GnuPG GUIs (was Need a GUI for e ncrypt/decrypt in Ubuntu 11.10)

[Avi]

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Hash: SHA512

On 6/14/12 12:09 PM, Robert J. Hansen wrote:
 >
 > So, let's move this discussion about proprietary programs
(GPGShell)
 > into a direction that's useful to FOSS programs.  What is it
about
 > GPGShell that you really like?  What makes it superior to the
FOSS
 > alternatives?  How can the FOSS alternatives be made superior
to
 > GPGShell?  Inquiring minds very much want to know.  :)

Here is one immediate issue. It seems that I cannot install
GnuPGShell at all, as my GnuPG is 1.4.12, and GnuPGShell does
not seem to recognize it. I guess I can install GPG4win on my
home computer and see if that works.

Perhaps I am an exception, but I use GnuPG most often when
composing webmail. Which means I type the email in a browser
window or in a text file, copy the text to memory, perform the
signatures/encryption on the clipboard, and paste the results
into the browser window. On the other hand, being somewhat
geeky, I want the ability to do most anything that the command
line can do when needed. When I started looking at GUIs, the
options for Windows were GPGShell, WinPT, and GPA. Here are some
things I like about GPGShell which were either lacking, or less
robust in the others.

  1) It has a bundled program, Copy2USB, which can take an
existing GnuPG install and copy the needed files and settings to
a USB stick, making for a portable installation.
  2) It has a tray program, GPGTray, from which I can launch the
key manager, encrypt/decrypt/sign/import the clipboard, launch a
app that allows me to drag files onto a taskbar to
encrypt/decrypt/sign.
  3) It has many options for key management "right clickable" in
the key management GUI (sign, lsign, clean, minimize, check UID,
update from keyserver, export to clipboard, etc.), yet can
launch the command-line edit allowing for complete control in a
DOS-window
  4) It allows for a central place to update gpg.conf without
having to launch text editors, and while most of the main
options are either checkboxes or radioboxes, there is a free-
form area where any option (such as "expert" or "bzip2-compress-
level") can be added
  5) It does not require registry settings to use (see #1) which
allows for a truly portable installation
  6) It makes navigating GnuPG's configurations easier (at least
for 1.4.x) so that the program files are easily placed on one
drive and the certificates/keyrings on another without issue.

When I tried WinPT and GPA, none of them had the combination of
robustness, completeness, and ease-of-use that GPGShell
demonstrated, which is why I have stayed with it for the time
being. Perhaps GnuPGShell has all of these properties as well, I
guess I can try GnuPG 2.0.x and see, but until such time as a
portable installation of GnuPG 2.0.x for Windows exists, I'll
likely stay with the working combination of 1.4.12 + GPGShell.
More information can be found here:
<http://www.jumaros.de/rsoft/faq.html>

I hope that helps,

Avi
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User:Avraham

pub 3072D/F80E29F9 1/30/2009 Avi (Wikimedia-related key) <avi.wiki at gmail.com>
   Primary key fingerprint: 167C 063F 7981 A1F6 71EC ABAA 0D62 B019 F80E 29F9