solderpunk solderpunk at SDF.ORG
Fri Jun 26 13:55:52 BST 2020
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On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 07:51:05AM -0400, Jason McBrayer wrote:
One argument that I often see is that TLS makes it impossible to use
Gemini with retrocomputing setups (i.e. computers older than about
2005 in this case). I've encountered this also with brutaldon, my static HTML
front-end for the Fediverse; people want to connect to it from Windows
3.1 or Mac System 7, and can't use anything newer than SSLv2, which a
modern server will reject.
I see it too. I love retrocomputing! Honestly. But it's insane to saythat 99.9% of the world should sacrifice important privacy protections sothat the geekiest 0.1% can play with very old computers. I am kind ofdubious that it's impossible to compile a modern TLS library on acomputer from 2005, but I'll admit I haven't tried it recently (up untilapproximatey 3 or 4 years ago I occasionally used a Thinkpad X60s (from2006) and I don't remember having any TLS issues).
My general recommendation for this case is to run a proxy (e.g. stunnel)
on your own LAN, on something like a Raspberry Pi or a cellphone, and
let it handle the encryption. This would work for Gemini as well. You'd
need a cleartext client, but only for retro devices.
This is a really solid suggestion and I may well add it to the FAQ inthe retrocomputing sections.
Cheers,Solderpunk