Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FEAD Compressing Compressed Files by 50-75%?

Posted by Cliff on from the if-it-seems-that-way-it-probably-is dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "I just installed Acrobat Reader and found that it was using FEAD which claims - 'FEAD© Optimizer© significantly reduces the size of application programs on average by 50% (in some cases up to 75%, depending on the specific software), even when they are already compressed with common compression technology like ZIP or CAB.' . It seems that they optimize each application individually at thieir labs. But an average of 50% compression on already compressed binary files seems to be too good to be true. Anyone familiar with how someone may be able to achieve this?"

2 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. It's not compression by photon317 · · Score: 4, Informative


    The thing they tout as FEAD is basically a load-over-network-on-demand thingy. They haven't actually developed anything that does compression, they're just storing some of the app on a server somewhere to be downloaded on demand. The hype at their site mislead you, like it was meant to do.

    --
    11*43+456^2
    1. Re:It's not compression by bobbozzo · · Score: 3, Informative

      When you download Acrobat, it usually will download an "Adobe Download Manager" or something like that.

      That is NOT what is being discussed here.

      Even if you bypass using the download manager, it still uses FEAD to decompress and install AcroRead.

      One could easily disprove your theory by unplugging their net connection during the FEAD decompression... Done... no adverse affect.

      Nonetheless, the installer is VERY slow, and is still bigger than the AcroRead 5.1 installer, which did not use FEAD.

      Making users go through this many steps (download the download manager. run it. wait for it to download. wait for fead...) and slowness is insane.

      --
      Nothing to see here; Move along.