Do you browse the Geminispace with a GUI, TUI, or CLI client?
CLI = run in terminal with parameters to load a single page and immediately and automatically exit upon output, TUI = run in terminal once to load and navigate many pages in succession
Poll Results
1. GUI
████████████████████▁▁▁▁ 82%
2. TUI
███▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 12%
3. CLI
██▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 6%
109 votes were cast.
🗳️
2025-12-11 · 5 months ago · 👍 hyperreal, ed, bsj38381, baran, curry, auzzie32, The_Jackal, theo
54 Comments ↓
🐡 Breebee [...] · Dec 11 at 23:56:
i use a gui client (Lagrange) from my phone but otherwise i much prefer my tui clients (like Telescope and Bombadillo)
Using lagrange in android and a laptop and kristall in my Desktop
💝 poemas_infieles · Dec 12 at 00:19:
Rosy Crow on Android, Lagrange and Amfora on desktop
Happily using Lagrange
I use Lagrange too, on both desktop and mobile.
I use Lagrange on my laptop and on my android phone.
Amfora
🚀 SavaRocks · Dec 12 at 04:32:
lagrange gui on my laptops and also on my android phone
amfora
Lagrange :)
offpunk most of the time (cli), and then deedum and Lagrange on phone (gui). Text mode browsing and smol protocols work very nicely together :)
Mosly Lagrange, but sometimes I'll use Elpher when it's more at hand.
I use the telescope TUI browser as a default browser, which also supports Gopher and Finger besides Gemini and supports user certificates too. But for opening Gemini/Gopher/Finger links from inside Qutebrowser (www with xdg-open) I use Lagrange, which opens in a scratchpad in AwesomeWM, because telescope is garbled, when opened directly in an Alacritty scratchpad.
Lagrange
I thought that I'd want to use a terminal client to browse gemini but didn't find any that I really liked. I thought I'd give lagrange a go and I'm very impressed. I might just stick with lagrange.
Gofer looks good on a terminal. Gemini not so much. Disapointed.
☕️ tenno-seremel · Dec 12 at 17:01:
Is Emacs running in GTK mode TUI or GUI? 🤔
I'm using github.com/dimkr/gplaces, I guess it's "CLI" and not "TUI"
💀 StrokedOut [OP] · Dec 12 at 18:09:
IMHO, CLI = run in terminal with parameters to load a single page and immediately exit upon output, TUI = run in terminal once to load and navigate many pages in succession
CLI is getting more votes than I'd expected! One is mine, I use diohsc almost exclusively. I'm interpreting CLI to include line-based interfaces, while anything using curses or similar is TUI.
💀 StrokedOut [OP] · Dec 12 at 18:41:
@mbays It overlaps. A line-based interface combined with number shortcuts for following links is in-between. Another, maybe better distinction would be mouse- or touch-controlled pixel interface vs. keyboard-controlled character interface.
Lagrange for the win.
🌙 skyebound · Dec 12 at 20:44:
I'm happily using Lagrange for now, but I'm working on my own GUI client too.
I've read in another thread, somebody saying analogously, that he doesn't understand, why somebody uses Gemini at all when using a fancy GUI client. You could directly use a web browser and browse the www. Gemini can be used well with a small TUI client and it's designed that way, just like Gopher. I can only agree with that.
🗡️ The_Jackal · Dec 13 at 06:41:
@fab The GUI clients seem far less bloated than your average normal browser, though. When a GUI is simplistic enough, say windows 3.1 style, it really isn't that bad. Of course I'm mostly using Lagrange on Android so far, and I find it to be a fine mix of simple and a good and readable GUI without being too cluttered. I found Deedum to look more simplistic, but Lagrange easier to navigate with. The real problem to come from GUIs is an overfocus on fancy eye candy and such instead of just being concise, simple to read, and small. I don't think having some 'eyecandy' stuff in a GUI is bad, but it shouldn't come by default and should be something you download later only if you want it. (I'd really only have it on a machine used for leisure, and I always turn off animations, it saves time. I use Linux Mint and I have this clear blue glass Aero theme, and that's all I really care for.) I find Lagrange to be a nice amount of simple without being too cluttered or maze like. I'll make sure to check out some TUI/CLI clients sometime though, it seems like they'd be interesting to use. They'd also feel closer to days of things such as Usenet, I'd imagine.
@The_Jackal You are right that even the GUI Gemini/Gopher/Finger clients are far less bloated than a full blown web browser. And not everyone uses a tiling Window Manager to use the mouse as little as possible, like I do. For these people a GUI client may be viable. But for me it's a waste of resources and a mouseless TUI client is far easier to navigate. And in my opinion it's one of the design goals of Gopher/Gemini/Finger to be easily usable from the commandline.
i try to use lagrange for even http pages, i use it with http to gemini proxy.
whatever opens sort of in lagrange, i am satisfied with that.
only whatever not opens, i run in a web browser.
and i do use lagrange because i open looooots of tabs and windows.
i tend to sort tabs relevant to the same topics in the same window.
then i distribute those lagrange windows to different workspaces.
and since lagrange remembers workspace in x11, i can after restart get the same state of windows on different x11 workspaces.
I use all three at various times. My preferred Android client is deedum. On some of my computers I primarily run Kristall, and on others I primarily run Offpunk. I also have a Bash alias for one-off browsing and archiving documents, which gets some use across all of my devices.
🗡️ The_Jackal · Dec 13 at 16:27:
@fab Oh, of course. That's a nice design goal as well, and I don't think the making of GUI clients would hinder that much. I could also imagine navigating being quicker after getting used to keyboard in a terminal more. I personally like using a mouse more though, and if I had a terminal based system would probably want something where I can use a mouse like normal with right clicking and copy and pasting, but also able to just hide the mouse in the corner and use it as normal if I wanted.
There is no good reason for worse keyboard controls in a GUI, except that GUI users and coders love that dumb mouse...
🗡️ The_Jackal · Dec 13 at 17:02:
@stack Not once did I argue for worse keyboard controls in a GUI, though. You should be able to navigate with anything used to control your computer. I feel like having a hotkey to swap from short cuts on the desktop and the task bar on a simplistic, say, cinnamon type desktop and pressing enter to 'click' things could be fine. That would still raise the question of how well you'd navigate other GUI applications however.
🐰 99thplace · Dec 14 at 00:45:
lagrange all the way!! :°3
Mostly lagrange. I also enjoyed telescope TUI, but there were some issues last I tried; and keeping keys across the two is annoying.
Elpher. I suppose GNU Emacs counts as a GUI, right?
Emacs is an OS with a GUI.
Lagrange FTW on mobile and laptop. Totally open to trying a TUI though
☯️ leoperbo · Dec 18 at 00:31:
GUI: Lagrange. TUI: amfora (when I want to feel like a hacker or when I need to keep away curious eyes in a boring meeting where I prefer to read some gemini stuff)
🗡️ The_Jackal · Dec 18 at 00:47:
@leoperbo I've yet to use Lagrange on anything but my android, but I just might check out Amfora when I decide to use Gemini on PC. Is there a way to transfer certificates to it?
It depends on the device I'm using. On my phone or laptop I use Lagrange, but on my netbook I use Amfora
I actually use Kristall. It's in debian repos and is simple and pleasant to look at. I made it match colors of my gtk and qt themes.
☯️ leoperbo · Dec 28 at 05:28:
Apologies for the delay in response:
— A way to use Lagrange certificates in Amfora
🗡️ The_Jackal · Dec 28 at 06:11:
@leoperbo So this can be used to take the certificates I have here in Lagrange and use them with Amfora?
☯️ leoperbo · Dec 28 at 09:01:
Exactly 👌
Lagrange for both Android and Desktop. I like Amfora as well but Lagrange is a bit more feature rich, plus adding certs in Amfora is a bit annoying.
I've yet to try Lagrange's TUI, maybe I should do that...
happy with amfora, although i'd quite like a nicer graphical browser. lagrange is alright but i'd like something a bit simpler.. i really liked castor but i've been having some difficulty getting it to compile on freebsd
well, wouldn't you know it.. gave it another go and got castor compiled, from which i'm now posting :) this is a pretty happy little graphical browser for me. although i wouldn't be able to pick between this and amfora
Oh the port looks reallly broken wow
Congrats @starm have never toyed with submitting new ports and stuff on bugzilla but maybe consider submitting a patch for FreeBSD castor port
@logvoid9 maybe i should look into it! i've thought for a bit about making contributions to the freebsd ports tree, but i've never contributed to another person's project before, and what's more the mechanics of makefiles and stuff go over my head. at one point i did learn enough about how they worked to learn how to hobble my way through writing and applying a patch for personal use, so i could toy with a port and recompile it.. but actually contributing something of substance could be a really fun learning experience
don't even remember what i did to make it compile haha i don't think it was from the ports tree though anyway, i think i just got the code directly from whoever it was that wrote castor and did something to make that work. i honestly don't remember if it was even kosher though, i might've done something cursed like compiled it in a linux jail and moved the executable out LOL.. i was i think getting gopherVR to compile that same day though, so i might be mixing up my memories of what exactly i did.. gopherVR i did compile in a linux jail, but i didn't do anything so cursed as then running the exxecutable in my base system, i ran it in the same environment i compiled it in :p
🚀 omorrigan · Feb 09 at 02:12:
i use both since it is flexible
🛞 MaAkThRsYoOySrHtKaAm · Feb 09 at 10:34:
Glad to see I'm not the only one using amfora. Using an edit handler script to edit posts with titan. If you intend to do this then save yourself some trouble and fetch gemini pages with https://github.com/makew0rld/go-gemini This actually opens a text editor where I can do more in-depth composing than in amfora. I also have a keybinding which will produce a gui menu of all sections of a post edit page and open the selected section in a text editor for editing. These scripts post to the board upon saving and closing the text editor. I guess I am using all 3 categories in some way or another.
Edit
I just installed Lagrange via guix. It's very nice. Looks great, easy to navigate. Imported existing key/crt for this BBS identity with a simple drag and drop. Probably, I will use this more often than amfora.
👽 TKurtBond · Mar 10 at 18:03:
I mostly use a GUI, sometimes use a TUI, and very very rarely use CLI.