Re: Portable PGP?
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:50 am
> InstantCrypt has many features PortablePGP does not have
The PGP/MIME, email/webmail, help files, and the rest are pretty cool. I should have looked closer at the software and seeing that before I replied.
>> Freeware license may disappear at any time
> True. But then you can always switch to Portable PGP without loss of keys or files.
Kind of the point of this is to try and insert simplicity and ease of use, not have them switch to another program in the middle. Its not a problem until I try to sell this to a business environment where they don't want to have to switch horses mid-stream.
Additionally, open software has a strange and cool tendency not to disappear. Once its out there, it seems to stick around. Even if its no longer maintained, its always available. I noticed this when I recently bought a used Palm device: all the GPL'd software out there was still available and most of the companies that did shareware had gone out of business and their software had gone who knows where.
> Of course, InstantCrypt could double as a Trojan somehow or secretly do other horrible things (and so could any other proprietary software that you download onto your computer) -- but it does not.
I don't know how to respond to this without sounding like I'm accusing you of something so I'll quote Bruce Schneier here:
"As a cryptography and computer security expert, I have never understood the current fuss about the open source software movement. In the cryptography world, we consider open source necessary for good security; we have for decades."
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-9909.html
The PGP/MIME, email/webmail, help files, and the rest are pretty cool. I should have looked closer at the software and seeing that before I replied.
>> Freeware license may disappear at any time
> True. But then you can always switch to Portable PGP without loss of keys or files.
Kind of the point of this is to try and insert simplicity and ease of use, not have them switch to another program in the middle. Its not a problem until I try to sell this to a business environment where they don't want to have to switch horses mid-stream.
Additionally, open software has a strange and cool tendency not to disappear. Once its out there, it seems to stick around. Even if its no longer maintained, its always available. I noticed this when I recently bought a used Palm device: all the GPL'd software out there was still available and most of the companies that did shareware had gone out of business and their software had gone who knows where.
> Of course, InstantCrypt could double as a Trojan somehow or secretly do other horrible things (and so could any other proprietary software that you download onto your computer) -- but it does not.
I don't know how to respond to this without sounding like I'm accusing you of something so I'll quote Bruce Schneier here:
"As a cryptography and computer security expert, I have never understood the current fuss about the open source software movement. In the cryptography world, we consider open source necessary for good security; we have for decades."
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-9909.html