I agree 100% with what Scott had to say about Apple's past history. My own experience as a Mac owner and developer bears him out. However, Apple *does* have a set of software to allow digital signatures for documents and mail- AOCE. 1. Apple has a history of releasing software which *can* take advantage of special hardware available on newer machines (i.e. Color QuickDraw, the Sound Manager, which allows recording sounds directly on machines with built-in mikes), but which is still backwards-compatible. 2. AOCE already includes RSA for digital signatures; using the Component Manager, it could conceivably take advantage of a Capstone/Clipper ASIC on the motherboard or on an expansion card (or a PCMCIA slot, or whatever.) 3. Third-party developers have little reward in developing an API for something like digital signatures, but there are great rewards in writing software which supports Apple's API. Look at the ongoing competition between video codecs for an example. Theorem A: just because Apple _can_ do something is no reason to think they _will_, especially when the benefits are questionable (as they certainly are here!) Theorem B: Even *if* (and I stress that one little word) Apple put a Capstone into every Macintosh, that doesn't mean *you* have to use it. Since AOCE supports plug-in encryption & signature technology, you can roll your own (and I see a good market in doing so.) While the proof of both of the above must be left to future readers, I'm not too concerned. A meta-note: let's keep all the FSF wrangling someplace else. It's really not appropriate here. -Paul -- Paul Robichaux, KD4JZG | "Change the world for a better tomorrow. But perobich@ingr.com | watch your ass today." - aaron@halcyon.com Intergraph Federal Systems | Be a cryptography user- ask me how.