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Jun 22, 2026
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update content #37

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164 changes: 87 additions & 77 deletions website/sider/about.html
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Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -3,20 +3,20 @@
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>About Bare &mdash; A minimal Markdown browser</title>
<meta name="description" content="Bare is an experimental browser with a radical focus on content. No JavaScript, no cookies, no tracking. Just fast, private, content-focused browsing.">
<title>About Bare &mdash; A reading instrument for the text internet</title>
<meta name="description" content="Bare is an experimental, open-source reading instrument. It fetches one document, strips everything that isn't the content, and renders it the way you choose.">

<!-- Open Graph / Social Media -->
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:title" content="About Bare &mdash; A minimal Markdown browser">
<meta property="og:description" content="Bare is an experimental browser with a radical focus on content. No JavaScript, no cookies, no tracking.">
<meta property="og:title" content="About Bare &mdash; A reading instrument for the text internet">
<meta property="og:description" content="Not a smaller Chrome. Bare fetches one document, removes everything that isn't the content, and renders it the way you choose.">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://frankburmo.github.io/bare/sider/about.html">
<meta property="og:locale" content="en_US">

<!-- Twitter Card -->
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="About Bare &mdash; A minimal Markdown browser">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Bare is an experimental browser with a radical focus on content. No JavaScript, no cookies, no tracking.">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="About Bare &mdash; A reading instrument for the text internet">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Not a smaller Chrome. Bare fetches one document, removes everything that isn't the content, and renders it the way you choose.">

<!-- Canonical -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://frankburmo.github.io/bare/sider/about.html">
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -69,83 +69,85 @@ <h1>About Bare</h1>
</blockquote>

<p>
Bare is an experimental browser with a radical focus on what truly matters:
<strong>the content</strong>. In an era where websites have become bloated,
overflowing with scripts, ads, and tracking, Bare offers a future where you
only see what you came to read.
Bare is an experimental, open-source <strong>reading instrument</strong> for the
text internet. It is not a smaller version of Chrome &mdash; it is a different kind
of tool that does one thing deliberately: take whatever a server sends and turn it
into clean, consistent, private text that <em>you</em> control.
</p>
</section>

<hr class="section-divider">

<section id="what-makes-different" class="content-section">
<h2>What Makes Bare Different?</h2>
<section id="what-reading-is-like" class="content-section">
<h2>What reading in Bare is actually like</h2>

<div class="feature-grid">
<div class="feature-card">
<span class="feature-icon" aria-hidden="true">📄</span>
<h3>Pure Markdown Rendering</h3>
<p>
Bare is designed to display Markdown files directly. When you visit a URL
pointing to a <code>.md</code> file, it is fetched and displayed immediately
in a clean, readable format. No HTML chaos, no distracting CSS, no JavaScript
loading.
</p>
</div>

<div class="feature-card">
<span class="feature-icon" aria-hidden="true">🚫</span>
<h3>Zero Tracking. Ever.</h3>
<p>
Bare does <strong>not</strong> support JavaScript, cookies, or any tracking
technology. This isn't a setting you can forget to enable &mdash; it's built into
the architecture. Your browsing remains private, by design.
</p>
</div>

<div class="feature-card">
<span class="feature-icon" aria-hidden="true">⚡</span>
<h3>Blazing Fast Performance</h3>
<p>
Without heavy frameworks, scripts, or ads, pages load in milliseconds rather
than seconds. Bare fetches and displays only what matters: the content.
</p>
</div>

<div class="feature-card">
<span class="feature-icon" aria-hidden="true">🌐</span>
<h3>Multi-Protocol Support</h3>
<p>
In addition to standard HTTP/HTTPS, Bare supports Gemini, Gopher, and local
files. Explore the text-based internet as it was meant to be.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>The difference is easiest to feel in a single click.</p>
<p>
You type an address &mdash; or open a local <code>.md</code> file, a
<code>gemini://</code> capsule, or an old <code>gopher://</code> menu. Bare's Rust
core fetches <strong>that one document and nothing else</strong>. If it's an
ordinary web page, Bare reads the underlying HTML, scores it to find the actual
article, and throws away the navigation bars, the cookie wall, the newsletter
pop-up, the share buttons, the comment section, and the ad slots. What's left is
converted to Markdown, sanitized, and rendered.
</p>
<p>
You then read it in <strong>your</strong> theme, <strong>your</strong> font,
<strong>your</strong> line width, <strong>your</strong> zoom level &mdash; the same
way every page looks, because presentation is your decision, not the author's.
Click a link and the whole calm process repeats. No layout shift, no scripts
spinning up, no fonts or beacons loading in the background. Just the next document.
</p>
<p>
That is the entire product: the web, minus everything that isn't what you came to
read.
</p>
</section>

<hr class="section-divider">

<section id="who-is-for" class="content-section">
<h2>Who is Bare For?</h2>
<section id="problem" class="content-section">
<h2>The problem it solves</h2>

<p>Bare is perfect for:</p>
<p>
Reading something online has quietly become one of the most hostile experiences in
computing. A short article can pull in megabytes of JavaScript, a dozen
third-party trackers, autoplaying video, and several interruptions before you reach
the first sentence &mdash; and the page often reflows under your eyes while it loads.
</p>
<p>
Bare assumes you opened the link to <strong>read the thing</strong>, and removes
everything standing between you and that goal. The result is faster, quieter, and
private not because you configured it to be, but because the parts that make pages
slow and invasive are simply absent.
</p>
</section>

<hr class="section-divider">

<section id="who-is-for" class="content-section">
<h2>Who Bare is for</h2>

<ul class="large-list">
<li>
<strong>Writers and researchers</strong> who want to read and write without
<strong>Writers and researchers</strong> who want to read long-form text without
distractions
</li>
<li>
<strong>Privacy-conscious users</strong> who don't want to be tracked
<strong>Privacy-conscious people</strong> who would rather not be measured,
profiled, and followed
</li>
<li>
<strong>Minimalists</strong> who prefer simplicity over complexity
<strong>Minimalists</strong> who prefer one calm format to a thousand competing
designs
</li>
<li>
<strong>Technology enthusiasts</strong> curious about alternative web experiences
<strong>Tinkerers and the curious</strong> exploring Gemini, Gopher, and the
text internet
</li>
<li>
<strong>Anyone who misses the original, text-based internet</strong>
<strong>Anyone who remembers</strong> when the web was mostly documents, and
misses it
</li>
</ul>
</section>
Expand All @@ -155,47 +157,55 @@ <h2>Who is Bare For?</h2>
<section id="what-not" class="content-section">
<h2>What Bare is NOT</h2>

<p>Being clear about the boundaries is part of the design:</p>

<div class="not-list">
<div class="not-item">
<span class="not-icon">❌</span>
<strong>A full-featured browser</strong> &mdash; We will never support JavaScript
<strong>A full-featured web browser</strong> &mdash; it will never run JavaScript
</div>
<div class="not-item">
<span class="not-icon">❌</span>
<strong>An HTML renderer</strong> &mdash; Only Markdown is first-class
<strong>A faithful HTML renderer</strong> &mdash; only the readable text is first-class; pixel-perfect layouts are not the goal
</div>
<div class="not-item">
<span class="not-icon">❌</span>
<strong>A text editor</strong> &mdash; View only, not editing
<strong>An editor or publishing tool</strong> &mdash; Bare reads; it does not write
</div>
<div class="not-item">
<span class="not-icon">❌</span>
<strong>A social media tool</strong> &mdash; No integration with social platforms
<strong>A social or "platform" app</strong> &mdash; no accounts, no feeds, no sharing widgets
</div>
</div>

<p>
If you need any of those, a conventional browser is the right tool. Bare is
intentionally not trying to be one.
</p>
</section>

<hr class="section-divider">

<section id="why" class="content-section">
<h2>Why Create Such a Browser?</h2>

<p>
The internet has changed dramatically since its inception. Where it was once
an open, text-based platform for sharing information, it's now a commercial
arena filled with tracking, ads, and distracting elements.
</p>
<section id="status" class="content-section">
<h2>An honest status</h2>

<p>
Bare is an attempt to <strong>revive the original spirit</strong> of the internet:
Bare is <strong>early and experimental</strong>, released under the
<strong>GPL-3.0</strong> license and developed in the open. What works today:
</p>

<ul class="principle-list">
<li><strong>Content over presentation</strong></li>
<li><strong>Privacy over surveillance</strong></li>
<li><strong>Simplicity over complexity</strong></li>
<li><strong>User control over platform control</strong></li>
<li>Reading over <strong>HTTP/HTTPS</strong> with readability extraction</li>
<li>The <strong>Gemini</strong> protocol (with TOFU certificate trust)</li>
<li>The <strong>Gopher</strong> protocol (RFC 1436)</li>
<li>Local Markdown files via <code>file://</code></li>
<li>Themes, typography, zoom, bookmarks, in-page search, and a command palette &mdash; in 13 languages</li>
</ul>

<p>
It is small, it is opinionated, and it is honest about what it does not do. If that
resonates, you are exactly who it was built for.
</p>
</section>

<hr class="section-divider">
Expand Down
99 changes: 66 additions & 33 deletions website/sider/about.md
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Expand Up @@ -2,65 +2,64 @@

> "The browser that gets out of your way, so the content can shine."

Bare is an experimental browser with a radical focus on what truly matters: **the content**. In an era where websites have become bloated, overflowing with scripts, ads, and tracking, Bare offers a future where you only see what you came to read.
Bare is an experimental, open-source **reading instrument** for the text internet. It is not a smaller version of Chrome — it is a different kind of tool that does one thing deliberately: take whatever a server sends and turn it into clean, consistent, private text that *you* control.

---

## What Makes Bare Different?
## What reading in Bare is actually like

### 📄 Pure Markdown Rendering
The difference is easiest to feel in a single click.

Bare is designed to display Markdown files directly. When you visit a URL pointing to a `.md` file, it is fetched and displayed immediately in a clean, readable format. No HTML chaos, no distracting CSS, no JavaScript loading.
You type an address — or open a local `.md` file, or a `gemini://` capsule, or an old `gopher://` menu. Bare's Rust core fetches **that one document and nothing else**. If it's an ordinary web page, Bare reads the underlying HTML, scores it to find the actual article, and throws away the navigation bars, the cookie wall, the newsletter pop-up, the share buttons, the comment section, and the ad slots. What's left is converted to Markdown, sanitized, and rendered.

### 🚫 Zero Tracking. Ever.
You then read it in **your** theme, **your** font, **your** line width, **your** zoom level — the same way every page looks, because presentation is your decision, not the author's. Click a link and the whole calm process repeats. No layout shift, no scripts spinning up, no fonts or beacons loading in the background. Just the next document.

Bare does **not** support JavaScript, cookies, or any tracking technology. This isn't a setting you can forget to enable — it's built into the architecture. Your browsing remains private, by design.
That is the entire product: the web, minus everything that isn't what you came to read.

### ⚡ Blazing Fast Performance

Without heavy frameworks, scripts, or ads, pages load in milliseconds rather than seconds. Bare fetches and displays only what matters: the content.
---

### 🌐 Multi-Protocol Support
## The problem it solves

In addition to standard HTTP/HTTPS, Bare supports:
Reading something online has quietly become one of the most hostile experiences in computing. A short article can pull in megabytes of JavaScript, a dozen third-party trackers, autoplaying video, and several interruptions before you reach the first sentence — and the page often reflows under your eyes while it loads.

- **Gemini** (`gemini://`) — A modern, text-based protocol with mandatory encryption
- **Gopher** (`gopher://`) — The classic, menu-driven protocol from 1991
- **Local files** (`file://`) — Open Markdown files directly from your computer
Bare assumes you opened the link to **read the thing**, and removes everything standing between you and that goal. The result is faster, quieter, and private not because you configured it to be, but because the parts that make pages slow and invasive are simply absent.

---

## Who is Bare For?

Bare is perfect for:
## Who Bare is for

- **Writers and researchers** who want to read and write without distractions
- **Privacy-conscious users** who don't want to be tracked
- **Minimalists** who prefer simplicity over complexity
- **Technology enthusiasts** curious about alternative web experiences
- **Anyone who misses the original, text-based internet**
- **Writers and researchers** who want to read long-form text without distractions
- **Privacy-conscious people** who would rather not be measured, profiled, and followed
- **Minimalists** who prefer one calm format to a thousand competing designs
- **Tinkerers and the curious** exploring Gemini, Gopher, and the text internet
- **Anyone who remembers** when the web was mostly documents, and misses it

---

## What Bare is NOT

❌ **A full-featured browser** — We will never support JavaScript
❌ **An HTML renderer** — Only Markdown is first-class
❌ **A text editor** — View only, not editing
❌ **A social media tool** — No integration with social platforms
Being clear about the boundaries is part of the design:

- ❌ **A full-featured web browser** — it will never run JavaScript
- ❌ **A faithful HTML renderer** — only the readable text is first-class; pixel-perfect layouts are not the goal
- ❌ **An editor or publishing tool** — Bare reads; it does not write
- ❌ **A social or "platform" app** — no accounts, no feeds, no sharing widgets

If you need any of those, a conventional browser is the right tool. Bare is intentionally not trying to be one.

---

## Why Create Such a Browser?
## An honest status

The internet has changed dramatically since its inception. Where it was once an open, text-based platform for sharing information, it's now a commercial arena filled with tracking, ads, and distracting elements.
Bare is **early and experimental**, released under the **GPL-3.0** license and developed in the open. What works today:

Bare is an attempt to **revive the original spirit** of the internet:
- Reading over **HTTP/HTTPS** with readability extraction
- The **Gemini** protocol (with TOFU certificate trust)
- The **Gopher** protocol (RFC 1436)
- **Local Markdown files** via `file://`
- Themes, typography, zoom, bookmarks, in-page search, and a command palette — in 13 languages

- **Content over presentation**
- **Privacy over surveillance**
- **Simplicity over complexity**
- **User control over platform control**
It is small, it is opinionated, and it is honest about what it does not do. If that resonates, you are exactly who it was built for.

---

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -88,6 +87,40 @@ cargo tauri build

## Learn More

- [Philosophy](./philosophy.md) — why the reader, not the author, is in charge
- [Technology](./technology.md) — how the reading pipeline is built
- [History](./history.md) — the lineage Bare belongs to, from MultiTorg to Gemini

---

*"For a world where content matters more than animations."*

---

[Back to Home](../index.md) | [GitHub](https://github.com/FrankBurmo/bare) | [License (GPL-3.0)](../LICENSE)

### 📥 Download

Pre-built binaries are under development. Check [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/FrankBurmo/bare/releases) for the latest builds for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

### 🛠️ Build from Source

Requirements:
- [Rust](https://rustup.rs/) (latest stable version)
- [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/) (for Tauri CLI)
- [Tauri prerequisites](https://tauri.app/v2/guides/prerequisites/)

```bash
git clone https://github.com/FrankBurmo/bare.git
cd bare
cargo install tauri-cli
cargo tauri build
```

---

## Learn More

- [Philosophy](./philosophy.md) — What Bare stands for
- [Technology](./technology.md) — What Bare is built with
- [History](./history.md) — The background and inspiration
Expand Down
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