Secure File Transfer/Storage from Windows to Linux

[newatit]

I plan to install (either Fedora or Ubuntu) Linux soon and am still running Windows XP now. I want to save all of my files I have Windows to DVDs so that I can copy them later. However, I also want to password protect/encrypt all of the files. I had PGP Freeware (for Windows) when I was younger and it let me create a self-extracting archive. I could highlight all the files I wanted to password protect, right-click, and choose "create self-extracting archive" from the drop-down menu. After that, I could take it to any other computer with Windows (the self-extracting archive was a .exe file) and retrieve the original files with the password I assigned.

From what I recall, .exe files do not work on Linux. Is there a program like PGP that I can use to create a password-protected, self-extracting archive that Linux reads? Can Linux extract .zip files? Can I password-protect a self-extracting zip archive file using Windows and then open it on Linux?

I realize there could be alternative ways to transfer the files. I'll cut out the reasons why to make the thread short, but I am really hoping to specifically find a password-enabling, self-extracting archive creator for Windows as the transfer method.

Thanks for any help.

[ved]

It is a good idea to switch to Linux
you can create a password protected file in Linux as window and also extract it .

[HROAdmin26]

As you already know, the EXE format is for Windows and does not run under Linux (in general.) Yes, there are encryption utilities that are cross platform - they usually involve allocating a chunk of disk space or a container file in to put data in. Truecrypt is one of these. But I would suggest encrypting and *testing* the decryption on the other platform before you consider it OK.

Another option is to create a password-protected zip file in Windows. This can be opened using the same password and the "unzip" utility in Linux. Zip passwords are not highly secure, but it may get your job done.