s a deal-breaker for you. Keep an open mind, give it a try, and see how you feel. Plenty of people have been surprised at how quickly they stop missing things they thought they couldn’t live without!

      • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
        2·
        15 hours ago

        Another advantage: The active Gemini user community might be small (it is maybe five thousand or ten thousand people). But compared to personal pages on Facebook or Microblog on Ex-Twitter, or Reddit or LinkedIn it has pretty high-quality content from people who like to write in long form, and also like to read. If you write there, the response / resonance will be more like what blogs or LiveJournal was around 2005. A part of this is that many people write in a personal, candid and thoughtful way. Like that Israeli evironmental engineer who wrote how much he hated to be conscripted for military service. And writing is also self-reflection. Like having a rare view into other peoples mind. ou do not find that on facebook.

  • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
    13·
    1 day ago

    It is a nice way to host a very lightweight blog or microblog. The ultra-light markup language gives it a feel like a wiki. Such blogs can be viewed with a client like deedum for Android or amfora for Linux, or with a brower using an gemini-to-web gateway: Here a gateway at mozz.us displaying a German paywall-less newspaper at gemini://taz.de.

    And by the way, since gemini clients can also do local file:// URLs, it is also a minimum-fuss way to organize a local file tree that contains a mix of documentation / info and media like a wiki, and share it locally with people over NFS or Samba (Windows file sharing).

  • lordnikon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61·
    1 day ago

    Also check out the tildeverse for a true internet experience. Its our little hideaway from bigtech. Where you can truly connect with people.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    313·
    23 hours ago

    Neat. That’s going nowhere. Less formatting than even markdown… Hey kids you like plain text files right?