Hi Neil, Thank you for your email, in which you explain gpg. Aha! Yes, sounds good to me,
A couple of questions:- Is it in operation all the time -for example if I make a purchase online by credit card -or only for detecting authenticity of downloaded Ubuntu upgrades? Do I need to "switch it on" in some way; for example if I make a purchase on Amazon's website; ie: is it compatible with Amazon and similar vendors ? Also, how do I know when it is "on" ? Another off-topic point: I've heard people say Linux is intrinsically more secure from viruses, etc, than Windoze. Can this be true? regards, Lou [an earlier copy of this bounced because I sent from another address] Neil Greenwood wrote: > 2008/11/16 Louis Gidney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > >> [snip] >> >> >>> The pgp is Pretty Good Privacy, it's a way of >>> encrypting stuff, >>> >> I don't need to encrypt anything because there is >> nothing confidential on my computer, and I am the >> only user. If it's causing trouble, is it possible >> to remove it? >> >> > > Hi Lou, > > (this is off-topic and won't actually help solve your installation problem.) > > It's actually gpg (GNU Privacy Guard), which is an open, free > implementation of PGP. > > You do need it, since it's also used to check that the files you > download from the internet are genuine, and haven't been hacked to > include a nasty trojan that will send your credit card details to > China. With the system of worldwide mirrors used to ease congestion > and speed up downloads, this becomes especially important. > > gpg and pgp can do two things: > 1. stop others reading something you intend for a single recipient, > 2. let anyone know that something you have written has not been changed. > > > Hope this helps. > > Cofion, > Neil. > > -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
