Ubuntu - what is keyring used for?

[Cheetah Designs]

Am I right in saying that it is just to encrypt the passwords for things so that they are not stored in plaintext?

If this is the case, is there anyway to get firefox to integrate with it so I don't have to enter the password twice?

 

[tntcoder]

Am I right in saying that it is just to encrypt the passwords for things so that they are not stored in plaintext?

Yep, that's correct.

If this is the case, is there anyway to get firefox to integrate with it so I don't have to enter the password twice?

Try this extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/af/firefox/addon/8737/

Or this one (looks more promising): https://github.com/nougad/firefox-gnome-keyring

There is no official support (yet) for the keyring though.