Quiet in the list...

[Peter Gutmann]

IanG <iang at systemics.com> writes:

>4.  Skype.  Doesn't do email, but aside from that minor character flaw, it
>cracked everything else.  It's the best example of what it should look like.

The UI still leaves quite a lot to be desired.  Try sitting a non-geek user in
front of a fresh Skype install and see how long it takes them to figure out
how to make a phonecall to (say) a Skype user name supplied via email.  I've
seen times of 15+ minutes to make the first call (OK, so I treat neighbours
and family as UI guinea pigs :-).  Skype still has a lot of fundamental
usability flaws like the inability to remember a password (requiring it to be
manually re-entered each time it's run unless you choose to start Skype on
system boot) that make it a less-than-perfect example of usable security.

The scary thing though is that even with all its flaws, it's still more usable
than virtually all other crypto-using apps around.

Peter.

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