[trebbble]

Yeah, I would entirely love it if I could use the same key for everything I have that takes a key. That'd be great. As it is I just don't bother with keys for, like, back doors to my house and such. They're in a drawer somewhere and never get used. I just can't enter those doors from outside, if they're locked.

One key (well, I mean, I'd want copies of it) for everything would be excellent.

Terrible analogy because I'd look at them like "damn, they've got it figured out!"

[EDIT] Thinking further, the only way this falls apart is if I want to give someone else a key to just one thing, but that's a non-issue with ssh, so the analogy is still comically backwards. "But what if someone gets ahold of one key! Same key for everything, that's access to all your stuff!" well shit man, that's about the same as getting one of them if they're all different, in most cases—where do you think I keep my extra keys? And the couple I carry, so are likely to get in someone else's hands by accident or whatever, are the "give you the kingdom" type anyway. Get my car key, you can get in my house (garage door opener). Get any house key, you can probably get in my car, plus the rest of my keys (e.g. safe) are in there because I don't carry them around all the time.

Yeah, letting someone borrow a key is the only time this might be inconvenient, and again, that's not a factor with SSH.

[ivan23178]

You know, there are master key systems that do exactly this: you can have a master key that opens everything and special keys for just one of the locks. There are even grandmaster systems with some locks opening subsets of locks. I'm personally a huge fan of a certain Finnish manufacturer but there are many others. You can't usually put one of those compatible cylinders into you car, usually, and there are other limitations, but, still, even just for doors and lockers it's a great thing to have. Also, usually, those expensive cylinders are reprogrammable in case of a compromise and there are other security features (keys being impossible to copy is the one I like most).