# Short Reviews of Gemini Clients

2021-01-19

These reviews are possibly not going to say much because honestly Gemini is mostly JUST TEXT and a stylesheet, at least in my mind. So if they don't crash and look okay and are easy to navigate/use, that's 99% what I'm looking for.

This post is subject to change because we're still in a nascent period and I expect flux in the spec and ecosystem this year.

I have a Linux running Ubuntu, a Windows machine, an iPad and a handheld pocketChip Linux computer and access Gemini on all of these!

My favorite clients are Amfora (CLI) and Kristall (GUI). Details below.

## GUI Clients

### Kristall

I like the aesthetics of this one. There are nightly build binaries that can be installed. Super simple aesthetics. Have a 1 or 2 month old binary and still works fine. Simple. Recommended. Tested on Linux and Windows. My go-to if I want a GUI app. Kristall supports Gopher as well, but I haven't tried it. Okay, here's why I also like it: It serves good ole' (bad ole') http and https, which means when I want to view the other web, I can do so, free of javascript, and get this minimal calm web. Seriously, it's very relaxing! It's also nice to be able to follow http links from Gemini pages within the same app.

## What I didn't try and why
I chose a GUI client honestly by first ruling out trying anything where I'd need to install a whole programming language environment. I don't code in Rust or Go lang or Racket. This wouldn't be a problem except that a number of GUI apps require these 400MB+ installs for the language, and I just don't want to install that just to use a simple Gemini client. So if the program was in one of these languages and there was no Binary, I didn't try it. That's why, for example, I didn't try Castor even though it looks nice.

I mostly use Linux, so didn't try out Lagrange which is pretty much new this past month and has simple builds / instructions for only Mac and Windows. But it does look nice, so perhaps will try to install dependencies and build from source later.

## CLI Clients

Both Bombadillo and Amfora are preinstalled on the Ctrl-C.club tilde instance that I'm a member of but I use them on my own computer as well.

### Amfora

This is the commandline client I use 99% of the time. I have tested on Ubuntu, Debian, over ssh, and have installed it on my tiny handheld PocketChip Linux computer (similar to a raspberry pi, maybe about 4 years old at this point). And it works well on all of them. It's blazing fast. The colors are nice out of the box, though can be configured. The dev is very responsive online, though I've never needed help/complaints. Took me a try to realize the controls. Type the number of any link if it's less than 10. If it's more than 10, hit spacebar, then type the number and enter. Alternatively, you can hit spacebar and type in a full link. Bookmark is control-D. Back is b. I think that's all you need to know. This will make more sense if you open the app. Help is ? and esc to quit the help. I really like this one. It even has tabs if you want to use it, and is easy to jump between tabs.

Built with Go and Python but you can download a binary and install was simple. Just chmod +x and you're good to go. There are also packages if you prefer to install via Homebrew, Pacman and K1ss but not yet Aptitude.

### Bombadillo

It's fine, but I didn't like the nav and color/design as much as Amfora. It does allow Gopher, but I haven't felt a need to browse that.

### AV-98

A test client by the creator of the original Gemini spec, Solderpunk. This is the least-bells-and-whistles way to browse Gemini and yet it works fine as well. Took me some time to figure out navigation. I use this on the commandline running Alpine Linux virtualization on my iPad, but it's been over a month so I guess I don't love this. If text is over a screenfull in length you probably want to run the less pager so you can read the full post, and then q to quit. I haven't used this in a while so I can't remember the command to open a link. I think it was b to access bookmarks. I don't remember. You'll have to look it up, sorry.

### Didn't try

Asuka - required I install Rust to build. No.

Elpher - I don't use emacs. 

## iOS Clients

### The Gemini Browser

A generic name. Originally available on TestFlight. I really like this one. It's built on a fork of Firefox and manages to feel native to the device, not in a bad way. Only issue I've had is the app sometimes seems slow to load a page, but I just downloaded new version recently and this problem seems to have decreased.  One thing I really like: the colorscheme. Rather than user-selectable stylesheet options, the URL of the gemini site you're visiting is hashed and that's used to generate the background color. They are light pinkish-greenish-yellowish and occasionally blue-ish. I'm not doing the description justice. I love the look. The fonts are clear. This feels like a nice simple iOS app. I prefer to read NPR and CNN on here via a http bridge.

### Deedum

New to the scene this month. Feels a bit default tech-y aesthetic to me. Nice feature: Click the clock icon to be able to jump back to an earlier site you viewed. Overall, couldn't get over the generic web app aesthetic. It was neither the 90s vibe nor a contemporary slick design but rather an ugly "default blogger" vibe that I couldn't jive with. I'm willing to try again though and it's nice there are a few options on iOS, but I won't be using this.

### Didn't Try

Rocketeer is available currently on the TestFlight app and requires a newer version of iOS than I'm able to install so I didn't get to try. I emailed the developer and they were sympathetic though.



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