Gemini's "uselessness" is its killer feature
I really like the idea but reading this in the FAQ disappoints me: &quot;Gemini has no support for caching, compression, or resumption of interrupted downloads&quot;<p>Back in the day in the time of BBS with Fidonet or Usenet, I really liked the offline first mentality. With zmodem you had compressed and resumable downloads, with Echomail and Fidonet and POP3&#x2F;Usenet you had offline first forums.<p>But the same FAQ says Gemini is also for those:
&quot;Interested in low-power computing and&#x2F;or low-speed networks, either by choice or necessity&quot;<p>This seems to be contradictory. Have compression, caching and resumable downloads omitted by default for the sake of simplicity or can it still be added to the protocol?<p>What&#x27;s the rationale? A more formal seperation of simplicity of presentation and use within slow and frequently disconnected networks?<p>That if you for example want zstd compression you can use a VPN? Or that if you want resumable downloads or caching you can use a local proxy?<p>With the right proxy or browser one could emulate Gemini experience with the regular www, similar to using the old Opera Mini or force Reader View, block all images, javascript and ads on all sites. Wouldn&#x27;t that be &#x27;better&#x27;?