[Cryptography] What is going on with TrueCrypt?

[Peter Fairbrother]

cc'd to list, hope you don't mind

On 30/05/14 20:21, Philipp Gühring wrote:
> Hi Peter,
>
>> The only reason I can think of for doing all that work is maintaining
>> reputation (or technical reputation at least - TrueCrypt devs are not
>> exactly known for being people people, or for being particularly into
>> "free open source" either).
>
> To me this creates too much confusion for all the users, that I think that
> it is more likely that people will not trust them anymore. So if they
> really wanted to do a commercial version, then I would not do such a move.
> Why should I buy their commercial product? It might be that they will
> suddenly stop supporting that too.
>
> Best regards,
> Philipp


I agree - but I don't think the TC devs think that way.


I think they wanted to make some money out of TC, perhaps initially by 
selling it to Microsoft, but failed to do so - most recently by a 
crowdsourcing plan and a contributions campaign.

I think they have come to the conclusion that that TC won't make them 
any money as-is, and that's mainly why they pulled the plug.

Some of the devs may be hoping to produce a commercial version, and some 
of them may just be fed up of developing it for free.

TC has never been a completely free program, it has always had a tinge 
of half-hearted and cack-handed commercial ambition and possessiveness 
to it - witness the license problems, and the present apparent 
unwillingness to allow/support a fork.

BTW, I don't think the devs have the business ability to make a success 
of a commercial version. I don't think it is impossible, but I don't 
think the devs could do it.




Unless of course

"
US_ing
TrueCrypt is
N_ot
S_ecure
A_s it may contain unfixed security issues"

-- Peter Fairbrother