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Gemini first impressions |
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July 29th, 2019 |
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I finally spent the 5 minutes necessary to download one of the few |
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available Gemini clients. I went with AV-98 [0] from solderpunk. |
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It's interface is basically the same as VF-1, so it had that going |
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for it. Also, I didn't need to download a rust compiler. ;) |
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[0] AV-98 |
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While there's not a lot of content around gemini-space (more on |
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this in a second), it was still nice to have a way in to poke |
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around. I see some journal activity already taking shape, and |
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that's a great place to start. |
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I'll be honest. At first I thought of Gemini as a neat but |
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ultimately useless side project of the already-tiny gopher |
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community. The more I've seen it worked on and thought about it |
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the more I've come to consider it a "real thing" of some |
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importance. But lets come back to that idea in a minute. |
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First, lets talk about the naming of things. |
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"Gemini" is the protocol. It appears to be capitalized in all |
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occurences within solderpunk's FAQ. |
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"Gemini maps" are the temporary term for the document format of |
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a Gemini server. It's coined by solderpunk here [1] and only named |
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that "until a better name comes along." |
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[1] Gemini maps |
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"Geminiholes" - mentioned by solderpunk, but noone is using it. |
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"Gemini server/client" are the defacto name for individual tools |
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that power it. |
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"Gemini-verse / Gemini-sphere / Gemini ecosystem" - I haven't |
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noted any special term for this akin to "the web" or |
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"gopherspace". Is there something already in use? |
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"Journal" - weB LOG / goPHer LOG like structure. Is there |
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a playful term for these yet? |
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What other terms are we missing? |
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Okay, enough of that. Time for THOUGHTS OF IMPORTANCE! |
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The built-in TLS by design of Gemini is great, and combined with |
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the natural ability to run it unpriviliged and require very little |
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bandwidth I can see it serving a valuable purpose in safely |
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providing a platform for authors in situations where the web is |
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not. Take Khazikstan, for instance, who is MITMing the entire |
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country. Gopher was always a nice idea to help in these |
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situations, but the lack of reliable security on it meant major |
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problems for real applications. Gemini fixes that. What's more, |
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Gemini over tor adds in anonymity. |
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I have more thoughts on the tor thing, and around real-world |
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applications for a minimalist hyperlinkable publishing protocol |
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with built in anonymity and safety, but my internet connection is |
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dying and I have to finish this post while tethered to my phone. |
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Thank goodness for low bandwidth stuff like gopher and Gemini, |
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right? |
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In the meantime, what are your thoughts on using Gemini (one day) |
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in a setting that's not just hobby play? |
