At 12:02 PM -0500 3/5/2000, Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:
...
>If you think that the problem with S/MIME is the lack of an
>open source client then do what the cypherpunks list *used*
>to be about - write some code to do the job the way *you*
>think is correct. The standard is published by the IETF and
>there are probably open source toolkits circulating.
>
>
I think the problem with S/MIME is that it violates a major principle
of software usability: make the most commonly performed tasks the
easiest to accomplish. Most people who want e-mail security have a
one or a few corespondents with whom they wish wish to exchange
e-mail in secrecy. S/MIME, at least as widely implemented, makes
doing that hard, at least while we are waiting for the great PKI in
the sky. PGP is a lot easier to use in that application. A better
hack than an open source S/MIME implementation might be a user
friendly tool that made exchanging keys with friends as easy or
easier than with PGP.
Arnold Reinhold
