First, business stuff. The general rule for this mailing list is that if it involves libre software and OpenPGP, it's going to be broadly tolerated for at least a little bit. So please let me tell you about a libre software business I've had a positive experience with.
GPGtools integrates GnuPG with Apple Mail. It does not do so perfectly: you'll still need to use other applications to do key management and whatnot. Although it includes some GUI applications to help make this easier, if I have to switch to another application anyway I might as well just use GnuPG directly. For that reason I've barely looked at the supporting software around GPGtools, just their Apple Mail extension.
And there, the news is pretty good. It does a reasonably good job of doing what you want it to do while not getting in your way about things. I have pretty high standards: I was for several years Enigmail's UX guy. They clearly care about UX, and although there's work left to be done I like the direction they're going.
Many of the GPGtools applications are libre, but the Mail.app extension is not. That's the only bad news. They're using the Mail.app extension as payware to fund further development, so it's an understandable tradeoff, but I hope they consider liberating the extension code in the near future.
The other thing you get for your approximately $30 (depending on currency fluctuations, etc.) is support. I recently had occasion to file a support request, and although it took a few days the response I received was polite, answered my question, pointed me to feature requests on the Apple site and suggested I chime in there, etc. I thought it was well-done.
Anyway. It's (mostly!) libre software done by people who care about doing it right, and for $30 you get lifetime support by real human beings. In an era where it seems everything is going through AI virtual agents first, a real human response is nice.
Highly recommended for MacOS users.(Disclosures: No, they don't know I'm writing this. Yes, I paid full price for GPGtools. No, I have no business or personal connection to GPGtools.)
=====And in other news: some of you have been wondering how I'm doing in my recovery.
When Warren Zevon was near death he appeared on the David Letterman late-night comedy show. He and Letterman were old old friends. Letterman asked him if being that close to death he had learned something about life.
Zevon thought about it for a moment, then smiled and told Letterman, "Enjoy every sandwich."
That's my advice to everyone on this list. Enjoy every sandwich.I am at last being discharged from this rehab center on Saturday. Two months ago they were not expecting me to ever regain much use of, well, anything. As of today I'm able to hobble around with a walker for 100m at a time, and do the usual tasks of daily life. I'm still going to need help for a while, and my physical therapy will be ongoing, but I am massively exceeding expectations and I'm so happy to be able to say it.
If you want to know more details (including what almost killed me), all the public information is available at:
https://sixdemonbag.org/?p=37
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