[Discuss] PGP Basics

[fbxxkl at gmail.com (Kyle Leslie)]

Hola Everyone.  With the recent talk about PGP and the growing need for its
use at my company I have been trying to learn about it.

I am having a mental roadblock with it's usage though.  I understand how
encryption works but I can't seem get through a few of the basics.

How do I get my Key(s), how do I encrypt and and send things encrypted
(email, zip's, etc.)  I am getting closer by playing around with the tools I
have but how do I know what are trusted sources.

For instance, my company has a PGP Key server with the Symantec PGP Desktop
application.  For what ever reason 64 bit windows is having a lot of trouble
with the application so I decided to look else where and check out some open
source tools.  I came across GNUPG.org, downloaded the windows version and
have created a key.  So now I have my PGP Fingerprint (if I understand
correctly that is my shared key so you can open my files).  Do I then need
to get the public key from the "Trusted Sender" in order to open anything
they send?  (I realize this is a windows app I am talking about
specifically, but the functionality of encrypting sending and receiving
files should be universal).

Suggestions for good apps to run on linux machine?

Are there separate applications/plug-ins I can download for email clients?