set type digest mode? plus other query

[Robert J. Hansen]

Andrew Berg wrote:
> 6.5.8 seems popular. Any idea why?

It was the last version of PGP to be released freeware for UNIX.  To
this day, PGP has more brand recognition than GnuPG; people who only
know "I need PGP to do $foo" will more often than not look around for
PGP for UNIX and find 6.5.8.

On the Win32 front, 6.5.8 is available for download from a great many
sites.  7.x isn't available anywhere, you have to really look for 8.x,
and 9.x requires registering with PGP.com, which many people are opposed to.

On top of that, a lot of the OpenPGP software ecosystem (remailers,
mixmasters, etc.) is hardcoded for PGP 6.5.8 support.

PGP 6.5.8, like PGP 2.6, is "good enough for most people and purposes."
 Which means that no matter how much we want to get rid of them, they
simply won't go away.