[rcarmo]

I went down the Gemini rabbit hole last week (https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/01/17/0800, and even coded my own minimalist server for it) and tend to agree that both its protocol and markup are oversimplified technical solutions in search of a problem, although I wouldn’t cast it so harshly.

It does feel like escapism/subculture of sorts, and I do believe that retreat from the Web is one of the underlying motivations, but (maintaining a relatively minimalist Markdown-backed site myself) I agree that there are no real technical reasons for it to exist (even Markdown support is something that is relatively easy to agree upon across browsers).

What I do like about it is the Lagrange browser, and the extremely legible reading experience—-I consume most of my content via RSS feeds and Reader Mode on websites I visit frequently, and I like the uniformity and predictability of the layout, as well as the lack of ads and distractions.

I’d be happy enough if Lagrange’s unfettered visual style became a sort of “forced Reader mode” in standard browsers…