gnupg1 still needed?

[Chris Walters]

Werner Koch wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:46, kssingvo at suse.de said:
> 
>> But I noticed that gpg1 could support old PGP keys, if module idea is
>> added. On the other side gpg2 it seems that gpg2 is capable to support
> 
> I wonder why you ask.  It is not possible for SuSE to include any such
> support for an outdated, useless and patented cipher algorithm.
> 
>> Is there a way to support old rsa/idea keys in gpg2?
> 
> There are no IDEA keys.  It might be that a key has been protected with
> IDEA but there exists an easy workaround to change the protection
> algorithm.

It is rather difficult to know where IDEA is still patented and where it is not 
(i.e. where the patent has expired).  Even so, it is more than 10 years old 
(the length of a patent in the US), and there are much better symmetric 
algorithms out there, so I really don't see the need to use it.

There is a way to compile in support for IDEA in both gpg and gpg2, depending 
on the distribution, but with AES, I think IDEA is outdated, myself.  JMHO.

Regards,
Chris