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When managing encryption keys in Ubuntu, I created a GPG key through the CLI with gpg --gen-key. Ubuntu provides a nice little GUI for managing keys called "Passwords and Keys". It however lists keys as PGP keys instead of GPG keys, under the GnuPG keys menu option as shown below:

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I have come to understand that GPG is not the same as PGP, but a completely rewritten piece of software that adheres to the OpenPGP standard that PGP also adheres to. So why does Ubuntu use the term PGP instead of GPG? Also, when using the the seahorse-nautilus package to encrypt files from within nautilus, my files come out with the .pgp extension rather than .gpg.

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1 Answers1

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Inconsistent Naming for Historical Reasons

This will very likely have historical reasons. In the beginning, there was only PGP, which was (for reasons of export restrictions) somewhat open sourced. Some time later, there has been an initiative to write down specifications, released as OpenPGP, and the Gnu Privacy Guard GnuPG was developed on that base.

Having the roots in PGP, lots of early PGP adaptors (having used PGP long before GnuPG was started) still use the term "PGP" referring to both usage and keys; not adapting the changed naming of implementation and underlying standard.

Let's do Something About it

Especially in the free software world, one should put special attention on making a distinction between standards, implementations (and even more, non-free implementations); aside from PGP actually being a reserved trademark, probably without being licensed in this case. I created a bug report requesting more consistent naming in Seahorse.

Jens Erat
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