"That title is pretty laughable.
Enterprise E-Mail Encryption solutions do NOT use gnupg, and most enterprise customers do not even use openpgp, they use X.509/SMIME. I know the world top 10 server side enterprise e-mail encryption solutions and the majority uses java with either bouncycastle or ajak encryption, for PGP or openssl/bouncycastle for SMIME. There are some solutions that use gnupg but those are very small and again - most people do not use openpgp in the business world. Mostly automotive uses it like Porsche, VW etc. for encrypting e-mail traffic. Gnupg is mostly used for e-mail by your skilled engineers in private or while communicating with kernel developers etc. Either by using enigmail/mutt/command line whatever.
Nothing based on e-mail would "break" if gnupg went missing.
Now lets get back to Mr. Koch - gnupg was sponsored by the German Government - in all these years - Mr. Koch tried to build a consulting company/enterprise solution out of it - but he failed because there were already existing solutions that were far better than anything he could come up with. Moreover asking Mr. Koch to fix specific bugs in gnupg which was as i said sponsored resulted in simply "pay me XXX amount or i wont do it" - thats how Mr. Koch worked.
Ask any code auditor/reviewer worth his salt and he will tell you gnupg is a mess, it is worse than openssl in most cases - why ? Ask Mr. Koch.
I just want to remind everyone carefully judge, before thinking about donating to Mr. Koch or his company. I already noticed he received well over 50k today just because of this false article.
This guy got funding multiple times from the german government for implementing and maintaing gnupg. This was never a fulltime job - adding patches and a few features is what any open source developer does in his free time. Mr. Koch tried to build a business upon this government funded software, and it failed. He already had multiple fundraisers in his careers to keep his company going. Does he deserve your money ? It is not like gnupg would be dead without him - he is not the only one doing anything - there are many developers in the community who are doing their share too.
Arent there other things more deserving of funding than the failed economical existence of one guy ? An open source developer that wants to contribute free software does not need your money to survive! Did Mr. Richard Stallman or Linus Torvalds ever beg people for money because they cant buy their next meal ? Did the BSD Foundation plea to you they cant make days end ? No - they never did - and they still were able to produce free open source software.
Mr. Koch does not deserve your money, if anything successors of him should receive funding if they need to - but not to survive - because they most likely got a real job already and doing this in their free time. "
[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2uw2gt/the_worl...