PGP/MIME use

[Steve]

>> Has there been a concerted effort to make Enigmail an integral part of
>> Thunderbird, distributed with it? If yes, what are the reasons that it
>> has been rejected so far? If no, why not?
> Werner replied:
> The Mozillas don't like OpenPGP.  To them it is probably too much
> anarchy compared to S/SMIME.  Ask the Mammon.
Robert replied: 
> 	* S/MIME is already irrelevant to the vast majority of
> 	  Thunderbird users, and providing OpenPGP would just
> 	  introduce a redundant irrelevant capability
> 
> 	* Enigmail requires a binary that's not maintained by
> 	  Mozilla, which is released on its own schedule, and
> 	  is licensed under terms other than those Mozilla
> 	  prefers

Mozilla is founded by Google. Without Google they would be gone. Googles business model is not to protect the user but to analyze him. That is not possible when you use mail encryption.

The question is still valid and imo, some pressure from the user community might help to bring Thunderbird to the point where it can be downloaded containing enigmail. That would be a huge step! The arguments by Robert seem to be rather minor compared to the huge benefit delivery of save communication would bring.

Imagine a world in which Windows and OS X are delivered with OpenPGP. I don't see why that should not happen. It's all a question of community requests and pressure on the according companies behind that OSs. That pressure could also take share in pure statistics: If people simply buy machines which come with build in OpenSource crypto. That would be the case, if average people (not like us who are subscribed to this geeky mailing list) become more security aware and realize that privacy matters). Call me idealistic, but I think it's up to the community to make that happen.

All the best,
steve
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