04.05.21
Why People Should Nowadays Use a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to Access Gemini Space, Command-Line Stuff Hasn’t Much to Offer for Ordinary Surfers
Summary: Many terminal/CLI applications exist for accessing Gemini capsules, but at this stage (2 years after Gemini started) the graphical front ends offer more for less, which is why I’ve mostly stopped using anything but Lagrange and Moonlander
Browsers/clients for Gemini protocol (gemini://) have rapidly improved over the past year. Even though many terminal-based clients do exist and are easy to install, in the name of usability it’s better to use a GUI. The existing ones don’t take up much memory (RAM) because Gemini is nowhere as bloated as the World Wide Web.
“We’ve included a list of Gemini clients below, copied from a reference page.”In this video I compare existing GUIs to a popular ncurses/terminal application. Nothing is perfect, but we’ve reached the point where Gemini specification is mature enough and software for it is sufficiently well tested. We’ve thus gone far enough to become mainstream; Gemini seems to be ready for the general public, not just for geeks.
We’ve included a list of Gemini clients below, copied from a reference page. █
Terminal
Amfora (Go) – “fancy” terminal client.
Asuka (Rust) – an NCurses-based Gemini client.
AV-98 (Python) – Gemini client derived from the popular VF-1 Gopher client.
bollux (Bash) – bash Gemini client.
bombadillo (Go) – combined Gopher, Gemini, Finger, and File client with vim-inspired key mappings.
cgmnlm (C) – colorful gemini line-mode client, fork of gmni.
diohsc (Haskell) – simple line-based command-response terminal user interface with ANSI colour.
Elpher (Emacs) – combined Gopher and Gemini client for the popular text editor / operating system.
gem.awk (Awk) – minimal but usable interactive Gemini client in < 250 LOC of Awk.
gemini-demo-1 (Python) – minimal but usable interactive Gemini client in < 100 LOC of Python 3.
gemini-demo-2 (Lua) – minimal but usable interactive Gemini client in < 100 LOC of Lua.
gemini-demo-3 (Go) – minimal but usable interactive Gemini client in not quite < 100 LOC of Go.
gemini-fetch (Node.js) – cURL-like CLI for loading content from Gemini URLs.
gmni (C) – CLI utility (like curl) and line-mode browser.
min (Go) – supports advanced features like input and client certificate generation.
ncgopher (Rust) – gopher and gemini client for the modern internet.
GUI (desktop)
Agregore – (Electron.js) – peer to peer web browser with support for loading Gemini pages.
Alrisha (QML) – QML-based Gemini client.
Castor (Rust) – graphical Gemini client using GTK.
Fafi (Racket) – graphical Gemini browser written in Racket.
Lagrange (C) – desktop GUI client with inline image viewing, multiple tabs, bookmarks and more.
Moonlander (Rust) – the fanciest Gemini client in the entire solar system.
Kristall (C++) – graphical Gopher and Gemini client using QT.
spacewar (Electron.js) – Gemini browser running on Electron.
Mobile
Ariane (Kotlin/Java) – Gemini protocol client for Android based OS.
Deedum (Dart) – an Android and iOS client made with Flutter.
Elaho (Swift) – full featured Gemini protocol browser for iOS.
Gem (Python) – Gemini client for Ubuntu Touch.
Xenia (Java) – Gemini proxy for Android.
Phaedra (Java) – Gemini client for Android supporting even very old ones; author recommends using Ariana if a current Android is at hand.
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