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Gnu Privacy Guard relies on one underfunded person (2015)

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Re: Gnu Privacy Guard relies on one underfunded person (2015)

#11

Post by stephenr »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #10
stephenr wrote: post #5

GPG is used by some for email sure, but it isn't the only option. S/MIME has native support in pretty much all native mail clients, and is more pragmatic about how you trust an identity.

I bet that all the non-email uses of gpg are actually greater than the email uses. Its used as a component of many Linux distribution package managers, for example.

Agreed, and I don't mean to diminish the importance of gpg. But claiming all the worlds "encrypted email" depends on it is a bit of a stretch is all.

Re: Gnu Privacy Guard relies on one underfunded person (2015)

#12

Post by mjevans »

sdrothrock wrote: post #9
jasonkester wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not overly so. After having an article written about him, one guy got the better part of one year's salary in charity. In exchange for 18 years of work maintaining a piece of software that kinda everybody uses. Another reminder that selling goods and services in exchange for money still works better than giving things away and hoping somebody gives you a donation.

> After having an article written about him, one guy got the better part of one year's salary in charity. In exchange for 18 years of work maintaining a piece of software that kinda everybody uses. $60,000 from Linux Foundation's Core Infrastructure Initiative (one-time) $137,000 in donations (one-time) $50,000 a year from Facebook (recurring) $50,000 a year from Stripe (recurring) I think he got more than one year's…

The most idealistic funding model that I can think of for this kind of work would be colleges (banned from 'tech transfer' and other money grabs) actually being used to advance academic research and 'core intellectual infrastructure'. Basic, public funded, 'research' and common components support.

Re: Gnu Privacy Guard relies on one underfunded person (2015)

#13

Post by another-dave »

sdrothrock wrote: post #9
jasonkester wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not overly so. After having an article written about him, one guy got the better part of one year's salary in charity. In exchange for 18 years of work maintaining a piece of software that kinda everybody uses. Another reminder that selling goods and services in exchange for money still works better than giving things away and hoping somebody gives you a donation.

> After having an article written about him, one guy got the better part of one year's salary in charity. In exchange for 18 years of work maintaining a piece of software that kinda everybody uses. $60,000 from Linux Foundation's Core Infrastructure Initiative (one-time) $137,000 in donations (one-time) $50,000 a year from Facebook (recurring) $50,000 a year from Stripe (recurring) I think he got more than one year's…

Yeah but he has 6 developers working on it now (including himself).

Re: Gnu Privacy Guard relies on one underfunded person (2015)

#15

Post by sdrothrock »

another-dave wrote: post #13
sdrothrock wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After having an article written about him, one guy got the better part of one year's salary in charity. In exchange for 18 years of work maintaining a piece of software that kinda everybody uses. $60,000 from Linux Foundation's Core Infrastructure Initiative (one-time) $137,000 in donations (one-time) $50,000 a year from Facebook (recurring) $50,000 a year from Stripe (recurring) I think he got more than one year's…

Yeah but he has 6 developers working on it now (including himself).

I had no clue! That's useful information.

Re: Gnu Privacy Guard relies on one underfunded person (2015)

#16

Post by jacobush »

sdrothrock wrote: post #9
jasonkester wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not overly so. After having an article written about him, one guy got the better part of one year's salary in charity. In exchange for 18 years of work maintaining a piece of software that kinda everybody uses. Another reminder that selling goods and services in exchange for money still works better than giving things away and hoping somebody gives you a donation.

> After having an article written about him, one guy got the better part of one year's salary in charity. In exchange for 18 years of work maintaining a piece of software that kinda everybody uses. $60,000 from Linux Foundation's Core Infrastructure Initiative (one-time) $137,000 in donations (one-time) $50,000 a year from Facebook (recurring) $50,000 a year from Stripe (recurring) I think he got more than one year's…

Great to hear that he gets about $100k in "salary". (I guess taxes work differently when you get donations like that.)

At least he won't be starving now. But it would not be a bad thing if someone threw some more money at it, or someone assembled a small team to help out, or something.

Edit: saw in comment below there is a team on it. Good stuff.

Re: Gnu Privacy Guard relies on one underfunded person (2015)

#17

Post by zanchey »

stephenr wrote: post #5

GPG is used by some for email sure, but it isn't the only option. S/MIME has native support in pretty much all native mail clients, and is more pragmatic about how you trust an identity.

Is there much deployment of S/MIME in the corporate world? Identity generation is much easier in GPG in my experience.

We have a national PKI for doctors that could have been, but isn't, used for S/MIME. Missed opportunity.

Re: Gnu Privacy Guard relies on one underfunded person (2015)

#18

Post by stephenr »

zanchey wrote: post #17
stephenr wrote: post #5

GPG is used by some for email sure, but it isn't the only option. S/MIME has native support in pretty much all native mail clients, and is more pragmatic about how you trust an identity.

Is there much deployment of S/MIME in the corporate world? Identity generation is much easier in GPG in my experience. We have a national PKI for doctors that could have been, but isn't, used for S/MIME. Missed opportunity.

In some ways it's easier for corporate, as the ca's have more incentive to make it useable.

I asked a ca about s/mime pricing - on its own they have a 50x3yr minimum purchase. They offered to waive the minimums if I combined with a regular server cert purchase.

Re: Gnu Privacy Guard relies on one underfunded person (2015)

#19

Post by a3_nm »

jasonkester wrote: post #8
kleer001 wrote: post #2

Misleading title. After the publication of this article that 1 Guy got a buncha money.

Not overly so. After having an article written about him, one guy got the better part of one year's salary in charity. In exchange for 18 years of work maintaining a piece of software that kinda everybody uses. Another reminder that selling goods and services in exchange for money still works better than giving things away and hoping somebody gives you a donation.

> selling goods and services in exchange for money still works better than giving things away and hoping somebody gives you a donation

The problem is, had he tried to sell GPG, I doubt many people would be using it now...

Re: Gnu Privacy Guard relies on one underfunded person (2015)

#20

Post by wiz21c »

another-dave wrote: post #14

The fact that someone of his ability can take an intern's wages to do this, and for that long, shows the incredible altruism in tech.

That shows his own personal altruism. I'm afraid that in tech, like in any other domain, altruism in gifted people is something rare (just because altruism is rare plus being gifted is rare).

Now, everybody is doing his share, most of us are a bit altruist and a bit gifted in a way or in another. It's a question of scale.

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