B. Kuestner wrote:
Coming as a newbie to all of this, I'd say there's a long way to go until this whole thing is ready for my Mom to use it. And I think that's what we eventually want to do, right? That encrypted messaging becomes the norm, not the exception.
Public key systems that attempt to provide a tightly inegrated solution to the key authentication problem require, no matter what, very good understanding of the concepts behind their "automated shell", and are consequently ill-suited for the adoption by the general user population. The sad reality of a decade of their (at best) marginal adoption, restricted almost entirely to computer professionals, demonstrates that beyond a trace of doubt. Encrypted e-mail will become the norm, if and when, one of the following two things happens: a) There is a public key system which leaves key authentication outside of its scope, to be performed by separate means and procedures, by the tiny minority that actually needs it. If that was the case, the system could be made simple enough for effective use by those that have neither the time nor the inclination to develop the ability to use the current system. or: b) There is a general acceptance of the fact that the needs of a vast majority of e-mail users would be adequately served by a simple symmetric system. cdr _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
