Re: What "Personal Security Manager"?

[Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>]

On Fri, 17 Nov 2000, Robert van der Meulen wrote:

> Quoting Dale Scheetz (dwarf@polaris.net):
> > When I try to log into some sites with Mozilla, I get this pop up dialog
> > box telling me to "find my personal security manager".
> <snip>
> > Does anyone know just what personal security manager I need to make this
> > work?
> it needs 'psm'.
> The instructions on how to get (compile) it, are in
> /usr/share/doc/mozilla/psm-helper, if i recall correctly.

Thanks!
> 
> Why it's not included in the mozilla package, or packaged seperately - i
> don't know.

My first guess would be because of some security algorithms. This has
always been a nagging problem for free software. Folks like Netscape and
M$ can produce integrated security systems (I presume they have a license
for doing so), but we must carefully put all our security code in an
offshore repository, making integration near impossible.

I have often thought it would be useful for Debian to apply for a
munitions export license so we could integrate security into the
distribution in the same seamless fashion the proprietary vendors do.
Is this a job for SPI?

> Beware: make sure you've got libnspr-dev and mozilla-dev installed when
> trying to compile the thing.
> 
Thanks for the pointers, now I just have to find the time to deal with it.

Waiting is,

Dwarf
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