Okay, here’s my blog post about my experience setting up `emacs gemini`:
So, I’ve been messing around with this Gemini thing. It’s like the web, but way simpler. No JavaScript, no CSS, just plain text and links. I thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to browse this stuff right inside Emacs?” Turns out, you totally can!
First, I had to find a package. I did some digging and found `elpher`, which is a Gopher and Gemini client for Emacs. Gopher is like Gemini’s older, slightly more complicated cousin. `elpher` handles both, so that’s perfect.
Getting `elpher` Installed
I used `*`, the built-in package manager in Emacs. I just did `M-x package-install RET elpher RET`. Boom! It’s installed. If you haven’t used `*` before, you might need to set up your package archives. There are guides for that all over the place, I followed the one on the emacs wiki, so I won’t go into that here.
Browsing Gemini Space
Once `elpher` was installed, I was ready to go. I used `M-x elpher RET`. It asked me for a URL. I typed in a Gemini URL I knew, like gemini://* (not a real one, make sure you use a real Gemini URL!).
And there it was! The Gemini page, right there in my Emacs buffer. It looked pretty good, all things considered. It’s just text, but `elpher` does a nice job of formatting it.
I could navigate around using the usual Emacs keybindings. `n` and `p` for next and previous lines, `SPC` and `backspace` to scroll, and so on. But the cool part was following links. `elpher` shows links as underlined text. I just moved the cursor to a link and hit `RET`, and it opened that page.
It felt really… clean. No ads, no tracking, just the content. It’s a very different experience from the modern web.
Some Things I Noticed
- It’s fast. Seriously, loading pages is almost instant.
- It’s simple. No distractions, just the text and links.
- It’s keyboard-driven. Perfect for Emacs!
Of course, it’s not the full web. You won’t be watching videos or doing online banking on Gemini. But for reading text-based content, it’s pretty great.
I’m still exploring Gemini space, but I’m really liking it so far. And having it integrated into Emacs makes it even better. If you’re an Emacs user and you’re curious about Gemini, I definitely recommend giving `elpher` a try!
It’s a whole different world out there, and it’s nice to have a comfortable, familiar way to explore it. Feels good to be off the beaten path for a while, even if it’s just in a text buffer.
