I recently looked into whether or not it’s possible to browse the newish text based Gemini network on PowerPC. Surprisingly there are a few options available:
Through a web portal.
Emulating an Amiga and using the app AmiGemini.
Logging in via SSH to a Public Access Unix System and using their browser.
Installing a Python terminal based browser.
I tried AmiGemini first on the E-UAE emulator and it works really well, although a little slow as the emulated Amiga 1200 chews through negotiating a secure TLS handshake.
An added bonus is the Amiga low-res screen which ands to the charm of browsing on a text based protocol.
The portal option I wasn’t keen on as I was looking for something that had that vintage Terminal/BBS feel.
Thanks to the sterling work of @cellularmitosis and his leopard.sh package manager I already had a newish install of Python so installing Offpunk via pip3 was a breeze. I could browse either with the standard OSX Terminal or a terminal emulator.
GLTerm is great fun (although there are bugs to negotiate with the PowerPC version) and you can mess around with the preferences to go full 1983 if you want to with a flickering amber tube - you can even reduce the bitrate down to 300 baud!
For ease of use (and less eye strain) there’s iTerm which doesn’t have any retro fakery but can allow you to change fonts and go full screen.
And despite being downclocked to around half speed (about 800Mhz) my Powerbook was in no way hampered by browsing this text based internet - CPU use is minimal.
Browsing Gemini is refreshing and it’s simplicity is alluring - no whizzbang ads and script clutter, just content and there’s something distinctively intimate about the experience. I’ve decided to call it Rainy Day Browsing
Obviously I wanted to join in too, so I hired some dirt cheap virtual server space (Gemini has such low requirement, a single core VPS with minimum RAM will suffice) and cobbled my Gemini Capsule (as they call them) together and got it online.
Again, incredibly, all doable from my Powerbook - server admin via SSH (after installing Dropbear) and uploading files with Cyberduck.
There are Gemini space providers out there so you can get publishing with ease but there are often compromises which is why I went the self hosting route.
Through a web portal.
Emulating an Amiga and using the app AmiGemini.
Logging in via SSH to a Public Access Unix System and using their browser.
Installing a Python terminal based browser.
I tried AmiGemini first on the E-UAE emulator and it works really well, although a little slow as the emulated Amiga 1200 chews through negotiating a secure TLS handshake.
An added bonus is the Amiga low-res screen which ands to the charm of browsing on a text based protocol.
The portal option I wasn’t keen on as I was looking for something that had that vintage Terminal/BBS feel.
Thanks to the sterling work of @cellularmitosis and his leopard.sh package manager I already had a newish install of Python so installing Offpunk via pip3 was a breeze. I could browse either with the standard OSX Terminal or a terminal emulator.
GLTerm is great fun (although there are bugs to negotiate with the PowerPC version) and you can mess around with the preferences to go full 1983 if you want to with a flickering amber tube - you can even reduce the bitrate down to 300 baud!
For ease of use (and less eye strain) there’s iTerm which doesn’t have any retro fakery but can allow you to change fonts and go full screen.
And despite being downclocked to around half speed (about 800Mhz) my Powerbook was in no way hampered by browsing this text based internet - CPU use is minimal.
Browsing Gemini is refreshing and it’s simplicity is alluring - no whizzbang ads and script clutter, just content and there’s something distinctively intimate about the experience. I’ve decided to call it Rainy Day Browsing
Obviously I wanted to join in too, so I hired some dirt cheap virtual server space (Gemini has such low requirement, a single core VPS with minimum RAM will suffice) and cobbled my Gemini Capsule (as they call them) together and got it online.
Again, incredibly, all doable from my Powerbook - server admin via SSH (after installing Dropbear) and uploading files with Cyberduck.
There are Gemini space providers out there so you can get publishing with ease but there are often compromises which is why I went the self hosting route.
