Why Gopher in 2026?

72 points by andsoitis 9 hours ago on hackernews | 22 comments

Entry 001 - Why gopher in 2026? May 22nd 2026 First off, if you're reading this, you're probably the kind of person who can't just use a tool, you have to know how it works. There are smart people who are good at what they do. Some people are master chefs, awesome mechanics, great sculptors or skillful accountants. But how many of those people dive so deep into what they are good at to understand what makes it tick? People like us are the ones who build a phlog for fun just to get a feeling for how far we've come with technology. Maybe you're here for the nostalgia, maybe it's to turn off the noise of modern tech. The important part is you are here now, in 2026 or beyond. I'm noticing a trend with my 17 year old and their friends with ADHD where they want to turn off the noise of the world and go back to simpler times. As one who is from those simpler times, I'm a little proud but also a little "Get off my lawn!" It's impossible to go back to that at this point and for better or worse, we have to make sense of where we are. Flip phones are simple and low- tech to them, but for us they were the latest in tech! We have syntax highlighting in vim that wasn't there when I was using vi so many years ago. Now I not only know it's there, but I can google how to set up so many features that I didn't know existed and would never figure out from the manual. Back in the day you had to find someone who first off knew what you were even talking about and second who knew more than you did. For me, this was how I ended up knowing a little about a lot but not being able to wrestle the arcane knowledge from the man pages. I think tech is in a weird place that is both super helpful and yet so unhelpful at the same time. Subscriptions for everything, services changing all the time and profits driving the direction of everything. It's nice to find a place like sdf that operates like how things used to. Thanks for stopping by! Wayne =============================================================================== (Comment left when I was using germ 0.4.0) 2026 May 24, 10:29 I feel you, on one hand we cant go back, on the other, we have to go back. Im not sure where that leaves us. All I know is that I (myself) need to slow down. - y4my4m