Naming of GnuPG

Robert J. Hansen rjh at sixdemonbag.org
Sat Apr 26 09:20:16 CEST 2008


Dirk Traulsen wrote:
> gpg   ==  GnuPG      ==  GnuPG Classic
> gpgs ==  GnuPG+S  ==  GnuPG+S/MIME

My own two cents' worth:

GnuPG was originally named as such, as I understand it, as a sort of
play on PGP.  GPG was a Free Software alternative to PGP.  The metonymy
(if that's the appropriate word) made it easy to understand how GPG fit
into the software landscape.  PGP.  GPG.  Closely related and
interoperable programs.

I'd like to see GPG remain the name for only 1.4.

GnuPG 2.x introduces a lot of new crypto support that is not related to
OpenPGP.  The original metonymy is no longer appropriate.

Call it GnuPS, for the GNU Privacy Suite.  If additional tools,
technologies, etc., are added to GnuPG 2.x or a future 3.0, then the
GnuPS name can remain unchanged.

In order to limit confusion with the Global Positioning System (GPS), it
should always be spelled out as GnuPS.





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