Keyring integration on Linux

[Minim]

Copied from an off-topic thread:

@Minim

I’m on mobile Linux, so I have a keyring already populated with keys. I also have all the standards-based tools for key import and export to and from the keyring. All my other mail clients talk to my keyring; having Deltachat also talk to my keyring would actually be really convenient. It would also make key tools more reusable.

This is not quite the same as OS contacts integration.

@link2xt

There is no standard keyring for OpenPGP keys on Linux except for de facto standard GnuPG. GnuPG itself however becomes less and less standards-based. Major Linux distributions now use FreePG patches to disable non-standard extensions (so-caled LibrePGP, a fork of OpenPGP standard made by GnuPG developers). These non-standard extensions have already resulted in real compatibility problems:

Can't decrypt some messages sent from other app

It is unlikely that GnuPG itself will continue to develop support for modern OpenPGP as they try to push “LibrePGP”: GnuPG - ArchWiki
Delta Chat on the other hand does not produce non-standard keys and messages, supports RFC 9580 (so Delta Chat can talk to clients using RFC 9580 keys and generating messages using new RFC 9580 features). And as such major Linux distributions (Debian and Arch) move away from GnuPG to avoid LibrePGP vendor lock-in, it is going to become even less relevant in the future.

I have some confidence that the whole LibrePGP compatability mess will get resolved, and Linux will have keyring standards again. For instance, Sequoia seems to be working on a (Rust-based) OpenPGP-compliant replacement for GnuPG, and is reportedly currently standardizing the CLI.

@link2xt

There is no standard keyring for OpenPGP keys on Linux except for de facto standard GnuPG

This is currently true, but I hope it will not remain so.