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This is a Gemini version of this article
When we browse the web, we generally use http (or sometimes https) in front of the urls. HTTP is a protocol. Simply put, a protocol is like a road with certain rules. You see one way roads and normal roads. They each have separate rules on how traffic will move within them. Protocol is quite similar.
Ultimately, a protocol sets some rules on how the file or page you want, is going to be sent over to you. This is a simplification. A formal definition would be:
The Internet protocol suite provides end-to-end data communication specifying how data should be packetized, addressed, transmitted, routed, and received.
Internet protocol suite article on Wikipedia (Gemini)
Internet protocol suite article on Wikipedia (HTTPS)
If you have HTTP on a URL it will follow rules for it, if you have FTP it will follow rules for that one instead. There are many other protocols out there, but I've seen these two the most. Each protocol is designed to be used for different purposes. e.g. HTTP is fast for webpages and ftp is fast for file transfers.
There is a new protocol in town, called Gemini that's catching the hype.
Gemini is a stripped down version of the HTTP protocol. On Gemini, you can't have images on your content directly, nor any styles or JavaScript. It allows just these basic things:
- text
- headings
- link
- quotes
- preformatted text (or code)
A document in Gemini would be formatted like this:
# Heading Some text in a paragraph. Another sentence in a paragraph. => http://example.com/somepage.html Link to something => gemini://example.com/anotherpage.html Link to something else > Here is a quote which started in one line > and continued to another ``` echo 'This is a code example' ```
As you can imagine, the syntax allows no inline links, no inline images, no inline tags and no formatting (such as bold, italic etc.) So you can say that they're not actually websites. They are similar, but they work differently. So websites in Gemini are called "capsules".
To get a more deeper understanding, you can watch these videos:
https://odysee.com/@BrodieRobertson:5/gemini-is-the-modern-web-really-too:f
https://odysee.com/@AlphaNerd:8/gemini-an-even-better-internet-protocol:0
https://odysee.com/@DistroTube:2/gemini-is-what-the-web-should-have-been:9
If you browse the web, you probably know how complicated pages can be. Some even need to download megabytes of data before showing you the article you needed to read. Plus, it comes with the ever hated tracking features. You could hand the HTTP protocol to a web developer and request him to make lightweight pages, but he will not listen. One way or another there will be fancy features brought into the webpage and all hope is lost.
Gemini on the other hand is forcefully simple. You can't include anything else other than the supported tags. To make things even simpler, there are no inline styles, images etc. so when you're browsing a Gemini capsule, you can be sure that you are not getting anything other than text. Linked files are only downloaded when you tell your browser to, which is a big relief I guess.
Another advantage is that Gemini traffic is secure by default. It supports TLS 1.2 at a minimum and won't let you access it without any certificate or anything less than TLS 1.2. So you know for sure when you're browsing a page on Gemini, it came to you encrypted and secure.
TLS (Transport Layer Security) on Wikipedia (Gemini mirror)
TLS (Transport Layer Security) on Wikipedia (HTTP mirror)
There is a similar protocol already called Gopher, but it has limitations, such as, it doesn't support unicode, doesn't enforce TLS etc. Look at "2.2 Which shortcomings of Gopher does Gemini overcome?" question of their FAQ page for details.
To point out the benefits:
- Content is usually lightweight - so even ok for any low powered devices or data plans
- Downloads only the content you want, typically text
- Downloads linked content only when you want them, nothing else with it
- No styles, so you can customize how the text looks within the browser
- No JavaScript, so no hidden tracking, no unnecessary features
- Secure by default, unencrypted traffic is automatically rejected by the protocol
- Improves over Gopher
Here is what Chris Were thinks why Gemini was necessary:
https://share.tube/videos/watch/35176347-bb22-4f8a-85e9-7134e85cd0e6
Above all, everybody's using it, so should you. ;-)
Gemini capsules are not meant to be browsed with a traditional browser. If you insist, you can use some Gemini-to-Web proxies to browse them in a normal browser:
You can open them up, paste in the Gemini url and it will show you the content.
There is also an addon to use proxies automatically.
Link to the Geminize browser plugin
But you'll not be able to enjoy the full benefits of the protocol if you use them. You'll need to have a specially designed browser for accessing the pages within Gemini to use it properly.
Such a browser is Lagrange.
Lagrange browser's project homepage
Good thing is that it tries to mimic a traditional browsing experience for your Gemini needs. It has a hefty feature list.
Lagrange feature list on the help page
With these features you can expect a comfortable browsing experience compared to other clients. So extremely recommended for people who are starting out on Gemini.
You can download Lagrange from here
It has AppImage for Linux, so you can just download it, right click on it, go to Properties, make it executable, and double click on it to start using it. It's that simple.
When you start Lagrange, you get a browser UI similar to any other browsers. Open a new tab with Ctrl+T and type in a gemini URL to go there. For exmple, try `gus.guru` or `chriswere.uk`. Including `gemini://` is optional. Lagrange automatically adds it for you if you've missed it.
chriswere.uk Gemini page displaying on Lagrange along with other pages on other tabs
When you want to close the active tab, you can press Ctrl+W or right click the tab and select the option for it, just like a traditional browser.
To customize the browsing experience, you can click the hamburger menu at the top right and go to Preferences.
The hamburger menu has lots of options
Lagrange preferences dialog with lots of useful features
You can right click on a page to get more options. Besides the options to go back or forward, it gives you the option to bookmark or subscribe to a page, copy page sources or even download it if necessary.
Lagrange right click context menu
If you have to find something on the page, you can just hit Ctrl+F and a search bar appears at the bottom. You can type some text to search and press enter to perform the search.
If you need to input something on a page, it shows a nice dialog for the input.
Input dialog when a website asks for it
Another cool feature of Lagrange is that it can show images inline (I think only if they're on Gemini protocol). If you click on such a link, it will expand and show the image inline, just like a traditional browser would. You can enable the "Load image on scroll" setting to load the images automatically when you scroll.
It has panes on the left and right to show you many things, including an outline of the current page, bookmarks, history, subscribed pages etc. You can access the panes from the hamburger menu and hit either Toggle Left Sidebar or Toggle Right Sidebar.
Left and right sidebar showing page outline and pinned items
If you have more questions on how to do things, be sure to comment below.
Gemini has many hosts that let you publish your content on Gemini for free. One such site is gemlog.blue.
Great thing about it is, you don't need any email. Just go to https://gemlog.blue with a normal browser (it doesn't support posting from Gemini browser) and click "Create Account" at the top. Give it a username and a password to join. Be sure to choose a good username because your content will be available in `gemini://gemlog.blue/users/<your username>`
Click on the Add post link above and start writing.
Adding a post to Geminispace with gemlog.blue UI
After writing your post, fill up the username and password field below and click submit. It's simple.
If you feel like there's nothing to do on Gemini, try these:
Gemini mirrors for popular sites
Categorized directory for Gemini capsules
Gemini (protocol) on Wikipedia
Internet protocol suite on Wikipedia
gemini, protocol, linux
