_ _ _| | _ _ _ ___ ___ _| |_ _ ___ ___ ___| |_|___ | | | | . | . | . | | |_| _| . | . | | |_ -| |_____|___|___|___|_ |_|___|___|___|_| |___| |___| Gopher Space 12th January 2026 - Investigating Gemini Capsules ===================== So what about Gemini? ===================== Gopher is not the only protocol, other protocols exist for small web usage, and one of the most common protocols, is Gemini. =========================================== What does Gemini offer that Gopher doesn't? =========================================== Gemini, whilst having a similar look and feel to Gopher, is a lot more modern. It's a relatively new protocol and at the moment, there's only a small number of users, however, it is continuing to grow in popularity. The index pages are in a format referred to as "Gemini Text" (or "gemtext" for short) which has some similarities with Markdown from what I can tell. This makes it somewhat more user fiendly than Gopher and a little more flexible, as it's not relying on the outdated and limited "item types" that Gophermaps use. The Gemini clients also support inline images, although, they are normally not loaded by default, and you have to click them to show them, which does still make Gemini rather lightweight, as the images are not loaded straight away. More importantly, Gemini requires encryption support to be enabled as there's no insecure version of the protocol, which means an SSL/TLS certificate is required (although, you can use a self- signed cert here) - this makes it rather stuitable for modern equipment, but, does mean that older platforms may be locked out of Gemini due to lack of SSL/TLS support in older OSes. ================================= What are the downsides of Gemini? ================================= There's a couple of things that make Gemini less viable for me than Gopher, although, these might not be as much of a deal breaker for others, but here goes: - The requirement for SSL/TLS: this prevents oldder retro computer platforms from using these Gemini capsules/sites. I have a specific interest in retro computing, and some of the older platforms I use do not even have SSL/TLS connection capabilities. - From my initial research, I've found less Gemini resources available. It doesn't help that at the time, the official web page about the Gemini Protocol (geminiprotocol.net) appears to be down (both the Web and Gemini versions) - and a lot of Gemini capsules that I have come across all seem to be offline too, so I'm starting to wonder if this is a bit of an abandoned project. Even the r/geminiprotocol subreddit is a ghost town. - Gemini clients seem to target modern platforms, with the only exception being that there's AmiGemini on the Amiga, but all the other clients seem to target Windows, Mac and Linux (GUI and Terminal) - this limits it's usage for retro enthusiasts. - My experience is that Gemini is quite a bit slower - now, I don't know if this is because of the hosting used by the server owners isn't good, or if it's inherent of the protocol, but I've even noticed how much slower Gemini is when hosting locally, so I suspect some of this is protocol related. ============================================= Will you be considering Gemini in the future? ============================================= Due to my retro interests, I will still be concentrating more on Gopher than Gemini. This does not mean I will be ruling Gemini out, but it will not be my main focus, Gopher will still be a higher priority for me, especially due to working on older systems I will still experiment with Gemini, and you can check out my Gemini capsule (gemini.woodycool.uk) but content will be made for Gopher first and then Gemini will be updated later. So, that's my experience of Gemini, is it worse? No, just a bit different and needs some ironing out. I see a place for both Gemini and Gopher, but unfortunately, Gemini is not going to be my primary focus at this time.