beginner type questions

[Robert J. Hansen]

Durant, Dean wrote:
> What is the difference?   Isn't RSA better?

The differences are irrelevant to the overwhelming majority of users.

Arguments about whether RSA or DSA are better pop up from time to time.
These arguments have always struck me as being kind of like arguing
over whether Godzilla or King Kong is better at urban destruction.
Maybe you like Godzilla, maybe I like King Kong, but at the end of the
day either one of them will get the job done in style.

> I tried using apt-get to get the version on linux up to the same 
> version # on windows, and it wouldn't.

This is expected.  New versions of GnuPG are being released all the
time.  Most releases offer very, /very/ small improvements over what
came before.  Ubuntu keeps track of what's changed in GnuPG since 2.0.9
was released.  If something major was added or a security bug was fixed,
Ubuntu will modify their version of GnuPG appropriately.  Otherwise,
Ubuntu's policy is generally, "wait until late October for Karmic Koala
to come out, and that will have the latest version of everything you want."

> Or is the email address completely uninvolved?

Uninvolved.  The email addresses exist to make the keys easier for human
beings to use.  By and large, the computer doesn't use the User ID at
all.  :)