every now and then i send gpg/pgp encrypted email. once again this is where software on the mac is sadly lacking. yes, you can install macports (and fiddle with getting that working properly), and then, yes you can install gpg and import all your keys. when you are done you will be writing up your email in textedit (or textmate if you were smart) and cutting and pasting after using the gpg gui.

that was getting to bit a bit of a pita, so i used the firefox extension firegpg. it works really well with gmail can’t complain there. the problem is firefox, it’s getting a lot of updates recently (don’t know if that’s good or bad) but seems to be leaving exension authors behind. firegpg is one of the few extension i use that’s still being actively updated. extensions are what give firefox it’s power (and coincidentlly make it slow, bloated and unstable but we all live with it and say how great firefox is…except i don’t, i use camino or fluid mostly.) so firegpg works but not really ideal for non-webmail

then i thought about using the the offical pgp client. sure it’s expensive but at least they let you work with the trialware, which like both avg and zonelabs, they conveniently bury it in an obscure part of their website so the average web user will never find it. flash update for you feepers (yes i’m talking to the pinheads at avg, pgp, and zonelabs) i found them all.

mac software is supposed to be easy to install and use. probably why it gets rave reviews on usability. when referring to macs you often see the phrase “it just works”. pgp doesn’t. i gave it a good two hours before i findally requested my money back.

on the upside i found gpgmail. works great with applemail

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 at 5:17 pm and is filed under software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.