Comment why isn't this the default during user setup? (Score 5, Insightful) 500
I've often wondered why when you are setting up your user account on a box, and it gets to the part with setting up email, it didn't give you a chance to generate or import public/private keys right there and them upload the public to a server. Particularly on linux boxes, this seems like a completely feasible option.
One might also envision having a secret key storage mechanism, either by local external media or via remote storage where it could go look.