@m0xee Even on Haiku I like to use NetSurf. Launches instantly and the websites that don’t render in there I probably just shouldn’t visit. Yes that’s most of them.

It doesn’t feel perfectly native to me though. Who knows one day I’ll build a better UI for it ( note #INeverDoAnything )

@santiago
True, people were greeting Google with open arms in hopes that it would help strip Microsoft of their market dominance, not realizing they were falling into a new trap, probably even more cunning than the old one. In the end Google just took MS' place and some realized it all too late.
But I remain positive, we have lots of decentralized alternatives now and Gemini gives me lots of old Web vibes, having enough content to not feel like a ghost town.

@santiago
And computers became so powerful that even a decade-old system is fine for a lot of things, this in turn makes it possible for us to have more open hardware, and with RISC-V, hopefully, even truly open. There are still some things that surprise me in unpleasant way, like my favourite local supermarket chain obsoleting cards for their loyalty program and replacing them with a mobile "app".

@santiago
Yep, now on checkout I have to scan a QR code with a phone that has to be connected to the Internet to enjoy the same discounts that I used to just carrying a piece of plastic with me — there are certainly people who are always online and always have their phone with them, who might like it, but to me it feels totally dystopian, and they probably don't even realize it 🫠
But in any case, I think there are more good things than bad ones 😁

@m0xee Yeah Gemini can’t do everything but I wish we could define simple conventions for example like an image gallery . Currently we can put links in a page but I’d like for the client to get a hint this can be displayed in a grid natively more appropriate for an image portfolio etc.

@santiago
That's the beauty of it — it's not "one size fits all", that is why I think it became (on its scale) so succeccful! I like mostly text content, so for me it's perfect, but I do realize that there are others who like other types of content: there are photos, there are videos, and Gemini simply won't cut it.
There are attempts to extend it, like Molerat — something like Gemini with minimal styling, but you're never sure what would stick.
Then there is "smol web"…

@santiago
I don't hate all web, I like CSS for example — when it's not automatically generated and isn't a result of years of hacking, therefore still human-readable. I like how with nice fonts, minimal CSS and a few color emojis thrown in here and there you can make very simple pages, only a couple of kilobytes big, look sleek — or at least less ugly 🤭
And this works even on my old Lumia — phone that is a decade old and in browser that hasn't been updated in years.

@santiago
You're right though: we have to draw a line where it ceases being the means of presenting content and becomes an application platform.
I have a few things on this old phone so it's useful again: I can browse Fedi, I can browse Gemini, I have these remotes that I have hacked together to control various devices in my home, but what these do is send simple HTTP requests, with e.g. WebRTC it's possible to do the video conferencing within the browser — this is too much!

@m0xee Actually Gemini can be used for an image gallery. Not for huge stuff say you put 12 images and alt text only in a page , then the browser could decide to show this as a grid of images.

The part where Gemini doesn’t keep connections open would make this suboptimal though

@santiago
I agree, definitely technically possible, but lack of persistent connection and tables for representation would make it suboptimal.
Also, although Lagrange, that most use, does preload images, AFAIR they aren't supposed to be inline in gemtext, so showing thumbnails, but providing larger resolution images on request would also pose a challenge — they would have to be on their own pages, which in turn can be automatically generated, something like that 🤔