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From: Ed H. on 4 May 2010 22:58
Has anybody used this extension

<http://lastpass.com/index.php>

in Firefox (or any other browser, platform)? How does it compare to
say, 1Password?

Thanks,

Ed H.

--
Ed H.
From: Jeffrey Goldberg on 6 May 2010 01:27
On Tue, 4 May 2010, Ed H. wrote:

> Has anybody used this extension
>
> <http://lastpass.com/index.php>
>
> in Firefox (or any other browser, platform)? How does it compare to
> say, 1Password?

First off, I just started working for Agile Web Solutions, the makers of
1Password. One of the things I will be doing is drafting a document to
address this question. Let me quote from a response I wrote to someone
who asked about this last week:

============
I won't be able to give you a very complete answer because LastPass is
relatively new to browsers on the Mac, and we haven't had the time to
thoroughly examine it.

There do appear to be some design philosophy differences. 1Password has
been designed from the beginning to leave you in complete control of your
data. This shows up in many ways.

(1) Your data is never on our servers. It is only where you choose to put
it.
(2) We have a very extensive list of import and export possibilities.
(3) We have published a design document about our data format, so again
there is no lock-in
http://help.agile.ws/1Password/agile_keychain_design.html
(4) A regular software purchase instead of subscription; so again you have
complete control and access to your data.

1Password has also been designed from the very beginning for usability.
The idea is to make it easy, fun and convenient for people to do what is
in the best interest of their security. So in addition to the browser
extensions, the stand-alone 1Password application is just a joy to use.

At every point possible, we have used implementations of encryption
algorithms and protocols that have had the widest possible expert review.
We use the same encryption libraries that provide the backbone for
Internet security.

Both 1Password and LastPass allow you to create a portable copy of your
data that you can use any where. We call this 1PasswordAnywhere.

http://help.agile.ws/1Password3/1passwordanywhere.html

Until last week, I would have acknowledged that the biggest draw back of
1Password was lack of Windows support. But our Beta release of 1Password
for Windows obviates that.

http://blog.agile.ws/post/541609741/1password-for-windows-beta-is-now-available

1Password is designed to be feature rich, but streamlined. We focus on
providing those features and tools that will enhance what users can do and
improve their experience. I think you will get some idea of what I mean
by that if you take a look at our page describing what's new in 1Password
Version 3.

http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password/whats_new

If I had to sum things up in one sentence, I would say that 1Password is
designed all throughout for security and user experience, and this
approach shines through in everything we do.
=====================================================================

There are a few more things that I'd like to add (though I haven't
researched them sufficiently to verify my conclusions).

(1) 1Password has been in the browser extension for form filling business
for years now. Our heuristics for analyzing a form and filling it with
the right things has developed from our own extensive usage and that of an
enormous number of users over the years. There will always be sites that
1Password struggles to file correctly, but I am willing to bet that the we
are well ahead of the capabilities of LastPass in this regard. But, I
haven't actually evaluated that yet.

(2) I don't know what LastPass's customer support is like, but I know
ours. Both our direct customer support and our very active user forums
are outstanding resources. (I was basically offered the job because of my
participation on the forums over the past years.)

Regular readers of these news groups will know that I take security very
seriously. When I went hunting for password management systems years ago,
I checked out scads of them. 1Password was clearly better than anything
available at the time. There is a lot of snake oil out there, but even
among those that weren't snake oil, 1Password was enormously better than
anything out there. I grilled the founders and lead developers on the
forums extensively. Even on those points where we disagreed about
something, their reasons showed that they had clearly thought through the
implications of every decision.

So please understand that I'm doing this job because I absolutely love
1Password and not the other way around. (I love the job, too. But that's
not why I love 1Password.)

I know that some of what I wrote may come across as vague marketing
babble, but I am happy to elaborate on any point or take on other
questions.

I am as eager as Ed is to see what people say about the differences. The
person who wrote in specifically mentioned he wasn't concerned about the
price differences, but I should mention that 1Password is certainly more
expensive up front. It's not clear what LastPass will cost in the long
run. It's not clear to me the extent that continued usage depends on
their on-line service. Maybe there isn't the lock-in threat that I
imagine with lastpass, but it is something I would recommend people
thoroughly examine.

Cheers,

jeff(a)agile.ws

--
Jeffrey Goldberg http://www.goldmark.org/jeff/
I rarely read top-posted, over-quoting or HTML postings.
http://improve-usenet.org/
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