Re: Why not SSH? [was: Easy Guide Mass Update!]

[Ian Main <imain@netidea.com>]

On Tue, May 02, 2000 at 11:08:52AM -0600, Gordon Matzigkeit wrote:
> >>>>> Matthew Vernon writes:
> 
>  MV> a)Why don't gnu.org use ssh? it's much easier for the users
> 
> All SSH protocol version 1 implementations (including OpenSSH) use
> RSA, which is patented in the US.  The only way to get around the
> patent issues is to use RSAREF, which is non-free.  And so, US
> citizens would have to choose between violating the US patent, or
> using non-free software (other countries don't have to worry about the
> patent, by and large).
> 
> SSH version 2 does not have to depend on RSA, and so truly free
> implementations may be written.  The GNU Project has a free version of
> SSH 2, called lsh, written by Niels Moller.  We expect to use it as
> soon as it supports enough features to recommend it to other people.
> 
> The next release of lsh may satisfy this requirement, which I'm
> looking forward to. :)

OpenSSH does ssh2 in cvs now... Will probably be released in a few months.
It uses dsa by default, but still supports rsa.

Ian