Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

.ZIP Standard to Fragment?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the after-so-many-years dept.

fudgefactor7 writes "As IDG.NET tells us, the venerable .ZIP compression standard is about to undergo a bit of a schism. PKWare and WinZip, the "big two" in the .ZIP format biz are (unfortunately) going to be making their respective releases incompatible (to an extent) and an archive made with one may not be accessible from another. The problem lies with PKWare not giving information to WinZip, thus making WinZip to go it alone."

10 of 627 comments (clear)

  1. Zip encryption's pretty useless, anyhow. by Skyshadow · · Score: 4, Insightful
    While this is a Bad Thing from an open-standards standpoint, does anyone actually use the security features on zip? I'd think anyone concerned enough to protect their archives would want to use a serious encryption format.

    So, if a fork occurs in a feature which nobody uses, does it make a sound?

    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
  2. PKWare vs. WinZip? by micromoog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Goodbye PKWare.

  3. PGP as the new competitor by Slime-dogg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It seems as if PKWare and Winzip are moving into the realm that is dominated by PGP and the GNU variant. PGP compresses the data when it encrypts it, so that need was taken care of already. I wouldn't use either Winzip or PKZip to send an encrypted zip file, because PGP is more universally known, and can give you 2048 bit encryption.

    AFAIK, the actual zip standard hasn't changed, which means that you'll be able to open zip files with either program (or the WinXP shell... heh). That's what I see most zip files being used for anyway... Windows based shareware / freeware. Stuff where encryption is not necessary.

    The venerable tar.gz and tar.bz2 formats, thankfully, will not be dictated by stupid companies. :-)

    --
    You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
  4. Who the hell are PKWare? by Phreakiture · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, I do know the answer to that, and so do most of you, but the hordes of Windows users out there do not.

    What will happen is that the WinZip will win this feud, simply because it is what people use.

    ...and since the problem stems from PK not sharing information, UNIX zip implementations will likely behave in the same manner as WinZip.

    --
    www.wavefront-av.com
  5. PKWare is dead, too by Schnapple · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The problem lies with PKWare not giving information to WinZip, thus making WinZip to go it alone
    Well then there's probably not going to be much of a problem, given that almost no one uses PKZip anymore. I'm young here but IIRC, everyone in the world used pkzip/pkunzip in the good old DOS days, but then when Windows started to rise, people started looking for a graphical frontend to it, and WinZip pretty much took the lead. I don't recall if WinZip was just a frontend in those days but before long it had integrated ZIP support.

    Also, memory serves that Philip W. Katz, the late founder of PKWare, worked with IDC to make the ZIP file format public domain, both because it wasn't entirely original to either organization, and also because it would never take off were it not. So here then we have PKWare, in the wake of the death of Katz, trying to "pull a Microsoft" and make their version incompatible with others in the hopes that more people will use their version. For that matter, I think PKWare's main claim to fame for years now has been that they were "the first".

    However this has the potential to backfire. PKWare may be trying to "pull a Microsoft" but they are not Microsoft and so now they're in the position where their product now creates the incompatible file. A file made with PKZip may not work with others, a file made with WinZip almost definitely will.

    --

    Schnapple

  6. Winzip's "standard" will win by default by The+Kryptonian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most zip files, sorry to say, are made with WinZip now, so all that PKWare's reticence has accomplished is the balkanization of their own product.

  7. Re:W - R - O - N - G by shaitand · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually the DMCA does NOT allow reverse engineering of security mechanisms... like oh... pkware Encryption algorithms...

  8. Re:More importantly.. by artemis67 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What will my unix *zip programs be compatible with?

    If PKWare suddenly closes their format, and if WinZip keeps theirs open, then it looks like WinZip will win by default.

    It seems that we've been down this road countless times before. The way to win marketshare in the tech sector is to keep things open and allow other companies to champion your standard for you.

  9. And the winner is... by Merlin_ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whichever one is embedded into Windows XP.

    --

    Remembering your name in the morning is already a good start...
  10. Even More Importantly.. by aphor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you use GnuPG(GPG) or PGP to encrypt your files, you get compression too. There is absolutely NO reason to use a nonstandard compression utility to do low quality encryption.

    --
    --- Nothing clever here: move along now...