PGPfreeware 8.0: Not so good news for crypto newcomers

[John Doe Number Two]

If PGP, Inc was going after all seventeen users of gnupg and trying to
convert them, you'd be right.  I have the feeling however, that the PGP
crowd would actually like people to use their product.

For all the whining from the 'free beer' crowd, no one had bothered to make
PGP/gnupg compatible with OSX and Windoze XP.  Looks like PGP Inc was trying
to fill a hole in the market by doing just that.

If you're running Debian Potato, have more time than money or sense, and
think PGP is worthless, why consider buying it?  You shouldn't: you'd be
crazy to do so.

If you want a product that works and is designed with mere mortals in mind,
then PGP is probably for you.

-JD2

Begin Fair Use quote of  Pete Chown aka Pete.Chown at skygate.co.uk written  on
08.12.02 13:14 :

>> "You may have a constitutional right to use crypto software, but someone
>> has to pay the developers. Free Speech is not the same as Free Beer."
> 
> Is there really any reason to use PGP these days?  PGP 2 was solid
> software.  I've also tried all the releases from 5 to 7 and they were
> all full of bugs.  They also didn't comply properly with the OpenPGP spec.
> 
> I particularly remember PGP 6.  I was developing something that
> generated OpenPGP packets.  Gnupg was happy, PGP would die with a SEGV.
> I started digging into the source code to try to find out what was
> going on, but it was hopeless.  The bloat factor had taken over, and it
> was impossible within my deadline to find out what its problem was, and
> whether the SEGV came from an exploitable buffer overrun.  (Eventually I
> got things to work by switching encryption algorithms or something like
> that, I forget the details now.)
> 
> I hope PGP 8 is better, but at the moment I would only recommend PGP 2
> and gnupg on technical grounds.  Inevitably it would be gnupg because,
> strangely enough, it seems to have got written in spite of the fact that
> it is freies Bier und freie Rede. :-)

"Insert the usual disclaimer here."

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