A small summary:

Arguments

You have read why you should use GPG.

Alternatives

In the first article, I tried to show that despite some hackers want to invent other methods to protect mail, OpenGPG and its implementations, GnuPG and PGP, are still the best current solutions.
Or the least worst, depending on the point of view.

(NB: Hackers are not social parasites, but rather people of high skills in computing, who like to build and understand computing stuff.)

Instructions

Here, you will find instructions about the softwares to use for encrypted mail:

  • GnuPG (or GPG, shorter)
  • a mail software
  • a keys manager.

Theory et logic

The part about theory and logic will explain the basics of public-key cryptography.

The keys

This is the core of everything ! How to create the keys, and what are the safe and sane options ?
I also explain how to export your public key for it to be available to your contacts.

Signed mail

This article about signed mail tells you how to set your mail software to use GPG, how to indicate your contacts that you use it and how to actually sign your mail.

Encrypted mail

You will read here how to encrypt mail, how to read and write encrypted mail, and how to find your contacts’ public keys.

Keys signatures

Finally the article about keys signatures tells about the Web of Trust and the meanings of keys signatures. It is the hardest to understand I believe.

This first serie, in spite of not being complete, will allow you to use GPG in the most usual cases (signing and encrypting mail, signing keys), insure mail safety and begin to build your Web of Trust.

A second serie is currently being written, containing a lot of details: about the legal uses of cryptography, the future of it, transitioning keys…
Much harder to write.