Reply To: Unhappy with version 2

[Captain Quirk]

Hello, Cody,

I think I have to respectfully disagree with your first paragraph.  With millions of downloads, Version 1 was very popular, and for good reason.  There’s no need for sockpuppets – there are undoubtedly countless thousands of people who feel as I do, that Version 1 was an elegant, well-designed, easy-to-use solution, and who are very disappointed that it has been abandoned in favor of a very different application that works very differently and that doesn’t have those popular features and costs money – every year! – to use.

> “The reality is that the overwhelming majority of people are satisfied with version 2, and those who aren’t can use version 1.”

Well, yes, except for the fact that the SHA-1 algorithm has been compromised.  Svante explained that this doesn’t appear to be a serious problem in the short run, but it’s certainly not ideal, and in the longer term, who knows?

Other than that, I do agree with everything else you said.  (With one very small exception, noted below.)  I am not suggesting that the features of Version 1 be incorporated into Version 2.  Not at all.  They are two very different applications with different approaches to solving the problem of securing one’s data.  As good as both applications are, they are not compatible with each other.  And as you said, trying to graft Version 1 onto Version 2 would add much unwanted complexity and cause confusion.

No, all I was suggesting is that Version 1 be updated to fix the SHA-1 problem.  Svante subsequently explained that doing so is harder than it sounds, unfortunately.  (I have to believe that it’s not impossible, however!)

(The one small exception to my general agreement with you is with regard to convenience.  I don’t find the idea of having more than one password to be all that inconvenient.  I’m certainly not suggesting a different password for every file.  Just two, or perhaps three at most, for different classes of files.  And as for forgetting your password – well, that’s a potential problem with any encryption system.  Just be careful and don’t forget it!)

(The problem of forgetting one’s password can be easily solved by just using an easy-to-remember password like “password” or “123456”.)