Re: Auto-pgp for pine/elm/tin (fwd)

[David Neal <dneal@usis.com>]

On Fri, 25 Aug 1995, Bryce Wilcox wrote:

> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> 
> > I have PGP installed on my pc and if I want to 
> > use it, I can save the message in ascii, then upload it to the server 
> > where I have my Internet account, then mail it.
> 
> 
> I use PGP on every outgoing message and about 20% of incoming messages.  And
> I send/receive a *lot* of messages.  No way I would be able to do a process 
> like the above on my mail.
> 
> 
> In a few weeks I will be able to get mail on my home computer, but most
> (80%?) Internet users will still not have that luxury.

Is that assumption based on the fact that most inet users are using
shell accounts?  Using a PPP or SLIP dialup and managing your mail
locally using POP is pretty easy.  Clients like Private Idaho
and PGPclip then make the PGP transition painless.

Here at USIS, we have 305 entries in the password file.  Subtract
10 entries for system accounts (root, news, majordomo, bin, etc)
Now of the entries left 80 are PPP, 48 SLIP.  There are shell
accounts for each slip/ppp user, thus we have 39 people left over
who are shell only.  So, 70% of our users have the ability to locally
manage and pgp encrypt mail.

Now that winblows 95 is out and ppp dialup into the i-net
is point and gruntable, I expect this disparity to worsen.

Why learn icky unix commands when you can follow some simple
instructions and have ras up and running ppp in 10 minutes?
Since people will _already_ be using windows mail interfaces,
the transition to PGP wil be quick and painless.  Hell, I
hear the latest version of Eudora has it integrated.




David Neal <dneal@usis.com> - GNU Planet Aerospace 1-800-PLN-8-GNU
Unix, Sybase and Networking consultant. "...you have a personal responsibility 
to be pro-active in the defense of your own civil liberties." - S. McCandlish