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New Winzip in the Works

flufster writes "Today WinZip released a public beta version of WinZip 10.0, the latest version of the popular archiving software. The biggest change in this version is that the software has finally been broken into two versions - Standard and Professional, offering paying users additional functionality in the Professional version, while allowing others to use the Standard edition without an annoying nag screen. Version 10.0 has a revamped interface designed to mimic XP's Windows Explorer, and claims to zip archives faster. The software now supports the PPMd and bzip2 compression formats, and can burn from zip archives directly to writable optical media such as CDs and DVDs. The main addition to the Pro edition is an automation feature called 'WinZip Job Wizard' which allows scheduled archiving instructions to be set. Almost all the other features we're used to now come completely free in the Standard edition."

530 comments

  1. -1, buy an ad. by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh wait, you did.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:-1, buy an ad. by interiot · · Score: 2, Insightful
      One of the reasons people switched away from Altavista/Lycos/etc to Google was that the previous search engines presented advertisements in the same exact format as actual content. Reputable newspapers don't do this either.

      Fortunately, back then, Google was a great alternative. And fortunately today, we have another alternative that hasn't taken this practice up (yet).

    2. Re:-1, buy an ad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      oh yeah, cant forget about the oversensative types.

      basically if a company is responsible for it, it is an advertisement.

      you have to realize that companies are the ones making most of the news.

    3. Re:-1, buy an ad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This article did make it to digg, but their users are smart enough to not let it make the front page!

    4. Re:-1, buy an ad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Digg sucks. You get at least as much crap there as here.

    5. Re:-1, buy an ad. by rayde · · Score: 2, Interesting
      thank you for your advertisement of digg. please go away now.

      this isn't an ad for winzip... it is news that this fairly ubiquitous program that we've all used at some point will now be available in a free version without nags. it's not like this article was completely without any merit.

    6. Re:-1, buy an ad. by interiot · · Score: 1
      I'm just another heavy user of slashdot and other sites, who sees other sites passing Slashdot, even though Slashdot's comment/karma system is better. I really would like to see Slashdot to improve so there can be increasingly interesting ways to burn my time.

      This article feels like an ad. Too many Slashdot articles feel like ads. If they are actually paid for, then that's really bad, because Slashdot editors have a financial incentive to make the content worse over time. If it's not actually an ad, it's still pretty bad because the editors aren't doing their jobs in 1) selecting interesting articles, or 2) in rewriting interesting articles that are worded too much like PR-speak or otherwise are written badly but would be interesting if rewritten.

      Honestly, how likely would it be for this story to show up on Digg, or Blogdex, or any A-list blogs? Almost zero chance. Stories on Slashdot seem to be increasingly dumb, even though there's growing competition from alternatives. Slashdot can and should improve.

    7. Re:-1, buy an ad. by masterzora · · Score: 2, Informative

      Another one of the reasons people switched away from Altavista/Lycos/etc to Google was because Google's service was actually superior.

      Unfortunately today, Digg falls far short of this. The dupes are far worse than at Slashdot. Way worse. The amount of non-tech, non-news, and general crap is usually a lot greater than the amount of releveant tech news. A lot greater. We may complain about Slashdot, but at Digg the problems are worse. And to say that they don't have any ad submissions hit front page is laughable (this, for example, is currently front paged and it's no different from this post except the software). Of course, even if there were a complete lack of ads, it would be far overshadowed when you have a story like Bill Gates's House on Google Maps. And, of course, the comments there are hardly worthwhile.

      So, sure, Digg is a nice little curiosity. But as a Slashdot replacement it fails in far short. Complain about Slashdot all you want, but the reality is that it is not as bad as we say, and it's nowhere near as bad as Digg.

      --
      Remember, open source is free as in speech, not free as in bear.
    8. Re:-1, buy an ad. by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 1

      I don't know why people cares about google's ads. I just don't look at them, I don't about the rest of the people.

      And for the rest of web pages using adsense you can use this little trick:

      echo "0.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com" >> /etc/hosts

    9. Re:-1, buy an ad. by tezbobobo · · Score: 1

      sure, if by 'another alternative' you actually mean 'crap competitors.' Why even post this advertising crap. Digg is not a search engine. If it is, it doesn't focus on searching (which would be nice in a search engine). It seems to be some sort of news site, but since I'm already at slashdot, I think I'll stay here. In the absence of me having moderator points, I hope you feel a bit repentant about wasting everyones precious seconds.

    10. Re:-1, buy an ad. by pembo13 · · Score: 1

      I kinda like google ads. They can be informative.

      --
      "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
    11. Re:-1, buy an ad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The biggest change in this version is that the software has finally been broken into two versions"

      Awesome, they've made it even easier to not pay for the software.

    12. Re:-1, buy an ad. by Awptimus+Prime · · Score: 1

      This is rather shameless shareware promotion for a Linux/Open Source advocasy site. Way to go!

      Tomorrow: Slashdot recommends everyone click this banner to perform FREE SYSTEM SCAN now!

      What is the deal with somethingawful.com?

    13. Re:-1, buy an ad. by doperu · · Score: 0

      I'mcompletely agree with you. Let my Karma fall, but I want to say that this post is adv.

  2. tar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    can still kick it's ass

    1. Re:tar by PhoenixPath · · Score: 1

      Funny thatm the guy above who said winrar is better is modded interesting, while the guy who says tar is better is modded a troll.

      What are these mods smoking?

    2. Re:tar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      tar does not compress anything. bzip2 does.

      Yes, I know, IHBT.

      I will HAND, thank you.

    3. Re:tar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably because 'tar' is an archiver. It does not do compression without invoking another application (eg gzip or bzip2).

    4. Re:tar by datadriven · · Score: 1

      I don't know about you but I usually create or open an archive with a tar command, I'm not sure I've ever called gzip or bzip2 directly.

    5. Re:tar by cyclop · · Score: 1

      But that's gzip or bzip2 that do the compression.

      --
      -- Patent no.123456: A way to personalize /. comments with a sig attached to the end.
    6. Re:tar by quantum+bit · · Score: 1

      Not always. FreeBSD 5.x and higher have bsdtar installed as "tar", which uses libarchive. It does all the compression in-process without using any external programs.

    7. Re:tar by FLEB · · Score: 1

      Yes, but I've found that, even in that case, renaming "tar" to "zip" gives zip a comparable compression ratio, and even nearly identical files.

      --
      Information wants to be free.
      Entertainment wants to be paid.
      You just want to be cheap.
  3. Good News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Thr's a lt 2 b sd 4 dta cmprsn.

  4. Obligatory bash.org quote Obligato Obligatory bas by XorNand · · Score: 5, Funny
    what should I give sister for unzipping? Um. Ten bucks? no I mean like, WinZip?
    --
    Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
  5. Superior, free alternative by Solder+Fumes · · Score: 5, Informative

    My favorite window archiving tool: http://www.izarc.org/

    I guess 7-zip is popular too. Regardless, Winzip is yesterday's news.

    1. Re:Superior, free alternative by evilneko · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I tried IZarc on the recommendation of a friend and I've never looked back. Hell I haven't used Winzip since version 6 or something. I'd been making do with Power Archiver 6 and Winrar, but now IZArc's all I need. I tried 7-zip, way back when I first heard of it. It lacked context-menu items, so I uninstalled it.

      --
      Slashdot - where to disagree, is to be a troll
    2. Re:Superior, free alternative by nimid · · Score: 1

      Izarc looks impressive and I'm sure it works very well but it isn't Open Source.

      Yes, I know being Open Source isn't the most important factor but it as far as I'm concerned it's a Unique Selling Point over Izarc.

      7zip is Open Source and it works great, is compatible with WinZip and has extra compression options that WinZip doesn't support (don't use them if you want to be backwards compatible with WinZip though). It also works on Linux so if you're ever in the situation where you have to use a different OS, you still can do without having to learn a new interface.

      --
      A hundred and twenty characters ought to be enough for anyone...
    3. Re:Superior, free alternative by JPriest · · Score: 2, Informative

      I have tested almost every other app people have suggested to me and WinRAR still leads the way.

      --
      Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
    4. Re:Superior, free alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IZARC can do WAY more then WinZip ever will. And it's FREE! The UI is about the same, so your secretary can use it. Who the hell would PAY $$$ for this inferior WinZip???

    5. Re:Superior, free alternative by Solder+Fumes · · Score: 1

      I haven't tried 7-zip recently. IZarc worked better than 7-zip at one point (i.e. didn't randomly crash) so that's what I got used to. In Windows, anyway, I am open-source indifferent; and in Linux I merely use the command-line tools.

    6. Re:Superior, free alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      wait, winzip isnt free?

    7. Re:Superior, free alternative by moonbender · · Score: 2, Informative

      Agreed. The explorer integration is just great. Typically I don't even have to see the program, I just right-click drag, extract here. Options like extract in subfolder and, when dragging more than one archive, extract each into its own subdirectory are cool too, invaluable if you need them.

      Actually, that's all I need of a compression software. 7zip is not terrible, either, but with the most recent version I tried - a month or so ago - the explorer integration wasn't there yet. It had an "Extract..." entry in the context menu, but as the ellipsis indicates, it opens up a dialog which requires you to type in or select the target folder. Which takes an eternity compared to just dragging to a folder which I typically have open anyway.

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      Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
    8. Re:Superior, free alternative by Quarters · · Score: 4, Informative

      IZarc is free and supports pretty much every compression format. But, for me at least, it constantly barfs a hairball when I try to drag-n-drop a file out of an archive that is in a nested folder. The only way to get at the file in that instance is to unpack the entire archive and then navigate to the file in Explorer. Neither WinZip, WinRar, nor 7-Zip have this problem.

    9. Re:Superior, free alternative by Deathlizard · · Score: 1

      I use Powerarchiver and have used it for a long time now.

      It's not free but it does just about everything that this new version does, as well as open just about every compression format out there as well as create files with most of the compression formats as well.

      For free, I'll second 7-zip.

    10. Re:Superior, free alternative by izomiac · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually a lot of free programs do that. I haven't used WinZip in years because I found freeware alternatives that would extract/create more types of archives (RAR for instance) and have more features (like renaming a file in an archive, repairing corrupt files, or scheduling backups). In the last 6 years I've used several such programs, FilZip, ZipGenius, and TugZip that I can remember. AFAIK they all have that level of explorer integration and can extract about 20 types of archives (and compress to about 7). ZipGenius, for instance, is giving me options (in a subdirectory of my context menu on multiple zip files) to add to a Downloads.zip file, add to an archive with options, add to any zip archive, create & e-mail archive, extract all here, extract all to..., extract here in separate folders, extract all to... in separate folders, and compress to 7-zip. TugZip is giving me a few less options (but still has extract in subfolders) but also has an option to convert them to self extracting archives.

    11. Re:Superior, free alternative by doublem · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yeah, the old versions were less than spectacular.

      If context menus were the main barrier for you, then you might want to give it another try. There are now "Add to Archive" and "Extract To" context menus that work nicely in Windows.

      Tell you what, I'll give IZarc a fair shot if you try 7-zip again. :)

      --
      "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
    12. Re:Superior, free alternative by moonbender · · Score: 1

      Actually a lot of free programs don't do what I describe. As I said in my post, I'm not so much interested in a simple context menu of a file (7zip has got that, mostly everyone does), but in an entry in the menu that opens when right-click moving an archive. Vanilla explorer offers three entries, copy, move and create shortcut, WinRAR adds the various alternative ways of extracting an archive. Since I typically already have an open explorer window of the destination, this saves me the "ardous" work of manually selecting it in a dialogue. Maybe that's what you mean, too, and I'm only reading the post wrong, if so I apologize.

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      Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
    13. Re:Superior, free alternative by Cereal+Box · · Score: 1

      I've used IZArc and was not that impressed with it (and this is recently, i.e., just a few weeks ago). I regularly work with ZIP archives that contain thousands of files and opening one of those files in IZArc takes _forever_, whereas Winzip is quite fast and 7zip is slightly slower, but acceptable.

    14. Re:Superior, free alternative by E2Hawkeye · · Score: 1

      Honestly, I see Winzip as The IE and 7-Zip as The Firefox.

      There may be better zip utilities out there, but the ease of use and no hassle license keep me solidly in the 7-zip camp.

    15. Re:Superior, free alternative by DavidTC · · Score: 1

      I have 7-zip. It doesn't have drag and dtop intergration, but it does have 'Extract to here' and 'Extract to foldername', where folder name is based on the archive name.

      --
      If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
    16. Re:Superior, free alternative by izomiac · · Score: 1

      Oh now I see what you were talking about. But it seems that both TugZip & Zip Genius (which I currently have installed) do that as well. A feature that never occurred to me since I rarely have very many folders opened simultaneously.

    17. Re:Superior, free alternative by moonbender · · Score: 1

      Yeah I know, my kind of usage is fairly rare. It's kind of the old Mac OS way of file system browsing (aka spatial browsing), which I carried over when I made the switch in '95. Got 11 explorer windows open at the moment. ;) Thanks for the headsup on the WinRAR alternatives.

      --
      Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
    18. Re:Superior, free alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've tried MANY archive applications and they're all great in a way, but they ALL have the same problem.

      They can't compress into RAR. None of them, except WinRAR.

      Since I use rar exclusively, I'm tied to WinRAR :(

    19. Re:Superior, free alternative by Q2Serpent · · Score: 1

      I agree, and that's why I like izarc - it has this feature too.

    20. Re:Superior, free alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah I get this error too.

      IZarc seems to barf out the wrong file when I drag out a file from an archive containing several files with same filename but in different directories in the archive.

  6. writing to opical media... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... is this really necessary for an archiver?

    1. Re:writing to opical media... by Skye16 · · Score: 1

      Apparently. It seems to be the way some applications want to go. Take Opera, for instance. It does just about everything under the sun. I hear, with release 11, it's going to even mow your lawn for you.

      For some people, that's simply fabulous. Personally, I'd rather have a good screwdriver and a pair of pliars than a swiss army knife / leatherman, but just because that's the way I like it, it doesn't mean it's the way things have to be.

      Someone out there is probably bouncing off the walls now that WinZip will burn directly to CD/DVD for them. There's nothing wrong with that.

    2. Re:writing to opical media... by Low2000 · · Score: 1

      This feature is great for some applications. For instance, the company that I work for will distribute 'updates' in the form of full releases of the software in a zip file taht people can download from the web instead of waiting for the shipped CD. The zip file is mearly the directory structure of the application in a zip file. If people can just 'unzip' our product to a CD, that will save them a few steps.

      I also talk to a lot of small business users here at work. And trust me, the more steps I save, the easier it is to explain everything.

  7. What about rar? by bach37 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What about the annoying rar format? Hope it can de/compress that.

    1. Re:What about rar? by BoomerSooner · · Score: 5, Informative

      Or you could just get WinRar. Free upgrades and a better format to boot.

    2. Re:What about rar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      What about the annoying rar format?

      Annoying? Why's it annoying?

      It's widespread enough it's not really a niche format. And it is actually better than zip on a file-by-file basis even if you don't use solid archives.

    3. Re:What about rar? by __aaxwdb6741 · · Score: 3, Funny

      On that note, I think it's about time that I update to my WinRAR to 3.50.
      And, oh, why hasnt slashdot posted news about WinRAR 3.50? They didnt pay enough?

    4. Re:What about rar? by Haeleth · · Score: 1

      Or you could just get WinRar. Free upgrades and a better format to boot.

      And if all you need is to be able to read RAR archives, then you can download free-as-in-beer extraction programs for most major platforms here. There's even source code available.*

      People are welcome not to like WinRAR for being a proprietary product using proprietary algorithms, but nobody can complain that RAR archives are inaccessible to them.

      * Under a slightly restrictive license, but it's still source code.

    5. Re:What about rar? by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      -rw-r--r-- 1 kilobyte kilobyte 229977 Sep 1 14:36 aa.rar
      -rw-r--r-- 1 kilobyte kilobyte 176655 Sep 1 14:36 aa.tar.bz2
      -rw-r--r-- 1 kilobyte kilobyte 220352 Sep 1 14:36 aa.tar.gz
      -rw-r--r-- 1 kilobyte kilobyte 245739 Sep 1 14:37 aa.zip

      Nuff said.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    6. Re:What about rar? by scovetta · · Score: 1

      I agree. I always liked Winzip, but now Winzip+Winrar+native windows compression makes 2 more than I need.

      Windows needs to support gzip (those darn pesky .tar.gz files) as well.

      Now, I use 7zip, which does just about everything including .arj (sorry, no .arc support for you people who fell asleep in 1987 and just woke up)

      --
      Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
    7. Re:What about rar? by crownrai · · Score: 1

      RAR itself is fine. It spliting up RAR archives into multiple files that annoy me.

      And then there is the different extentions:

      rar, r##, part##.rar etc..

    8. Re:What about rar? by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

      Winrar is cool, and its amusing whenever my missus makes the "Rarrrrrrrrr!" lion noise everytime I say I'm unpacking something with it, BUT your right, because its not standard, most people can't extract them.

      At least Winxp includes zip compression by default which has removed lots of support issues.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    9. Re:What about rar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      What's a pirate's favorite compression format?

      Raaaaaarrr

    10. Re:What about rar? by thelost · · Score: 1

      while winrar is not standard (i use it myself and am very happy with it btw) I certainly don't feel that zip files are standard as well. ask a mac user whether he can uncompress a compressed file and he ain't gonna go and hug a zip file, he's going to go and pat his stuffit on the head and then complain about pc users not using .sit files.

      --
      Promote Charity on Myspace, Show Your Colours!
    11. Re:What about rar? by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 1

      Not exactly. That doesn't factor in time it takes to compress or time it takes to decompress.
      Something like http://www.elis.ugent.be/~wheirman/compression/ does a better job at it.
      Nor does your test factor in the many different options, like http://studwww.ugent.be/~jdebock/gimp_source_compr ession_test.htm

      Lest we not forget to use the right tool for the right job. Rars are great for moving large files across unstable mediums and patching them up with pars to deal with any quality loss. The compression ratio on rar is really great too, but at the same time its just impossible[*] to stream. Thats why we use gzip or deflate for webservers.
      Now if only we can teach people to stop zipping their 300mb movies. Its fine if you're including your source material in it (demos/maps/textures for game movies f.e), but most of the time its just so they can include a readme.

      [*]It's technically possible to stream content inside of rar files if the medium allows jumping around in the file. For example you can play a movie from inside a rar with mplayer if you have it all locally, or are on a network mount that can deal with seeking

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
    12. Re:What about rar? by araemo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Stuffit is unneeded. It was a niche product to support the resource fork + data fork when transmitting/storing the file on mediums that do not support a resource fork(IE, putting it on a unix FTP server or sending it as an attachment to a usenet post, etc). Now that the resource forks are mostly unneeded, partially duplicated in a 'file' that tar can roll up, and becoming deprecated in general... Apple started using .dmg disk images to distribute stuff! ARRRGH! :P Admittedly, it's a wonderful installation method as far as end user experience goes, but it is hardly cross platform compatible.

    13. Re:What about rar? by thelost · · Score: 1

      i agree stuffit's uneeded but on the other hand macintosh users are the kind of users who find it very hard to let go of something. I first remember using stuffit back in system 7 or perhaps even earlier than that. I'm not sure, my rhuemy old memory has misted over. nad as for .dmg's I think they are fantastic but yes, very frustrating for a PC user to come up against. However there is very little reason on the whole a pc user to encounter them, although perhaps these wild encounter will become more frequent now some people can actually run OS X on their pc's!

      --
      Promote Charity on Myspace, Show Your Colours!
    14. Re:What about rar? by courtarro · · Score: 1

      PowerArchiver has become my replacement for Winzip. I registered Winzip years ago, so it was tough to admit defeat, but I've now replaced it with PA and haven't looked back. PA costs $20 and supports every format I've thrown at it, including rar, 7zip, and many installation EXEs that contain compressed data (WZ did this too). It also has batch compression and decompression, which is great for handling emulation ROMs.

    15. Re:What about rar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You payed for software?

      pfft. RAR>all.

      Or ZipGenius GPL.

    16. Re:What about rar? by Viceice · · Score: 2, Informative

      "RAR itself is fine. It spliting up RAR archives into multiple files that annoy me.

      And then there is the different extentions:

      rar, r##, part##.rar etc.."


      -1 Troll

      Zip is also capable of splitting it's archive, why don't you complain about that too?

      Anyway, people split RARs for good reason. It's so that if during a massive download you have a small bit that doesn't stand up to CRC, all you need to do is redownload the segment that went bad instead of maybe 4.7gb all over again.

      --
      Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
    17. Re:What about rar? by crownrai · · Score: 1
      Zip is also capable of splitting it's archive, why don't you complain about that too?"

      no trolling, just commenting.

      I probably should have stated that I'm more annoyed with multi file RAR's on Torrent downloads. Torrent already does multi-peice downloads so there is no need to do it again by breaking it up into a multi-file archive.

      Even worse is compressing (in any format) an already compressed Video/Audio file wich doesn't make the files any smaller.

      If I want to keep sharing I have to keep those compressed versions around.

    18. Re:What about rar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends on what you mean by "better format". It has some better features (multiple files for one archive) but also some negatives (like being slow as shit with minimal gain for one; just like bzip; blech).

    19. Re:What about rar? by neonfrog · · Score: 1

      Having had to deal with RAR and SIT a lot lately, I decided to go with http://www.stuffit.com/win/deluxe/. I had purchased a WinZip license, but I just got sick of trying to deal with MAC folk who couldn't zip to save their lives.

      I don't work for them. I had to find a solution recently and this was just the ticket.

      --

      I'm thinking about it, therefore I might be.

    20. Re:What about rar? by blincoln · · Score: 1

      but most of the time its just so they can include a readme.

      I started zipping the A/V files on my websites a few years ago. It wasn't to make them smaller, it was because MS changed the default behaviour of IE to stream them directly instead of downloading them.

      My bandwidth usage skyrocketed because people would stream the same files over and over again.

      --
      "...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
    21. Re:What about rar? by m50d · · Score: 1

      Annoying? It's the most effective compression format around, supports all the features I've seen in any archiver, and includes recovery volumes without needing an external tool (though people normally use par instead anyway)

      --
      I am trolling
    22. Re:What about rar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      zipfiles used to be able to span floppy disks, so there must be support in the zip format for multiple files.

    23. Re:What about rar? by zerocool^ · · Score: 1

      Dude, get 7zip. Seriously. It integrates into windows explorer shell; just right click on the .rar file and select "extract here". Brings up a window with a progress bar, and then it's done. No fuss, no extra clicks, no questions or annoy screens.

      --
      sig?
    24. Re:What about rar? by rekoil · · Score: 1

      Why not .tar them? It takes far less time to untar than to unzip, and the file size is the same...

    25. Re:What about rar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not only that, the last time I used it, the interface was stone-axe, and the app itself was a hog, and a pig. I don't use it unless there is no other alternative.

    26. Re:What about rar? by DavidTC · · Score: 1
      rars don't have anything to do with pars. You can make pars on anything.

      Right now, almost all content you find that has pars has coincidentally been compressed with rar, but that's not because they work well together or anything. I've seen both mp3s and avis that have pars.

      --
      If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
    27. Re:What about rar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's pretty obvious that the poster doesn't have a problem with splitting files, but that the RAR format keeps changing how it's done and the naming methodology.

      Nevermind that AFAIK the RAR source code is not available - talk about a closed format.

    28. Re:What about rar? by drsquare · · Score: 1

      In my experience rar gives file sizes about half the size of gzip or bzip2. Zip doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath.

    29. Re:What about rar? by LiquidHAL · · Score: 2

      what about winrar indead. I've used nothing but winrar for ages, it's the Usenet standard. Some use that hjsplit/hjjoin garbage though.

    30. Re:What about rar? by IntlHarvester · · Score: 1

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but OS X Finder has built-in ZIP support, and no support for Stuffit (due to it being totally proprietary and patented.) Tiger no longer ships with Stuffit Expander.

      The standard Mac format is now Disk Images.

      --
      Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
    31. Re:What about rar? by NeoSkandranon · · Score: 1

      I probably should have stated that I'm more annoyed with multi file RAR's on Torrent downloads. Torrent already does multi-peice downloads so there is no need to do it again by breaking it up into a multi-file archive.

      My take on this is that the seeder of the torrent was just too lazy to repackage the release he or she downloaded from Usenet (where releases are commonly broken up to make reposting easier)

      --
      If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
    32. Re:What about rar? by thelost · · Score: 1

      you're completely right, but on the other hand that's not going to stop mac users who have been using stuffit for over ten years from holding on until you prize it from their cold dead fingers ;P

      --
      Promote Charity on Myspace, Show Your Colours!
    33. Re:What about rar? by julesh · · Score: 1

      Anyway, people split RARs for good reason. It's so that if during a massive download you have a small bit that doesn't stand up to CRC, all you need to do is redownload the segment that went bad instead of maybe 4.7gb all over again.

      And then they distribute it via bittorrent, which does SHA-1 hash checks on each 1Mb chunk, and redownloads automatically until it gets it right.

      There's no point in doing the same thing twice...

  8. I'm torn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Version 10.0 has a revamped interface designed to mimic XP's Windows Explorer

    That's bad.

    The software now supports...bzip2 compression

    That's good!

    1. Re:I'm torn. by Waltre · · Score: 1

      the bzip2 compression is also cursed...

      That's bad.

      But it comes with a free froghurt!

      That's good!

    2. Re:I'm torn. by Drooling+Iguana · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      The frogurt is also cursed.

      But it comes with your choice of toppings!

      The toppings contain sodium benzoate.

      --
      ... I'm addicted to placebos
  9. Multiple Zip Files by jdvuyk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The ability to unzip large groups of ZIP files in one action would be a lovely addition!!! I just use winrar anyway as, although it can be alot more ugly, the methods it uses are much more elegant. My 2c...

    1. Re:Multiple Zip Files by cyborg_zx · · Score: 1

      The ability to unzip large groups of ZIP files in one action would be a lovely addition!!!

      Simplicity itself with a CLI of your choice. Something like:

      unzip *.zip

      Is going to do the job. I've yet to see any GUI based interface have anything so simple for such a task.

    2. Re:Multiple Zip Files by Steve+Cox · · Score: 1

      > The ability to unzip large groups of ZIP files in one action would be a lovely addition!!!

      You mean like multiply selecting zip files in explorer, right clicking and selecting the Winzip options of either 'Extract to here' or 'Extract to here using file names for folders' ?

      Winzip has had this option for ages....

    3. Re:Multiple Zip Files by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Yeah, except for the fact that command won't work.

    4. Re:Multiple Zip Files by gowen · · Score: 1

      Correctimundo.


      for i in *.zip; do unzip $i;done


      And *that* may only work as long as there are no spaces in the filenames (depending on which shell you use). Ugh.

      --
      Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
    5. Re:Multiple Zip Files by nmg196 · · Score: 1

      Use Winzip - it's had this feature for as long as I can remember...

      Not sure how that post got modded insightful. You'd think he would have tried it before posting.

    6. Re:Multiple Zip Files by cortana · · Score: 1

      for file in *.zip; do unzip "$file"; done

    7. Re:Multiple Zip Files by m50d · · Score: 1

      Drag over all the zipfiles, right click, extract. Just as simple if you're used to gui concepts.

      --
      I am trolling
    8. Re:Multiple Zip Files by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The ability to unzip large groups of ZIP files in one action would be a lovely addition!!! I just use winrar anyway as, although it can be alot more ugly, the methods it uses are much more elegant. My 2c...

      in bash:

      for f in *.zip; do unzip $f; done
      in ruby:
      Dir["*.zip"].each { |f| `unzip #{f}` }
      in scsh (scheme shell):
      (for-each (lambda (f) (run (unzip ,f)))
      (glob "*.zip"))
    9. Re:Multiple Zip Files by IntlHarvester · · Score: 1

      Won't work on Unix. I'm pretty sure the old PKUNZIP program supported wildcards.

      --
      Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
    10. Re:Multiple Zip Files by moonbender · · Score: 1

      Except you might not want to extract ALL the zip files in a given directory, just a number. For instance I have 326 zip files in my download directory right now. There is no time ever I want to extract all of them, but I might very well extract 5 to 10 at a time. Using a CLI to do this would be excrutiatingly painful; in fact the only non-painful way to do it would be by moving them into a new directory - with a GUI. On the other hand, any non-stupid GUI zip utility - including the one that comes with Windows - has various ways to extract a group of ZIP files.

      --
      Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
    11. Re:Multiple Zip Files by TCM · · Score: 1

      Duh.

      $ unzip '*.zip'

      or

      $ unzip \*.zip

      --
      Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
    12. Re:Multiple Zip Files by MrJozef · · Score: 1

      You're right, it should be
      unzip "*.zip".
      zip under unix somehow can't use the shells expansion, but can do it itself if you quote the *.

    13. Re:Multiple Zip Files by cyborg_zx · · Score: 1

      I don't believe I said it would work - infact I used words that implied just the opposite.

    14. Re:Multiple Zip Files by AllynM · · Score: 1

      Winrar already does this from within windows explorer. Select the group of zip files and do a right button-drag to wherever you want for the destination. Select 'extract here' from the menu that appears when releasing the right mouse button.

      --
      this sig was brought to you by the letter /.
  10. Hmmm? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The main addition to the Pro edition is an automation feature called 'WinZip Job Wizard' which allows scheduled archiving instructions to be set.

    Why don't they release a cmdline version, too? So I could write my own automated scripts?

    (I know.. I know... ;-)

  11. has it got any new features by b1gn4tb00bs · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    10 versions of a compression program, how much can you do with a compression program (anyway winrar is better coz it supports more formats) This what microsoft did to sql server 7 to make it 2000 stuck a new spash screen on it

    --
    pr0n: now ive got your attention click here
    1. Re:has it got any new features by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      1) You replied to the first post just to get your post near the top. It has nothing to do what gp said.

      2) You are a dumb fuck if you think SQL Server 2000 is SQL Server 7 with a splash screen.

      3) Your grammar sucks out the ass.

    2. Re:has it got any new features by mobets · · Score: 1

      Never was a fan of WinRAR, but UltimateZip is pretty nice.

      --

      It was me, I did it, I moved your cheese
    3. Re:has it got any new features by SoloFlyer2 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Recently i had to compress a 768mb memory dump file

      Winzip .ZIP 152MB
      Winrar .RAR 103MB
      Winace .ACE 117MB

      Rar kicked ass :)

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAR
      "RAR compression operations are typically slower than compressing the same data with ZIP, but a much better rate of compression is achieved whenever the data can still be compressed further."
      Need i say more?
      --
      "I reject your reality, and substitute my own" - Adam Savage
    4. Re:has it got any new features by frodo+from+middle+ea · · Score: 1

      Umm, untill even they started the annoying nag screen. 7-zip all the way..

      --
      for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
    5. Re:has it got any new features by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      or you could try seven-zip which is decidedly NOT shareware. Not to mention it supports more than RAR.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    6. Re:has it got any new features by Skye16 · · Score: 1

      WinRAR supports more than RAR also?

      RAR, ZIP, CAB, ARJ, LZH, ACE, 7-Zip, TAR, GZip, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, Z.

      7-zip may support more - I honestly don't know, as WinRAR fits all my needs perfectly - and I'm not trying to say 7-zip is a bad choice (again, I wouldn't know). But, for your information, WinRAR does much more than just RAR. :)

    7. Re:has it got any new features by baadger · · Score: 1

      WinRAR isn't free

    8. Re:has it got any new features by Badfysh · · Score: 2, Informative

      I've been trying out Tugzip. Free, no nag screens, supports almost any format including rar, pretty nice.

      --

      I was conned by an old man in a cloak. It turns out those *were* the droids I was looking for.

    9. Re:has it got any new features by Skye16 · · Score: 1

      I don't believe I said anything anywhere to contradict that point? I was talking about what decompression algorithms it supports. GGP already stated it was shareware. I really don't see why it had to be restated, but alright.

      Just so everyone else knows, in case they haven't read it yet:

      WinRAR is not free.

      Now they're really aware.

    10. Re:has it got any new features by pen · · Score: 1

      Parent may be rude, but it's Insightful, not Offtopic.

    11. Re:has it got any new features by MasterSLATE · · Score: 2, Informative

      My weapon of choice is power archiver. It supports just about everything I would ever come across, for both compressing and uncompressing

      --

      [sig]www.masterslate.org[/sig]
    12. Re:has it got any new features by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      I meant winrar instead of the rar format, i knew it supported many formats.

      the formats my version of 7z supports are:
      001
      7z
      arj
      bz2
      cab
      cpio
      deb
      gz
      rar
      rpm
      tar
      z
      zip

      which are mostly formats more common then the ones winrar supports

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    13. Re:has it got any new features by joeljkp · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but 7-zip is open source.

      --
      WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
    14. Re:has it got any new features by BigDog1942 · · Score: 1

      But it's about the slowest zipper you can find.

  12. What a ridiculous advertisement! by kmmatthews · · Score: 4, Funny

    Great, an AD pretending to be an article. Not only that, it's for a Windows product on a Linux-based website!

    --
    feh. stuff.
    1. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The stats still show that the vast majority of people who visit Slashdot are running Windows. But yeah, it is an ad.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    2. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by evil-osm · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not only that, it's for a Windows product on a Linux-based website!

      Slashdot is Linux biased?!?!?!(Mouth gapes open)

      Taco you lead me into a trap, a trap! Curse you and your offspring!!

      --


      E.

      Never rub another man's rhubarb - The Joker
    3. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by PianoComp81 · · Score: 1

      This is only due many people reading slashdot from work. I'm forced to use Windows at work (though most of the development team would love to use Linux).

    4. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by nmg196 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Exactly where does slashdot claim to be a Linux based website?

      News for Linux based nerds? Stuff that matters to Linux users?

    5. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by b100dian · · Score: 1

      It would be lovely to see those stats...

      --
      gtkaml.org
    6. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by mwvdlee · · Score: 1

      So I guess no more news articles about PHP, ASP, JSP, Python or Ruby either, since Slashdot is Perl-based?

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    7. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by strider44 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps he should have said Open Source based web site. Unless the Open Source Development Network is just a name...

    8. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by strider44 · · Score: 1

      oh yes of course! I should have looked at the bottom of the bloody page, but hey I'm too lazy for something like that.

    9. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by neye_eve · · Score: 1

      linux based website linking to a windows article produces such a reaction? not that there's any reason linux users get a reputation as elitest zealots or anything, it's all just a misunderstanding...

    10. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Although I don't disagree with the notion, I would raise the issue as to why it wasn't written in the past tense.....

    11. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by thehemi · · Score: 4, Funny

      But yeah, it is an ad.

      Slashdot becomes a Freshmeat for Windows. Wonderful.

      --
      Scott M
    12. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by TeknoHog · · Score: 1
      Perhaps he should have said Open Source based web site.

      If that's so, what are Windows and WinZip doing here?

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    13. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by midicase · · Score: 1

      Windows? Yes, but only under oppressive force by employers during the day.

      I ride Linux at night.

    14. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The stats still show that the vast majority of people who visit Slashdot are running Windows.

      That's cause we're at work. Uh, I mean, cause they're at work. Yeah.

    15. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by cranky_slacker · · Score: 0

      yep, that's what the stats say...but what about all the linux users who read /. at work where they have no control over the OS they use?

    16. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Taco you lead me into a trap, a trap! Curse you and your offspring!!

      God forbid.

    17. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by markass530 · · Score: 1

      /.is a linux based wesite? Then why are their so many windows discussions? I Think linux users may be equated to the red sox...somewhat self loathing. Never content. Always slightly bitter. or not.

    18. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by HorsePunchKid · · Score: 1

      I read Slashdot at work (I've got better things to do when I'm not at work ;-), where I'm forced to use Windows. My personal machines are a Mac and a Linux / Win2k dual-boot that I use Windows on once every six months or so. I wonder how many /.ers are in a similar situation.

      --
      Steven N. Severinghaus
    19. Re:What a ridiculous advertisement! by jelle · · Score: 1

      Exactly where does slashdot claim to be a Linux based website?

      Holy crap. Are you serious?

      In the FAQ: who owns /.?, and what do you think it runs on?

      Or maybe you are one of those people who needs to hear it in terms of something like NasdaqNM:LNUX?

      Do you know anything of /.'s past, cmdrtaco, and it's current owner?

      --
      --- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
  13. Last chance saloon by oberondarksoul · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I've personally always quite liked using WinZip on the PC; yes, Windows has had zip capabilities built-in for a while now (I believe they debuted in Windows ME), but I've still always preferred keeping WinZip around, especially for its disk-spanning capabilities.

    However, with broadband increasing in prevelance, and pendrives and CD writers becoming pretty much the norm now for home users (my parents, never the most technologically literate of users, have their own USB pendrives which they love), not to mention zip integration into just about every common OS now, is there still a place for WinZip? Even if people continue to download it, most people I know who've used it just bypass the nag screens without a second thought - how long can they survive?

    --
    And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
    1. Re:Last chance saloon by Evro · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There will always be a place for a format like "ZIP" even if only for its concatenation ability. Downloading 1000 1k files ends up being more time consuming than downloading a single 1 MB file. As for WinZip itself, I don't think most businesses have migrated from Win 2000 yet, and many don't plan to, so there's probably some life left in it.

      --
      rooooar
    2. Re:Last chance saloon by exKingZog · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Ah, I remember the days when I was the first to get a CD-ROM drive - the hours spent when friends would bring round a stack of floppies, and we'd experiment with the PKZip options so we could copy files from a CD to floppies.

      Not relevant, just brought back a rush of nostalgia...

      --
      "If he were a plant, people would roll him up and smoke him."
    3. Re:Last chance saloon by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

      The company I worked for removed WinZip from its standard build when it moved to XP. It is now back in the standard build, because Windows' ZIP support is minimal at best. It also can't handle any other archive format, such as .tar.gz.

    4. Re:Last chance saloon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Honestly, I'd have to say... heck yes. There is still a strong contingent of people who use pre-ME versions of windows. Also, there is no zip integration in Linux. File browsers (konqueror or whatever) may fake it, but at a filesystem level, there is no integrated zip support (at least to the extent of my knowlege). Also, I have seen several situations where zips built by XP are recognized as invalid by other software. Pain in the arse, frankly.

      With regard to broadband... Yes, we have more bandwidth than ever, but that's not an excuse to start using bmps for everything, rather than jpgs, is it? Of course not. We could send the bmp in the same time as the jpg would go across a dial-up line, but it's much more useful to use jpgs and have the page load 100 times faster.

      Also, if you had read the original post, you would have noticed that the nag screens have disappeared.

    5. Re:Last chance saloon by shancock · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I agree completely. I also have used winzip from day one and this is the first upgrade that my registration number did not work on. Until this point all my upgrades have been free.

      I guess this emphasises the fact that they are going to have to find a new way to generate $.

      I think it may be time for me to switch. I don't feel that I should be paying for a basic utility that comes free with most apps anyway.

    6. Re:Last chance saloon by EvilMonkeySlayer · · Score: 1

      I bet spandisk saved your butt plenty of times, did with me.. mp3's downloaded on the colleges 4mbit+ (shared with a university, not sure how fast it was.. but I often got files at 400+KB/sec) line, no cd writer (they were large expensive things at the time) so.. it was pkzip, pkunzip and the spandisk option.. I think local computer stores were making a small fortune with the amount of floppy disks being bought. :)

    7. Re:Last chance saloon by hcdejong · · Score: 1

      especially for its disk-spanning capabilities.
      Winzip's disk spanning abilities are bloody annoying, because they only work when you want to span an archive across several disks. You can't use it to divide an archive into chunks e.g. to avoid e-mail size limits, because its braindead implementation gives every chunk the same name and expects to save to the root diretory of a drive.
      There are any number of utilities that do this the right way, for arbitrary files.

    8. Re:Last chance saloon by Malc · · Score: 1

      Alright youngster... what's wrong with PKZip or LHA? Who needs this new fangled WinZip thing with its resource-sucking eye-candy interface?

    9. Re:Last chance saloon by nickrooster · · Score: 0
      disk-spanning capabilities.
      pkzip -&
  14. what the hell by Adult+film+producer · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Is slashdot being paid by the winzip authors to post this story ? Sure it might be widely used but how about posting a story about an opensource/free compression package ????? At the top of my screen there's a bar with links to "freshmeat, sourceforge, thinkgeek, " ... Does Malda and his crew care about that stuff anymore or is this just a sleazy and easy money making operation for them ?

    1. Re:what the hell by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Is slashdot being paid by the winzip authors to post this story ?

      Yes.

      how about posting a story about an opensource/free compression package ?????

      Because no money changed hands.

      At the top of my screen there's a bar with links to "freshmeat, sourceforge, thinkgeek,

      Because money has changed hands. See how easy that was?

      Does Malda and his crew care about that stuff anymore

      More people visiting this site use Windows than Linux (I'm not one of them, but facts are facts). Any journalist/entertainer whose pitches fly counter to what the majority of his audience is interested in catching will fail. Linux adds to the slashdot "geek cachet" -- that's what's being marketed here, not genuine Linux news, for which there are hundreds of supeior sources.

      or is this just a sleazy and easy money making operation for them ?

      Sleazy? From a guy calling himself "Adult Film Producer?" Get a grip, chum. As for "easy," well, they've got to put up with idiots like you and me pissing in their pool 24/7. I doubt anyone could pay me enough to wade through the whining here on a daily basis. Hardly "easy."

    2. Re:what the hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's making the assumption that they even bother to "wade through" what's posted on their own site. Considering the amount of mistakes that are made in the posts that -aren't- paid advertisments, I would say the chances of that being the case are slim.

      The truth is they don't give a fuck who comes here or what they do, so long as they get paid. Can't say I blame them, really.

    3. Re:what the hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I doubt anyone could pay me enough to wade through the whining here on a daily basis.
      Yeah instead you do it for free

  15. So what? by Evro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What is this now, Pressreleasedot? I'm running WinZip 8.0 and will never upgrade it for the same reason I'll never upgrade from AIM 4.3, Acrobat 5, and Office 2000: the problem is solved and the old version does everything it should without any new useless cruft (why is Acrobat 7 ~25 megs to read PDF files? And why does it access the Internet at all?).

    Did all the "old school" Slashdot editors leave or something? These new guys they have are pretty lame.

    --
    rooooar
    1. Re:So what? by strider44 · · Score: 1

      I'm using candles and will never upgrade to lights for the same reason I'll never upgrade from cooking fires or fountain pens: The problem is solved and the old version does everything it should without any new useless cruft (why should I have to connect to the electricity grid just to get some light around here? Why should I have to pay more just to run a light I've already payed for?)

      Did all the "old school" Slashdot editors leave or something? These new guys they have are pretty lame.

    2. Re:So what? by frinkacheese · · Score: 1


      This guy still runs Windows 3.1 on a 386 too and I expect he will never upgrade from dialup, his old chevvy or his clothes. Flares do the job just fine, as to anoraks and proper gentlemans socks. ;-)

    3. Re:So what? by cakesy · · Score: 1

      I agree with you 100%, except for the fact that I older versions of acrobat can't read newer pdfs. So, what can you do?

    4. Re:So what? by domefreak · · Score: 2, Interesting
      In response to the many comments whining about this "ad" for Windows software, allow me to offer an argument in favor of this story.

      I don't use Windows (OS X, Red Hat server), but I do have to support some Windows machines on my network. One user has been asking me to buy the full version of WinZip so she doesn't have to feel guilty when using it. I have been stalling, for obvious reasons, but now I can give her links to the new free version. Even better, I got 3 free alternatives (and 2 of those are also open source) to offer her.

      While the content of the ad/story isn't very interesting, I was glad to see it on /. so that WinZip can be critiqued.

    5. Re:So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      all winzip versions before 9.0 SR1 has a security hole whereby specially crafted ZIP files can, on expansion, cause code to be executed (considering you're probbaly logged in as an administrator, this is bad news).

      so choose not to upgrade if you don't want to, but the day could come when you'll regret it.

    6. Re:So what? by Evro · · Score: 1

      You missed my point completely. There are no new features in the newer versions of the applications I listed, they are just more bloated and have major annoyances, and in some cases spyware-y aspects, like Acrobat's constant "checking for new versions" stuff, and AIM 5+'s request for a ZIP code before it lets you run it, and Java/SWF ads in the buddy window. Word 2000 is an adequate word processor, Word 2003 or whatever the latest version is offers no improvements. I'm not running older versions of these programs out of some desire for old fashioned ways, I'm running them because I've tried the updated versions and saw that their new "features" actually detract from the overall quality of the product, rather than improving it.

      --
      rooooar
  16. what? by tomstdenis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    tar + bzip2 + mkisofs + cdrecord.

    Wow... now I don't need "professional" tools.

    Seriously, windows users come to expect nothing any more I guess. There are alternatives to "the 10th edition of twenty year old compression algorithms".

    I'm sorry but honestly what the fuck is the real market for Winzip?

    Even when I was a windows user I used Winimp as it is free, compresses better [when making .imp, it also handles zips fine] and doesn't require me to shell out money.

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    1. Re:what? by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      How the hell is what I wrote a troll? it's the truth. Free alternatives that often work better are available.

      I guess if you mean "we must buy all software even if it's WORTHLESS and anything contrary to this is trolling" then you're right...

      But seriously, I do backups to CDR weekly and I haven't paid a dime for the software to do it.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    2. Re:what? by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      tar + bzip2 + mkisofs + cdrecord.

      Wow... now I don't need "professional" tools.


      Wrong. You already do use them, except they are professional instead of "professional". You can use tools that are fast, efficient and can be easily scripted; the point&grunt interface is for the naives who will shell out money just to get an advertised tool.

      I'm sorry but honestly what the fuck is the real market for Winzip?

      You'll be surprised, but try to download a SDK from Microsoft. It won't come in a Microsoft native format, it will be wrapped in a WinZip self-extracting file.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    3. Re:what? by tomstdenis · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And people flame me when I say people should learn how to use computers... :-/

      Maybe if people realized how to put a shell script together [like back in the day BYTE used to put batch scripts on how to automate this or that] they wouldn't shell out money.

      But you say "that's anti-american". I say no.

      I say, if the people at winzip didn't have a market they'd put their talents to something that actually is needed, furthering technology and bringing humanity further along.

      These companies that write dime-a-dozen utilities are nothing more than leaches on society. They're not really contributing anything and just trying to suck money out of a stone.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    4. Re:what? by MaestroSartori · · Score: 1

      Wrong. You already do use them, except they are professional instead of "professional". You can use tools that are fast, efficient and can be easily scripted; the point&grunt interface is for the naives who will shell out money just to get an advertised tool.

      I am entirely capable of writing a script, but I prefer to point and grunt. I guess that makes me naive for using tools to make my life easier. Silly me :(

    5. Re:what? by DrXym · · Score: 2, Interesting
      tar and bzip2 are great if all you do is stuff and unstuff everything in one go and don't intend to do it often. It is fucking abysmal if you intend to use the archive a lot, such as to pull out a single file, or freshen some files but not others. The same goes for CAB files on Win32.


      I use zip on Linux as much as I do on Win32. It's not as efficient as bzip2 but it's much more practical for everyday use. WinZip has a better compression algorithm in the latest copy but I'm holding off using it until it gets more widely adopted.

    6. Re:what? by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 4, Funny

      "I guess that makes me naive for using tools to make my life easier."

      I used tools to make my life easier, but they prefer to be called people, or occasonally minions.

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
    7. Re:what? by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      ... if you want a backup "archive" ... use a raid volume. It's easier and wait more reliable.

      source => nightly tarball on raid => weekly packing on CDR

      That's how you can do fairly reliable backups for cheap.

      For me to lose my work I'd have to have five hardrives fail and my CDR collection evaporate.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    8. Re:what? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      Windows includes zip and unzip utilities.

      I've never used the paid version of WinZip.

      Even when I was a windows user I used Winimp as it is free, compresses better [when making .imp

      Why use yet another compression format? I hate it when people make/use completely new formats like that, where it is completely incompatible and doesn't improve enough to make it worth switching away from a widely used format. RAR is annoying enough, I'd much prefer sticking ZIP, gz or bz2.

    9. Re:what? by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      I often find that scripting makes my life easier than point and grunt. Silly me :)

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    10. Re:what? by doublem · · Score: 1

      "we must buy all software even if it's WORTHLESS"

      Actually, you answered your own question.

      Yes, there are numerous alternatives to Winzip available for little to no cost that are, in my experience, more stable, flexible and worth learning to use.

      Hell, Windows XP and 2003 Server have a good deal of built in ZIP support!

      Winzip had branding, which is incredibly valuable. It also has a bit of glitz.

      Just because you have the ability to chain together a series of utilities ported form Unix, to produce an elegant, simple and reliably backup solution, doesn't mean the rank and file Windows admins can.

      You'd be astounded how many people there are who can't use a command line to save their life, don't want to and are administering Windows Active Directory domains.

      For example:

      At a previous job, the hosting site was a half hour drive away, and the PC Anywhere host dies. We need to get into the server to change a few things around.

      I'd set up a secure shell, so I SSH in, restart the PC Anywhere host form the command line, and have the admin try again.

      He knew about the Secure Shell, but the first thing he did when he went in was not to fix the problem we were having, but unistall everything related to SSH, because he didn't want any "Back Doors" into the servers, and because he'd read that Telenet was bad, and should be removed.

      Yes, he equated and encrypted Secure Shell running over a VPN with using telnet over the raw Internet.

      My point is, Winzip is, to a certain extent, for people who are afraid of the alternatives.

      And that doesn't even touch the business mentality that anything worth using is going to cost money.

      --
      "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
    11. Re:what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Im the IT department for a SME and for me its a great solution.

      Everyone can use it and the users don't bug me with questions on how to use it.

      Small license fee saves me a lot of headaches.

      Used the program for free for years myself but was happy to have work pay for it. (and yes it is my money as its my family business)

    12. Re:what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I'm sorry but honestly what the fuck is the real market for Winzip?

      I can think of a small, time limited one - my organization runs Windows 2000 across the board. They have no plans to upgrade to XP - they're waiting for Vista. The IT directory thinks free software is communist, even though we've gotten screwed countless times on paid support. Even small apps are a no-no as long as they're free. He thinks open source is irrelevent, and free as in beer must have something wrong with it or they'd charge.

    13. Re:what? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      For me to lose my work I'd have to have five hardrives fail and my CDR collection evaporate.

      What kind of RAID setup do you have where you have to have five hard drives fail to lose the RAID data?

    14. Re:what? by skryche · · Score: 1
      I'm sorry but honestly what the fuck is the real market for Winzip?

      The market for WinZip is the same as the one for Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, AIM, Kazaa, and Notepad: people who go with the first thing they've heard of, unaware that there are vastly superior (and free) alternatives.

      Needless to say, WinZip's also about the last thing I'd expect to see promoted here at Slashdot.

    15. Re:what? by Keith+Russell · · Score: 1

      Wow. Elitism, nationalist puffery, and a scathing indictment of the free-market economy, all in one post. Well done.

      --
      This sig intentionally left blank.
    16. Re:what? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      I often find that scripting makes my life easier than point and grunt. Silly me :)

      Not everyone has the time and skills to do that. There are a lot of competent people whose time and talents are far better used AWAY from the computer, yet they need to have these sorts of tools at their disposal. Not everyone can spend a considerable fraction of their time learning scripting. They leave that to the computer nerds that don't have better things to do with their time.

    17. Re:what? by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Yeah. Right.

      "Hey, buddy, I've got some stuff for you. Let me just pack up my RAID volume, and I'll bring it over to your house!"

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    18. Re:what? by tomstdenis · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And defending the status-quo as proper is better?

      I'm not against free-market economies quite the opposite I'm for them. Specifically because I AM for them I despise companies like this that blue button theorem something and then demand to get paid for it.

      There SHOULDN'T be a market for this application and solely because the powers that be want to make it so doesn't mean it's right.

      I mean there was a time when people knew how to use their computers. But now that everything is shiny and impressive corporations don't tend to make products that require customers to think.

      So they do the thinking for them. Except their thinking is how to make profit, not a good product.

      If corporations had customer best interests in mind we would never had seen half the shit that is in Windows [and tools that run in it]. We wouldn't have had WEP or WPA. We wouldn't have 900 page ever-growing drafts for WiMAX, etc, etc, etc.

      There are a lot of "trivial" applications that are getting throw around as the be all. and only through corporate dominance [e.g. MS Office] does it succeed.

      A lot of people say "but can it open .doc files?" as a complaint against OO.o. Or they say "but this device doesn't work in linux", etc. There was a time when application/device developers would strive for compatibility.

      Does linux support your SCSI card? Wrong question. Does your SCSI card support Linux!!! Does your SCSI card follow standards? Is it properly document? etc...

      But people are so void of visible options that they assume that's the way it is, has been and always will. I agree that whatever Dell sells is what people "think exists".

      And it's specifically because companies like Dell, Intel and Microsoft collude that a free-market DOES NOT EXIST.

      Sorry to rant but if you think you live in a free market society you're totally fucking clueless. Your entire life has been mapped and fits within corporate profiles of maximum profitability.

      McDonalds doesn't make a lot of money because they sell things people need. Same applies to the oil companies, microsoft and in this case WinZIP.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    19. Re:what? by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      ?

      He was talking about random access to an archive...

      Presumably that's for a backup. If you just want to pack up files just tarball it, burn it to a CD and bring it over.

      You sir have failed to complete a rational thought.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    20. Re:what? by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      I have a raid-1 with two drives, but the work is also on the main drive and two other drives in a different PCs.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    21. Re:what? by hackstraw · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry but honestly what the fuck is the real market for Winzip?

      I guess the new crowd that hangs out here on slashdot.

    22. Re:what? by Keith+Russell · · Score: 1

      Do you have any sense of scale? It's a fucking .zip utility.

      --
      This sig intentionally left blank.
    23. Re:what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Even when I was a windows user I used Winimp as it is free, compresses better [when making .imp, it also handles zips fine] and doesn't require me to shell out money.

      Yeah, but it can't play Real Audio files.

      Oh... I thought you said Winamp.

      Never mind...

    24. Re:what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You need a fucking girlfriend, and a vacation.
      Lighten up or the world will not be your friend.

    25. Re:what? by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Here's what makes a .zip fine superior:

      EVERY COMPUTER on the market right now can open a .zip file out-of-the-box without downloading any software.

      That's a HUGE value-add that you're completely ignoring. It's like Fat32... sure Fat32 sucks ass as a disk format, but everything can use it without me having to install anything.

    26. Re:what? by beeblebrox87 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Congratulations, over 2000 characters of stating the obvious. Yes, people are stupid. Yes, there is a lot of market failure and collusion in the US that the government is bribed not to fix. How does this hurt you? You don't buy products from winzip or intel or microsoft or dell, so what do you care if they collude? The only way the mass of stupidity can hurt you is through the stupid corporate-owned government they've elected, but you can just move to another country.

      I really don't understand why Slashdotters get so worked up about the market share of Linux or Firefox or whatever. We will be free to use and improve good tools no matter what crap other people are using, so why worry about them?

    27. Re:what? by beeblebrox87 · · Score: 1

      I am entirely capable of writing a script, but I prefer to point and grunt. I guess that makes me naive for using tools to make my life easier. Silly me :(
      Which is easier, telling somebody would you want them to do, or trying to explain it to them with points, gestures, and grunts? Of course, the trouble with telling them what to do is that you have to know the language, but you said you already knew that, so I doubt you are really making your life easier.

    28. Re:what? by dr.badass · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry but honestly what the fuck is the real market for Winzip?

      The people who would read "tar + bzip2 + mkisofs + cdrecord" and think your cat walked accross the keyboard.

      --
      Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
  17. Must compete with Microsoft by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now that Microsoft has incorporated an unzip utilitiy in the OS, WinZip can't profit from people who just want to unzip files.

    1. Re:Must compete with Microsoft by Gorath99 · · Score: 1

      Now that Microsoft has incorporated an unzip utilitiy in the OS, WinZip can't profit from people who just want to unzip files.

      Actually, IIRC, Microsoft licensed their zip handling code from WinZip, so they may still be able to profit, depending on what kind of deal they struck with MS.

    2. Re:Must compete with Microsoft by Chanc_Gorkon · · Score: 1

      Yep. I don't use Winzip any more. On windows, all I need to do is zip and unzip files (and I have no need to schedule zip files to archive.....my jpg's and mp3's are not going to get any smaller by zipping them all up).

      The writing is on the wall.....Winzip isn't making any money and they have to bloat to take^H^H^H^Hget more money from thier users.

      --

      Gorkman

    3. Re:Must compete with Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Winzip is obviously run by fools, they should have created a new patented proprietary format and started charging people licence fees.

  18. Who needs it by jb.hl.com · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have 7-zip...it handles almost all archives I come across quickly and well, and to boot it just works. Why the hell would I want to go back to WinZip, which from the sounds of it is even more bloated than it was before?

    --
    By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
    1. Re:Who needs it by makomk · · Score: 4, Informative

      Agreed - 7-zip rocks. It seems to be able to open almost every archive format - I even use it under Linux sometimes (via Wine). What I'd like to know is why the hell it took so long for WinZip to get bzip2 support - I've found it really inconvenient, and it seems to be the last archiver to support the format.

    2. Re:Who needs it by mnbjhguyt · · Score: 1

      I use 7-zip too, because it's free and open, but try to open a zip file with 1000s of text files in it: honestly, winzip (v. 7.0, last i've used) it's still much faster.

    3. Re:Who needs it by MyDixieWrecked · · Score: 1

      unfortunately, 7zip doesn't work properly on non-windows machines.

      i've got an OSX version which does some very strange things when I unzip certain archives. I don't know if it's the way the archive was made or a bug in the program or what, but the same thing happens with the linux version of 7zip.

      now that I think of it, I should probably bring my .7z archives to work and try unzipping them there. if it still fucks up, then it must be the archives...

      for the curious, when I un-7zip my files, it creates a folder for every folder in the thing, but then extracts all of the files into the root 7zip folder, not in their respective folders, and many of the directories contain files with the same name, so I get a lot of prompts saying "overwrite?" and I don't know where the stuff is supposed to go. it's all screwed up.

      --



      ...spike
      Ewwwwww, coconut...
    4. Re:Who needs it by swtaarrs · · Score: 1

      I love 7-zip too and I haven't used winzip since I found 7-zip a year or two ago. The only problem I have with it is that I can't drag files out of an open archive to extract them. Do you know of a way to do this, or if they plan to add it soon?

    5. Re:Who needs it by elmartinos · · Score: 3, Informative

      You do not need to use wine, there is also a native linux port for 7zip.

    6. Re:Who needs it by Salamander · · Score: 1
      Why the hell would I want to go back to WinZip

      Speed might be a reason. I just happened to do a comparison of several programs (ZipGenius, TUGZip, IZArc, FilZip, and 7-Zip) yesterday. On the kinds of files I most often have to deal with, which are a couple of hundred MB worth of tarred/gzipped logs, IZArc was the fastest and 7-Zip was the slowest. That actually surprised me, because I had done a similar test a while back and ended up using 7-Zip for a while as a result. 7-Zip also had the unique distinction of being the only program in the group that required me to extract the files in two steps instead of one. I didn't actually test WinZip, but performance is one of the areas they claim to have improved and it could be a distinguishing factor vs. 7-Zip.

      --
      Slashdot - News for Herds. Stuff that Splatters.
    7. Re:Who needs it by vrza · · Score: 1

      Since V4.23 (released on the 29th of July) 7-Zip supports drag'n'drop.

    8. Re:Who needs it by swtaarrs · · Score: 1

      Thanks! I think the last time I check for an update was some time in June.

  19. Windows Zip utilities, huh? by gusnz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's some good freeware ones:

    7-Zip A free, open source Windows zip utility with support for several archive formats, and comparatively great compression. Small and fast too; it's my personal choice at the moment. IZArc Not open source, but supports a few more formats ICEOWS Formerly ARJFolder, integrates very cleanly into Windows Explorer.

    There's more out there, but really, I can't see how Winzip is as relevant today as it was during the Win3.x days when it was the only good zip GUI out there. I guess scheduling is nice, but then again, all operating systems come with a schedular these days anyway.

    1. Re:Windows Zip utilities, huh? by Tycho · · Score: 1

      Also there is:
      "Stuffit Expander"
        Yes it is far from perfect. Yes, it does only decompress and Stuffit Standard, which will compress. Stuffit Expander will decompress many types of files. However, to get Stuffit Expander you have to give up your e-mail address and they will send you at least some spam, but Allume, the developer, from my previous experience is at least not totally scum.

      --
      Impersonating Tycho from Penny Arcade since before there was a PA.
    2. Re:Windows Zip utilities, huh? by xtracto · · Score: 1

      However, to get Stuffit Expander you have to give up your e-mail address and they will send you at least some spam

      Why not try dodgeit and save your email address from spam??

      --
      Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
    3. Re:Windows Zip utilities, huh? by Cunk · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'd like to join in on the effort of pointing out the irrelevance of WinZIP by mentioning my favorite free compression utility: TUGZip (http://www.tugzip.com/) (not open source).

      --

      I am the inventor of the hilarious refrigerator alarm.
    4. Re:Windows Zip utilities, huh? by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      For Linux, UNIX, and the CygWin users out there, there are also the "zip" and "unzip" utilities, which work quite well from the command line.

      A nice, friendly built-in GUI is worth a few bucks, but that's all you really get for your few bucks.

    5. Re:Windows Zip utilities, huh? by hitmark · · Score: 1

      i second your selection of tugzip.

      the 7-zip interface is nasty compared to tugzip :P

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    6. Re:Windows Zip utilities, huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A nice, friendly built-in GUI is worth a few bucks, but that's all you really get for your few bucks.

      The friendly GUI is also a time saver, and time is money, right?

      Very often, I will open an archive in Winzip and just take a peek at the README file. Being able to do that with a couple mouse clicks, AND without unzipping the entire archive saves a lot of time.

    7. Re:Windows Zip utilities, huh? by Anonymous+Commando · · Score: 1

      Ditto on the TUGZip choice - 7-zip's interface is just nasty, and I found TUGZip to be more stable than IZarc. Your milage may vary, of course.

      --
      Corporate Jenga: You take a blockhead from the bottom and you put him on top...
  20. Makes sense. by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Since most people just click past the nag screen this is the sensible thing to do: Give people the basics for free, and charge for the advanced features that really are corporate time-savers and hence worth paying for.

    --
    .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
    1. Re:Makes sense. by keraneuology · · Score: 4, Informative
      From TFA:
      Caution, WinZip 10.0, when it is released, will not be a free upgrade. If you are a registered user of a previous version of WinZip and install WinZip 10.0, you will no longer be registered.

      In other words, all of those people who were promised free upgrades way back when are now SOL. Yes, WinZip has the right to change their terms any time they want and have no obligation to continue to provide free upgrades, power to them.

      But I don't have to continue to support their company. Their "upgrade assurance" program is cute, though... for an extra 20% you can receive assurances that if a new version of WinZip comes out within the next year you'll get a copy. They've been averaging a new version what, every two? three? years? How many people are going to fall for that one?

      --
      If the g'vt kept the data on you that google does you'd better believe you'd be calling it "doing evil"
    2. Re:Makes sense. by advocate_one · · Score: 1
      Their "upgrade assurance" program is cute, though... for an extra 20% you can receive assurances that if a new version of WinZip comes out within the next year you'll get a copy. They've been averaging a new version what, every two? three? years? How many people are going to fall for that one?

      Sounds a lot like Microsoft's Software Assurance program...

      --
      Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  21. And we care because... ? by SirGarlon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why does the Slashdot community, one of the largest Free / Open Source communities on the Net, care when a new proprietary version of some Windows-only software comes out? Find another place to post this nonsense.

    --
    [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
    1. Re:And we care because... ? by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      I'm with you on this one. I can tolerate some amount of Windows-related news, if only for the "know thy enemy" factor, but this article is not one of them. Sadly, judging from the comments it seems that many Slashdotters are actually using Windows to a great extent.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    2. Re:And we care because... ? by thelost · · Score: 3, Insightful

      there's nothing sad about using windows, slashdot is not a linux advocacy site, though many of it's users seems to think so. Slashdot is a news site for technology orientated geeks, windows is a piece of technology and so very much worthy of coverage on slashdot. The parent article though is not news, it's a piece of press pr for a product, dressed up as information on a yesterday piece of tech that no-one really cares about anymore.

      --
      Promote Charity on Myspace, Show Your Colours!
    3. Re:And we care because... ? by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Fuck Micro$oft Windoze and fuck revisionists who say this isn't a Linux site!

      You're the revisionist if you want to make it a Linux site.
      The special Linux section of Slashdot is right here.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    4. Re:And we care because... ? by m50d · · Score: 1
      Why does the Slashdot community, one of the largest Free / Open Source communities on the Net, care when a new proprietary version of some Windows-only software comes out?

      Because, sad as it is, most slashdot users are still accessing it through a proprietary browser on a proprietary OS, and don't actually care about software freedom.

      --
      I am trolling
    5. Re:And we care because... ? by Khashishi · · Score: 1

      I think this topic is an excuse for the community to list their alternative programs to winzip.

    6. Re:And we care because... ? by geekoid · · Score: 1

      "... linux advocacy site..."

      It sure the hell was in the 90's.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    7. Re:And we care because... ? by geekoid · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you a sysadmin, you need to know this kind of stuff. Even a Linux System admin will have windows on their network.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    8. Re:And we care because... ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think you understand the value of this kind of "nonsense". Me, a casual user (who actually has PAID for WinZip in the past), sees this headline about WinZip (big deal) with a butt-load of comments (what's all the fuss?). So I read some comments, and what do I find? Heck, there's some groovy alternatives out there! 7-Zip, etc. I would have just gone on obliviously downloading WinZip whenever I needed a compression util, but now that I see there's these others, I think I'm going to try them out!

  22. Re:or... by markov_chain · · Score: 1

    I wish archiver fanboys would stop using rar to compress movies... it's not like it saves a whole lot and it prevents replay of incomplete files.

    --
    Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
  23. Others by Saiyine · · Score: 1, Informative


    Althought really obsolete, WinZip is extremely popular with uneducated computers users.

    I, for one... recommend these alternatives: winrar and winace, wich are vastly superiors in performance, but shareware, and 7-Zip wich has good perfomance with a poor interface, but it's free.


    --
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    Kunowalls!!! Random sexy wallpapers (NSFW!).

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  24. Who buy Winzip anyway ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just, because I wonder.

    All I have seen are unregistered trial versions and or cracked winzip.

    Who, what type of users actualy buy Winzip ?

    What's realy inovative side to side with opensource alternatives like cron, bzip2, tar, cdrecord or even k3b ?

    1. Re:Who buy Winzip anyway ? by simetra · · Score: 1

      FWIW, I don't use compression (WinRAR, or tar/gz) to save space, it's mostly for tidiness. Rather than have hundreds of files sitting in an archive directory, it's easier on the eyes to have say AUG2005.zip. Then, should the need really arise to get something, it's pretty easy to find.

      --

      "Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
    2. Re:Who buy Winzip anyway ? by AndreiK · · Score: 2, Funny

      Can't you, you know, make a folder?

  25. /. readers should care about WinZip because... by dskoll · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... it supports a new "deflate64" compression that is NOT supported by zlib. As a result, clamd chokes on some ZIP files and can't scan them.

    This pain-in-the-@ss aspect of the new Winzip is the most likely thing to affect /. readers.

    1. Re:/. readers should care about WinZip because... by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

      So once a piece of software becomes popular, it should be frozen for all time and no new features added? The compression seting has never defaulted to maximum, you have to select it and it warns you about compatability. What more do you want?

    2. Re:/. readers should care about WinZip because... by nmg196 · · Score: 0

      Surely that's a pain-in-the-ass aspect of zlib - not Winzip? I don't see how it's Winzip's fault that it supports something that zlib does not.

    3. Re:/. readers should care about WinZip because... by dskoll · · Score: 2, Informative

      I have no problem with software evolving. The problem is that deflate64 is a proprietary, undocumented compression algorithm (unlike the previous ZIP algorithms.) The only way to make an interoperable implementation is through reverse-engineering, and given the state of copyright law in the USA today, that's a dangerous prospect for Free Software.

    4. Re:/. readers should care about WinZip because... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 1

      it supports a new "deflate64" compression that is NOT supported by zlib

      HAH, if you think that's exotic, you should google for the PPMd compression method. I never thought it could ACTUALLY be used (it's one of the best in the Calgary Corpus compression test, but requires equal memory for the compressor-decompressor - most of the PPM compression algorithms were created only for research, or just plain research pride, i.e. "my compressor is better than yours").

      Kinda surprised me seeing PPMd supported in Winzip.

    5. Re:/. readers should care about WinZip because... by Kris_J · · Score: 1

      Does anything else support Winzip's implementation of PPMd? WinRK has its own PPMd implementation, but I don't think they're compatible.

  26. WinRar by cablepokerface · · Score: 1

    I always thought winrar was superior to winzip. Can't really remember why though.

  27. unicode...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i'd like to see unicode support for the filenames... would make me immediate life all that much simpler...

  28. This has always been the case. by Crixus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This has always been the case with software. Once a fairly mature release is in the market, with lots of useful features, they then need to make you think you need the latest features. Of course some marketing wonk writes lots of stuff that people ultimately read, and then they're convinced.

    I mean seriously, whenever I boot into Windows, Office '97 provides me with EVERY POSSIBLE word-processing feature I need.

    MS has the advantage of making the OS too, so they can force you to upgrade either the OS or the application software at their whim.

    Why is there an ad on /. again?

    --
    Ignore Alien Orders
    1. Re:This has always been the case. by FidelCatsro · · Score: 0

      "Why is there an ad on /. again?"

      $

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    2. Re:This has always been the case. by 0xdeaddead · · Score: 1

      I bet if people would stick to the word 2.0 format 99.9% of us could keep on using word 2..

    3. Re:This has always been the case. by Beale · · Score: 1

      Why won't those darn people stick to RTF? :(

    4. Re:This has always been the case. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the Mod confused the words overrated and succinct

  29. It's buggy by gaanagaa · · Score: 1

    Winzip seems to be ok untill Winrar came. Winrar is much smoother and less buggy and never had a problem with a compressed file, where as I needed to have "zip file repairing tool" with Winzip.

  30. Winrar by smallguy78 · · Score: 1

    http://www.rarlabs.com/ - unzips a ZIP file in 2 clicks and handles about 10 other formats, and also has its own very good RAR format. Why bother paying for Winzip? I'm surprised people use it over winrar.

    --
    Nothing costs nothing
  31. great ad but... by thelost · · Score: 1

    I stopped using easily corruptable zip files a long time ago, in favour of much more internet friendly rars.

    --
    Promote Charity on Myspace, Show Your Colours!
    1. Re:great ad but... by Quill_28 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that's great. But when you send your mother a word doc it is best to stick with zip files.

    2. Re:great ad but... by thelost · · Score: 1

      most people i know now use rar files. I actively encourage people to not use zip files, warning them it's prone to corruption (perhaps a little over empahsis on my part, as this is only from personal experience and not necessarily always the truth). Also if I send my mum an word doc i wouldn't bother zipping it. We both have broadband and I'm probably going to email it to her, we can both recieve large attachments and neith of us use a web based email service (which make it hard to attach files to emails because they frequently use HTTP GET which likes to bug out on large files) nor do we have data cap limits. I also notice a lot of websites that offer archived files for whatever purpose (well ok, the sites that i use) now frequently use rar files other zip ones. Maybe winzip is still the most well known windows compression program, but I don't think it's the most well thought of. It seems to me that winrar has at least as much support and praise while offering a great deal more that I find personally useful.

      --
      Promote Charity on Myspace, Show Your Colours!
    3. Re:great ad but... by syntap · · Score: 1

      Or you could move your mother to OpenOffice.org, which has data files that are saved in compressed format by default so you won't NEED a compression program.

    4. Re:great ad but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      your post reminds of the classic.

      Neo: So, if I switch to OpenOffice.org, I can compress my files with my favourite zipper better than with MSWord?
      Morpheus: No, Neo. When you do the switch, you won't have to.

  32. just now free? by schematix · · Score: 1

    I thought winzip was always free... you just went to the website and downloaded the evaluation version while you were launching your favorite IRC application. By the time the download finished you had already found a free key generator in a l33t ju4r3z channel and had it cracked on the first use.

    --
    Scott
  33. Google Desktop Search is bundled with Winzip 10?!! by nmg196 · · Score: 1

    I just downloaded the 10.0 beta version. To test it, I unpacked the winzip 10 beta installer itself (wz100beta.exe). Inside the resulting folder, I found several exe files. There is one 725K file called GDS.exe, which appears to be the installer (or part of it) for Google Desktop Search. Two others named GTB9x.EXE and GTBXP.EXE seem to be the installers for Google Toolbar. Why on earth is Winzip bundling the installers for Google Desktop Search and Google Toolbar with Winzip?!! The readme and license agreement do not mention the word "Google" at all and neither does the winzip website as far as I can tell. I'm also betting that the GDS license agreement prohibits it from being redistributed in this fashion.

    What on earth is going on here? Do you think they've just made a silly mistake or am I missing something really obvious?

  34. yeah - no nag screen... by boatwx1 · · Score: 1

    ...how many people actually pay for winzip?

    1. Re:yeah - no nag screen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Large multinational corporations paid for winzip licenses.

    2. Re:yeah - no nag screen... by gkuz · · Score: 1
      I did. Call me stupid, but I have a history of actually paying for licenses according to the publisher's terms if the software is useful and the license terms are reasonable. Otherwise I don't use the software.

      This dates way back to paying Vern Buerg for LIST, paying for ProCOMM, etc., etc.

    3. Re:yeah - no nag screen... by DaHat · · Score: 1

      Infidel! You must be cleansed!

  35. you have to ask? by Shivetya · · Score: 0

    When they added the politics side of /. it became overly obvious this site was more concerned with page hits and ads than News for Nerds. Incedinary subject areas on discussion sites are very good for generating revenue.

    Ever since it was sold the quality of what appears on the main page has dropped as well. The number Slashvertisements that we are subject to makes me wonder if these are not intentional. We can already pay to avoid ads but this sure in the hell looks like an ad to me.

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
    1. Re:you have to ask? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's an illusion to be only interested in technology and be apolitical. the point about politics is that it intrudes into everything. you have to be involved if only to keep the government out of certain things. if you're saying that nerds ought only to be interested in tech... well what happens when the tech is restricted in what it can do thanks to mandatory DRM, mandatory content restrictions? it's politics that determines whether these things come to be.

      you can't escape. so yes, it IS news for nerds.

  36. Is the standard version really free? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Article mentions the standard version being free without a nag screen but this doesn't seem to be the case. The website says it's not a free upgrade from v9 and that feature set differs depending on which type of registration number is entered. Plus the nag screen is still there.

  37. Ironically, they're dropping the reason I like it by Maskull · · Score: 1

    ...because it doesn't try to look/act like Windows Explorer. I liked the clean separation; archives should be used as archives, not as a stand-ing for compressed directories. You can't really run programs from within a zip file, not if they need to access any of the other files in there. Making archives act like folders seems like a good idea until you realize that there's a bunch of things that won't work unless they are integrated at the filesystem level.

  38. Winzip? by Shin+Chan · · Score: 1

    Who needs WinZip.. Total Commander all the way :)

    --
    Proud owner of BOT2K3 [ bot2k3.net ]
    1. Re:Winzip? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Come on, just get Linux.

  39. Are the files smaller? by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

    Zip makes such large archives compared to rar, ace, and several other formats I'm not sure if it's even worth it anymore.

    If they improved the algorithm in WinZip 10 maybe they can make it more competitive.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  40. bzip2 by Erwos · · Score: 1

    Very nice that they support bzip2 - it seems to be gaining some traction in the community now, so it should be handy.

    -Erwos

    --
    Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
  41. Back to the Future! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    WinZip Command Line Support Add-On 1.1

    The WinZip Command Line Support Add-On provides a command line interface that gives you the power of WinZip without the usual WinZip graphical user interface. It allows you to use WinZip directly from the command prompt and from batch (.BAT) files and script languages, making it ideal for automating repetitive tasks. An extensive set of command line options gives you pinpoint control over WinZip's actions. And, in automated environments, end-users need not know anything about how to use WinZip.

    Sherman, set the wayback machine to 1988.
    Yes, Mr. Peabody.

  42. all the linux zealots are out in full force today by circletimessquare · · Score: 0, Troll

    it's an important tool

    this "press release" is useful information if you work with windows

    most people have to use windows boxen at work

    so deal with it linux trolls

    furthermore, if anyone is ever going to adopt linux, it will be in spite of folks like you, not because of the type of holier-than-thou attitudes some of you display in this thread

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  43. Lots of WinZip bashing going on. by Lellor · · Score: 1

    In WinZip's defense, it has long been a staple of the desktop world - yes, there are freeware and open source equivalents that do the same job and are freer, but WinZip has a few things going for it that those products don't:

    It's easy to use: The free zip programs included in Windows, although they are easy enough for most users, just don't feel right - and you can't really expect grandma to use open source utilities or to find other Windows freeware zip progams, however easy you might find it personally.

    People are familiar with it: It's been around for a long time and has become ubiquitous - from standard end-users to IT professionals, there are very few computer users who haven't had experience with WinZip and don't know how to use it.

    It works well all of the time: People seem to have less difficulties with WinZip than with other archivers, and while this may just be due to familiarity or other reasons, the amount of people who recommend WinZip for everyday use is very telling.

    They shouldn't have used a Slashdot article as an advertisement platform, that's true - after all, that's what ad space is for... but to bash the product itself is a bit much, in my opinion.

    --
    Liberal Ontarians and French Quebecers are draining Western Canada's wealth. Stop them now! Support Western separatism.
    1. Re:Lots of WinZip bashing going on. by m50d · · Score: 1
      It's easy to use: The free zip programs included in Windows, although they are easy enough for most users, just don't feel right - and you can't really expect grandma to use open source utilities or to find other Windows freeware zip progams, however easy you might find it personally.

      Why? It's UI is pretty much the same as any other dedicated program's, and if their website's slightly easier to find that doesn't make much difference. If you're getting your software the way most windows users do, by searching download.com, it's just as easy to find a free archiver.

      It works well all of the time: People seem to have less difficulties with WinZip than with other archivers, and while this may just be due to familiarity or other reasons, the amount of people who recommend WinZip for everyday use is very telling.

      I haven't found that at all. Winrar works all the time, winzip less so. I abandoned winzip when it couldn't open an ace file, not sure if that's still the same.

      --
      I am trolling
  44. Damn you! by Poromenos1 · · Score: 1

    Ok, which one of you jackasses /.ed IZArc?!

    --
    Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
    1. Re:Damn you! by trezor · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's not slashdotted per se, it's just compressed with technology you haven't heard about before, so you don't get access to the information.

      Either that, or if no-one pleads guilty I guess we can infer that the perpetrator is that anonymous coward guy.

      Double the pun in one post! This calls for a -ZipIt!, Lousy compression-based humour mod :)

      --
      Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
  45. why not winrar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why would I use winzip when I could get 100 million better features with winrar (including rar compression)?

  46. I've been using ZipGenius lately. It's pretty good by windowpain · · Score: 1

    Not open source but free as in beer with no nags or ads. Made in Italy and available in English and Italian and more. It handles more than 20 compression formats and offers four encryption algorithms.

    ZipGenius

    --
    Insert witty sig here.
  47. How much did this ad cost? by 0xdeaddead · · Score: 1

    And since xp explorer does zip files, why are you even in business? And yes for the record I actually did buy one copy of winzip ages ago, but windows 95 was king back then...

  48. Re:or... by thelost · · Score: 1

    there is a very good reason why this happens and it's not about compression at all. You should realise that the movies are already in a compressed format and so it *is* pointless to try and compress them further, the savings are minimal, what is not minimal however is the time spent redownloading a 700mb file because at some point in the download it got corrupted or perhaps was in the first place. Now with a system like bittorrent or edonkey it's possible to prevent corrupt files through hash checking etc, but one thing you need to be aware of is that your copy of Harry Potter doesn't usually start out on some bittorrent website, but on some 0-day FTP that only a few very priviledged people have access to. Now if that movie comes in 45 x 15mb files if one of these files happens to be corrupted in transfer, or was corrupt in the first place it's a simple process to download just that file again or for the person hosting it to fix it. However if i have just downloaded a 700mb file to find that it's corrupted I'll have to download said whole file again. This harkens back to the days in the 'scene' when releases were usually released onto newsgroups first, where you have no choice but to segment files.

    --
    Promote Charity on Myspace, Show Your Colours!
  49. Re:or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    or perhaps you're just a clueless noob and dont understand why they're doing it. did you ever stop to think that if you were fxp'ing something from one dumpsite to another and one bit is corrupted the only way to fix that bit is to resend the entire file? now if that one bit is in a single 15mb rar you only need to resend the corrupt file

    playback of incomplete files? what the fuck is the point, just finish downloading it and then watch it

    kids these days have no respect

  50. Compression by RamboIII · · Score: 0, Troll
    Almost all the other features we're used to now come completely free in the Standard edition."

    It looks like they compressed the wrong words.

    --
    Time is comparison of movement to other movement.
    1. Re:Compression by ChrisF79 · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry, but what is wrong with that sentence?

      --
      Finance tutorials and more! Understandfinance
    2. Re:Compression by Finuvir · · Score: 2, Funny

      -1, Wrong

      The sentence is fine.

      --
      Why is anything anything?
    3. Re:Compression by RamboIII · · Score: 0

      They're. There!

      --
      Time is comparison of movement to other movement.
    4. Re:Compression by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We're, dick. We are.

  51. Re:all the linux zealots are out in full force tod by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

    Like all other senses of importance it's only important if you make it so.

    Seek alternatives [even in windows] and you'll find out that Winzip is about as important as the colour of the backside of the moon.

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
  52. -1, Commercial by Jerk+City+Troll · · Score: 1

    Come on, a new WinZIP release is newsworthy? This is just an ad for a silly product that adds a flood of bells and whistles to a set of processes that should be deadly simple.

    1. Re:-1, Commercial by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 1

      You mean as simple as right clicking on a zip file and clicking extract here? Or selecting a few files and clicking add to archive?
      Complaining about WinZip not being 'deadly simple' is like complaining about making tarballs by throwing files on a tape drive. Just because it supports additional bells and whistles doesn't mean you need to use them.

      FTR, I use winrar and 7zip on windows, depending on what I'm doing.

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
  53. Funny by mokiejovis · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I find it humorous that when Winzip hits 10.0 and starts offering free versions, /.ers start foaming at the mouth to say what a steaming heap of shit it is and OMG can you believe people BUY that when I love to use [other application] that has [other feature] and it's FREE? And then the obligatory, "slashdot sucks now, look at the ad they're running and calling it an article."

    And just last week it was all lollipops and blowjobs for Opera when they turned 10 and released a free version.

    1. Re:Funny by Solder+Fumes · · Score: 2, Informative

      Perhaps this is because Opera is not a steaming pile of shit, while it could be argued to be the case for Winzip.

    2. Re:Funny by mokiejovis · · Score: 1

      But the merits of the app in the story are not the issue - it's the "OMG slashdot just gives out free ads now" attitude that is. Both are commercial, proprietary, closed-source apps. Similar situation, similar story. Totally different attitude.

    3. Re:Funny by evilviper · · Score: 1
      Both are commercial, proprietary, closed-source apps. Similar situation, similar story. Totally different attitude.

      Since when did the license of a program become the ONLY important issue?

      Post a story about two vastly different programs that both happen to be GPLd, and you'll also get two vastly different attitudes.

      I also haven't seen any of these complaints about this being a slashvertisment that you are claiming. Most of them seem to be along the lines of "How are they still in business, and why should I care?" At the very least, Opera runs on Linux/Solaris/FreeBSD/Symbian/etc., not just Windows, so there's some justification for posting a story about it on /.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  54. Re:Google Desktop Search is bundled with Winzip 10 by Random832 · · Score: 1

    If you actually run the installer you'd find that it asks you if you want to install it - probably a similar deal as Yahoo toolbar with flash player or whatever.

    --
    We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.
  55. OT: Acrobat Reader replacement by cyb3r0ptx · · Score: 1

    I recently stopped using Acrobat Reader because it was so slow and bloated. I find FoxIt Reader a faster alternative.

    1. Re:OT: Acrobat Reader replacement by harmonica · · Score: 1

      I just tried it, but with larger PDFs Acrobat Reader 7 is significantly faster when stepping through pages. With FoxItReader I can watch the parts of a page render themselves... However, Acrobat Reader is slower loading. But I don't find that important.

  56. Re:Google Desktop Search is bundled with Winzip 10 by nmg196 · · Score: 0

    I *did* run the installer and it did not ask me if I wanted to install it.

  57. No temp DIR requirement? by crownrai · · Score: 1
    Will this new version finally let us zip files into a new archive without creating the zip in my TEMP directory first?

    Example: Local OS/TEMP on C: partition and Data partition on D: I select multiple directories on D: and tell it to create a new Archive on \\server\share\dir. Winzip will create the Zip on my C:TEMP first and then copy up the file.

    Same goes for unzipping files too (more noticible on larger files). This serves no purpose and it just increases the time it takes to zip/unzip files.

    Changing the TEMP everytime I want to zip unzip a file will help buts it not a solution.

    The command line utilities work well, unzip/zip, unrar etc. But sometimes it's just nicer to run a gui. Especially for multi-selecting unrelated files to compress into one file.

  58. Trying to compete with a monopolist by hey · · Score: 1

    Ever since Win XP added native ZIP support I figured : oh there's Microsoft added a new feature to the OS that kills the flagship product of a little guy. Of course, Internet Explorer (killing Netscape) is another obvious example. Why isn't this banned?

    1. Re:Trying to compete with a monopolist by gmikej · · Score: 1
      Because you still have a choice.

      Use the built-in XP version (which, if you've ever used the zip function will know it is quite limited) or use a 3rd-party app.

      Free. Market. Economics.

      Very simple.

  59. WinRAR 3.50 recently released, fyi by simetra · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This new release includes "themes", which greatly de-uglifies it. Also, it reads/writes iso's, which is cool. I don't know if winzip does that or not. Winrar has a pretty powerful CLI too, which I use to back up certain directories on my Windows machine through a scheduled task. Winzip I believe has command-line options too.

    Anyway, the new WinRAR is so nice I bought a copy.

    Yes, bought, as in spent money! You can do that, you know.

    --

    "Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
    1. Re:WinRAR 3.50 recently released, fyi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dammit, why do people resort to themes to make their interfaces look less ugly? If you suck at icon or graphic design (as I do), then just go out and buy an icon set, or find a friend who will design some decent ones for free.

      Also, please never make the mistake of thinking that theming makes your software "easier to use" or gives it a "better interface". It's the same good/sucky interface it had before, without UI consistency with the rest of the host system. (Kudos to the parent poster for NOT falling into this trap!)

    2. Re:WinRAR 3.50 recently released, fyi by Boarder2 · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's a little known tool in the Microsoft Download Center that lets you mount an ISO as a virtual CDROM. You can get it here:

      http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/b/6/7b6ab d84-7841-4978-96f5-bd58df02efa2/winxpvirtualcdcont rolpanel_21.exe

    3. Re:WinRAR 3.50 recently released, fyi by Noksagt · · Score: 1

      I spend money on software all the time.

    4. Re:WinRAR 3.50 recently released, fyi by tono · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Thank you very much, now I can get rid of Nero Image Drive.

      --
      cheese logs keep my wang warm at night.
    5. Re:WinRAR 3.50 recently released, fyi by AnyoneEB · · Score: 1

      Personally, I perfer Deamon Tools, which supports multiple image formats and can emulate copy protection, so it can be used with game discs. (Ex. I do not have to go searching for my Warcraft III disc, I just have to tell Deamon Tools to mount it, even though Warcraft III has copy protection on the disc.)

      --
      Centralization breaks the internet.
    6. Re:WinRAR 3.50 recently released, fyi by BoneMarrow · · Score: 1

      Personally, I perfer http://www.gamecopyworld.com/, which supports nearly every game imaginable, so it can be used with game discs. (Ex. I do not have to go searching for my Warcraft III disc, I just have to crack it, (even though Warcraft III has copy protection on the disc.)

      --
      Unfortunately, no one can be told what my sig is...
    7. Re:WinRAR 3.50 recently released, fyi by AnyoneEB · · Score: 1

      Ah, I used to keep up with the no CD patches for Warcraft III, but I gave up once I started having updates come out and the crack be a day or two behind. Not usable when I want to play on BNET, so I am forced to update. Whatever works, I guess. I suppose cracks require a lot less disc space.

      --
      Centralization breaks the internet.
  60. Oh for heaven's sake... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    ... just use 7-zip. It's free, it compresses better, reads ZIP files, and runs on many popular platforms including (tho' I haven't tested it) Linux.

    I paid for WinZip at one point, and recently tried to download an update - they have no record of me anymore in their system.

  61. Re:or... by markov_chain · · Score: 1

    or perhaps you're just a clueless noob and dont understand why they're doing it.

    I'm a clueless noob, it's true!

    did you ever stop to think that if you were fxp'ing something from one dumpsite to another and one bit is corrupted the only way to fix that bit is to resend the entire file? now if that one bit is in a single 15mb rar you only need to resend the corrupt file

    I think about stuff like this for a living, and if I were doing it I would use a better fucking protocol than resending megabytes of data because of, possibly, a couple of corrupted bytes. Perhaps the problem is that the twits who deal pirated movies like this are too clueless to write code.

    playback of incomplete files? what the fuck is the point, just finish downloading it and then watch it

    Did you ever stop to think that you might want to:
    - check it's the right file,
    - watch with some artifacts (if it's a TV show, who cares),
    - deal with malicious seeds who let out 99% of the file and then disappear?

    --
    Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
  62. Slashdot: by Zemplar · · Score: 0

    Ads for Nerds. Stuff you'll never buy.

  63. Re:all the linux zealots are out in full force tod by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you'll pull your head out of your ass and read the thread, you'll notice that most of the posts are about free and better alternatives to WinZip. And complaints that this is a SlashAdvertisement. There are very few "OMG my Linux ownz J00" posts. The only tool in the thread is you.

  64. Use 7-zip by BobVila · · Score: 1
    7-zip
    p7zip

    It has a simple gui interface and explorer integration. It supports many archive file formats including 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB. There is also a UNIX commandline interface port available.

  65. Re:all the linux zealots are out in full force tod by NotoriousQ · · Score: 1

    WinZip an important tool? You are making me laugh.

    The only reason it is an important tool, is because it sounds like the official product for the zip format. The funny part, is that it is not. PkZip is. Thus WinZip is only installed when mandated by clueless CEOs, and when Windows could not handle zip files by itself.

    Everyone else has either learned to get by (as Windows handles zip automatically), or they install WinRar or WinAce or 7-zip. All of those products seem to work better than Winzip, and handle more formats.

    WinZip is dying. And I do not need netcraft to confirm it.

    And if you want to blame the fact that this article is an ad on Linux zealotry, I should really smack you upside the head. This is news for nerds, and nerds are the last people who want to read about a *beta* version of an overcommercialized product. Maybe if this were a new WinRar, I might care. Yes I have a holier-than-thou attitude: I have transcended above using WinZip; you have not.

    --
    badness 10000
  66. Dear Winzip, by Muad'Dave · · Score: 1


    The most annoying thing about winzip is the apparent inability to create an archive starting with a directory! For instance, if I've got /home/fred/myProject/..., I can't seem to get the winzip wizard to create a zip with the directory myProject and its contents - it always descends into the directory! Drag and drop works, as does right-clicking. AARGH!!!

    --
    Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
    1. Re:Dear Winzip, by simetra · · Score: 1

      Uh... it's WINzip. What're you doing trying to use it with your /non/windows/directory/structure/ ???

      --

      "Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
    2. Re:Dear Winzip, by james_bray · · Score: 1

      - Open parent folder in Explorer
      - Right click on folder to create zip from in right hand Explorer window.

      WinZip will then create an archive containing the folder you clicked on.

      James

      --
      http://www.reeb.freeserve.co.uk
    3. Re:Dear Winzip, by Muad'Dave · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the reply. I guess I wasn't clear. That's what I meant by right-clicking in the the original post, "Drag and drop works, as does right-clicking. AARGH!!!".

      --
      Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  67. Thanks Winzip by slasher999 · · Score: 1
    Almost all the other features we're used to now come completely free in the Standard edition.


    I'm so glad I decided to support the software after probably close to 10 years of use by purchasing it a year or two ago. Now they make it free.

    1. Re:Thanks Winzip by toxcspdrmn · · Score: 2, Insightful

      From TFA:

      Caution, WinZip 10.0, when it is released, will not be a free upgrade. If you are a registered user of a previous version of WinZip and install WinZip 10.0, you will no longer be registered.

      So much for those of us who supported them back in the mid-nineties by paying for a copy - we don't even get the "Professional" features.

      Way to change your terms and conditions, WinZip.

      --
      "E pur si muove!" - attributed to Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642
    2. Re:Thanks Winzip by giginger · · Score: 1

      I can't think of any other companies that offered as many free upgrades as winzip did. It's not exactly an expensive piece of software either.

    3. Re:Thanks Winzip by geekoid · · Score: 1

      What about those who bought it when it was 'free upgrades for life' back in the DOS days?

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  68. Re:Google Desktop Search is bundled with Winzip 10 by Random832 · · Score: 1

    Mine did. What did you run? The google desktop installer that you got from messing with the binary, or the winzip installer itself?

    --
    We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.
  69. Re:or... by markov_chain · · Score: 1

    Makes sense, thanks for explaining to this clueless n00b!

    --
    Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
  70. Might be a hassle in the US... by KitesWorld · · Score: 1

    but Software patents aren't valid in the EU, and copyright law is in a different state.
    It's likely that you'll see it in other (open) apps soon enough - they'll just be based in Europe instead of the U.S.

    1. Re:Might be a hassle in the US... by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

      Who mentioned patents?

  71. Just use Filzip by jalefkowit · · Score: 1

    Or you could just, you know, use Filzip instead.

    Filzip includes shell integration, handles just about every compression format (including .rar, .tar/.tar.gz, and .cab), and unlike WinZip, it s 100% free as in beer. No fooling, no mucking around with a feature-deprived free version. Just grab it and go.

  72. Slow news day by squoozer · · Score: 1

    I know that some days there isn't a lot going on and today is so obviously one of those. But come on. Why on earth did anyone think that a site squarely pointed at *nix would be interested in this?

    This "story" is my vote for worst story ever.

    --
    I used to have a better sig but it broke.
    1. Re:Slow news day by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

      Are you saying all the JonKatz stories were better?

  73. Good job, moderators by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It seems as if all the posts complaining about this being a blatant adverstisement are now being modded down. How convenient.

    Seriously, do any of the editors bother reading the articles being sumbitted?

  74. Wait a minute... by Jerk+City+Troll · · Score: 1

    Where's the Linux version?

    ;)

  75. Not a free upgrade by Joe+U · · Score: 1

    Caution, WinZip 10.0, when it is released, will not be a free upgrade. If you are a registered user of a previous version of WinZip and install WinZip 10.0, you will no longer be registered

    Oh well, no more free upgrades. I guess they need more money.

  76. Basic Winzip by glenrm · · Score: 1

    I always liked the basic WinZip. It had all of the funtionality you needed. For some reason utilities lose there way as they add on more and more features. As long as there is a classic mode it will still be a great program. Yes this is an add, but WinZip is a classic PC program.

  77. This is new? I've had it since 1997 by mimarsinan · · Score: 4, Informative

    I wrote my first archiver, called CompreXX, back in 1997. It had the exact "new" Explorer interface that's the big deal in WinZip 10 now, 8 years later.

    In 1999 I added plug-in extensibility to the product, so it could be extended to support more archives while keeping the same UI.

    In 2002, I made the product manage archives natively in Windows Explorer itself - just like what Windows XP does for ZIP files, except for all archive types (that plug-ins support) and all Windows platforms. Give WinZip another 8 years and they'll figure that one out.

    CompreXX right now natively compresses ZIP, RAR, ACE, SIT, 7ZIP (7ZIP has the best compression), and 28 total archive formats. It extracts 48. Of course, because I do not have a multimillion dollar marketing budget, there is nothing I can do to get the word out about it.

    And reading about WinZip's revolutionary "new" features, especially on Slashdot, is really depressing.

    1. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Unique2 · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Of course, because I do not have a multimillion dollar marketing budget, there is nothing I can do to get the word out about it."

      You could have at least put a link to it in your comment, that dosn't cost a million dollars.

      --
      No trees were harmed in the posting of this message. However, a great number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
    2. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by mimarsinan · · Score: 2, Informative

      www.CompreXX.com

    3. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by gatkinso · · Score: 1

      Look, Winzip is basically freeware. It does everything you do, for free. It is ubiquitous, and even of your product is better most folks are not going to even try your product.

      But all is not lost....

      Perhaps you could release your product under the GPL. We need more and better Windows open source alternatives.

      This is not to say it is free beer. You could still charge for it (bad idea see above). You could sell fee based (under the GPL of course) add ons for the more esoteric compression formats. You could sell documentation and support.

      Just a thought.

      --
      I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
    4. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by mskfisher · · Score: 3, Informative

      Here it is in clickable form:

      http://www.CompreXX.com/

      --
      0x0D 0x0A
    5. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by omega9 · · Score: 1

      Of course, because I do not have a multimillion dollar marketing budget, there is nothing I can do to get the word out about it.

      But you're doing a good job jizzing about yourself on /. !

      --
      I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
    6. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Call+Me+Black+Cloud · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Here's why WinZip is more popular:
      1. It's been around a lot longer than your software. The earliest reference I found in Google groups was 1991.
      2. Winzip is free. What's that you say? It's not? I think I've seen a registered copy once or twice at work in the last 15 years. Winzip allows you to use the trial version forever. Does your software allow that?

      From what I've read, though, you may be in luck. To increase revenue the new owners of the WinZip product will be stricter about trial periods. I'm quite sure they don't have a multimillion dollar budget either. They have momentum; they have users. Search google for "use winzip" and see how many pages read, "to open the file, use winzip or other program..."

      To start, why not put your URL with your name or in a sig? If you overlook such simple things how good can your software be?
    7. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by sholden · · Score: 1

      Maybe if you'd been a little earlier and the competition wasn't already entrenched...

      Maybe if you hadn't used a retarded name.

      It's probably better software (it would be difficult to be worse...) but which is best is about number 62 on the list of things that matter.

    8. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by rainman_bc · · Score: 1

      Not only that, but I've seen IT people for some major companies who haven't even heard of anything other than zip. I've sent out rar or ace archives before and they don't have a clue how to extract them.

      The excuse I got??? Zip is "industry standard".

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    9. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by hotdiggitydawg · · Score: 1

      Exactly - it's all about marketing. You don't think McDonalds became the largest food outlet in the world because they make the best burgers, do you?

    10. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by egriebel · · Score: 1

      How the hell has this been marked "Informative"? Oh yeah, because there isn't a mod for "F-king Advertisement".

      --
      ACHTUNG! Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen.
    11. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Eil · · Score: 2, Funny


      Of course, because I do not have a multimillion dollar marketing budget, there is nothing I can do to get the word out about it.

      I often find that just a simple link to the product's web site helps.

    12. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Pants75 · · Score: 1

      Nice one man. Looks like a really good app there.

    13. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by mingot · · Score: 1

      It *IS* an industry standard and the last thing someone wants to do is go hunt down and install another peice of software because someone (in this day and age of cheap harddrives and bandwidth) just HAD to squeeze a few more bytes out of compression.

    14. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know about your product, but your website sucks. And the CompresXX logo sucks too. Well, that's maybe why you didn't give the URL?

    15. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by CodeMunch · · Score: 1
      Of course, because I do not have a multimillion dollar marketing budget, there is nothing I can do to get the word out about it.

      You just lost the opportunity to provide a link to your CompreXX s/w. "FGI!" you might say, but you're not making it any easier for us to find you.

      Of course, /. being an OSS thumping "gimme free tools" user base, you may find it difficult to pedal your wares to this crowd anyway.

      Personally, I hate the "open as a folder" thing with windows/winrar/etc... I still prefer the winzip classic interface so I can "extract to" my defined path.

      Still, my favorite "*zip feature of all time" are the Windows Explorer extensions that allow me to right clicky & zip to a file name that has already been supplied so I don't need to mess around with typing in a GUI environment.

      $0.02 CDN

    16. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by hazah · · Score: 1

      Um.... which.... industry, exactly?

    17. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by brer_rabbit · · Score: 1
      Um.... which.... industry, exactly?

      obviously the zip industry.

    18. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      WinZip is NOT free (not free as no free beer for you).

      The Evaluation License states you only have up to 21 days to evaluate it.

      Just because it doesn't actually strictly enforce the 21-day evaluation time period and go kapoof and stop working, doesn't mean you are really legally allowed to use it forever (although that's what everyone does).

      If you were responsible for deploying WinZip in a large corporate environment that might ever get audited by the WinZip company (probably because some disgruntled employee reported you to the BSA), are you, your CEO, and your company lawyers willing to possibly risk your job and whatever financial penalties over a dinky little shareware program?

      (Yes, I know a lot of us having standing issues against the whole concept of the BSA and their tactics but that's another story...)

    19. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by IntlHarvester · · Score: 1

      > I've seen IT people for some major companies who haven't even heard of anything other than zip

      Note that "major companies" tend to run very standardized PC environments, making it nearly impossible for someone to install something like WinRAR. You may even have email gateways that just dump RARs because they can't scan inside of them.

      And ZIP is the industry standard for DOS/Windows compression, so they're right -- there's very few use cases in an IT environment which would justify a far less widely supported format like RAR.

      --
      Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
    20. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Laugh, but I have a lot of trouble getting past products with really moronically stupid names. Like "The GIMP" graphics editor for instance... why would I want to use a program that gimped my computer?

      What is the XX for in CompreXX? Does it mean it's rated above NC-17?

    21. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by King_TJ · · Score: 1

      Honestly, I don't think many people have been buying WinZip licenses in the last 3 or 4 years anyway. I could be wrong, but I get the idea that it's much more a matter of people preferring to "stick with what they're already used to and already paid for".

      I know I used to work for a business that bought a fairly expensive "site license" for WinZip, but we did that back when many of the laptops were still running Windows '98 and the desktops ran NT 3.51 or NT 4.0. Back then, you really needed a solution like WinZip to make things easier on your users. But I'm sure they still use it today, just because everyone got used to it - so any of these "new features" in an update are still welcome.

    22. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      Of course, because I do not have a multimillion dollar marketing budget, there is nothing I can do to get the word out about it.

      You could always submit a story submission to Slashdot! I'm sure they'll approve it -- two or three times, probably!

    23. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Call+Me+Black+Cloud · · Score: 2, Insightful


      I agree with you 100%. Just 2 days ago I ran into this with our sysadmin. He had set up some computers (Windows) for my team in our secure space (SCIF) and I was unpacking our code. I had some tarballs I needed to open. Conversation:

      Sysadmin: Didn't I install winzip?
      Me: No, it's not on here.
      Sysadmin: Ok, well let me put it on the machines.
      Me: Did we buy it? Do we have a site license for these boxes?
      Sysadmin: No, I just downloaded it.
      Me: Well, don't bother installing it because it would look bad as a major defense contractor to get caught using it without registering it. Let me get a copy of 7-Zip and we can be legit.
      Sysadmin: No, we're going to use winzip.
      Me: But this is free and we'll be legal. I'm going to go burn it to a CD now (the computers aren't connected to the Internet, obviously).
      Sysadmin: Well, I'm just going to install it on your machine and not the others.
      Me: Fine, I'll put it on those myself.

      I shouldn't have said that last bit because he decided we didn't need to keep the CD and shredded it (once it touches a classified machine it's classified, even if it's not re-writable).

      Fortunately, I think I can just copy the 7-Zip directory to the other machine. I'll also probably be changing jobs in the next couple of months, though not over this.

    24. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by rainman_bc · · Score: 1

      Yes, but there's so many free archivers that'll work with all archives, why stifle yourself with just winzip? Seems silly to me...

      Why not something like Filzip? Works well for all my archives, and no licensing like in winzip.

      (No linky - I'm lazy)

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    25. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by SamSim · · Score: 1
      nothing I can do to get the word out about it

      Put it in your sig on /. and post +5 comments. It works. Really.

    26. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by NetFu · · Score: 1

      Wow, I've never seen a more textbook example of why pushing open source (a.k.a. open source) is such an uphill battle.

      All I can say is you deserve everything you get using logic like that...

    27. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I enjoy how you copied BeOS's default executable icon for your web page! I can only assume you paid the requisite licencing fees for commercial use of their intellectual property!

    28. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Scurra+UK · · Score: 1

      Almost all of them except IT? Almost every computer user has heard of ZIP compression, very few non-technical users have heard of any other type.

    29. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by ad0gg · · Score: 1

      If you add another X to the product name, you'll probably sell more copies.

      --

      Have you ever been to a turkish prison?

    30. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ahh, ok. You were allowed to bring in non-approved software into a classified environment? How'd that get past security? WTF is 7-zip and what kind of monitoring trojan is it putting on the classified machines? Has it been audited?

      Of the secure environments I've worked in, which is many, nobody can just bring in whatever software they download off the internet. Not a chance in hell. It doesn't matter if the data on the machines never leaves the classified area. What if the software were a key logger? There goes your private keys.

    31. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looks like WinZip ain't the only one advertising on /. !

    32. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by jrockway · · Score: 1

      > pushing open source (a.k.a. open source)

      That sentence contains redundancy (a.k.a. redundancy).

      --
      My other car is first.
    33. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by rainman_bc · · Score: 1

      Given how many unversal archiving tools are out there, I'd say that it's an easy fix. I use FilZip, but there's tonnes of others out there that'll handle rar, ace, and zip equally.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    34. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by ErikZ · · Score: 1


      On one hand, that's just sad. I still come across file formats I've never heard of. I go look it up and find the program to decode them.

      On the other hand, the vast majority of compression requirements are satisfied with .zip.

      --
      Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
    35. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by Call+Me+Black+Cloud · · Score: 1


      Non-approved? Just a few weeks ago a memo came down from on high (on the government side) allowing open source software in without the rigorous process previously required (the formal request, the security study, the approval by the government security official). I hadn't heard about it until I received an e-mail basically stating, "In accordance with (whatever the memo number is) allowing open source software to bypass the introduction process, you'll find dom4j located..." and the address of an internal anonymous ftp site. I had been working dom4j for months, and actually had given up on it and even changed companies since I requested it. At the ftp site was all the open source stuff everyone had requested.

      Now, putting it into a production environment (vs our local development systems) is a different story. The system as a whole will still go through the multi-level approval process.

      As for keyloggers, who cares? Where is the data going to go? The system is not connected to the Internet. It's quite isolated.

    36. Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997 by jedrek · · Score: 1

      WinZIP also has great corporate pricing/licensing. All WPP companies (and that's 65,000 employees world-wide, if I'm not wrong) can use WinZIP for free - the corporate software guide includes the key. The only thing that is close to that price is Norton AntiVirus, which costs $1/station.

  78. No nag? by ducttapekz · · Score: 1

    I just downloaded the beta and it has 1. A nag screen, 2. An exit nag screen. I say stick with the ones that are actually free.

  79. Is there a +1 Irony token? by KitesWorld · · Score: 3, Funny

    We're is a contraction of 'we are', and is perfectly correct. There's nothing worse than trying to be a grammar Nazi and getting it wrong :)

    1. Re:Is there a +1 Irony token? by dacaldar · · Score: 1

      I agree with parent's being modded funnier than parent's parent, but just to nitpick parent for a minute...

      The word "now" in the OP implies a shifting of thought from past tense to present tense. So assuming the first part of the sentence should refer to the past, maybe "features we were used to" would be better grammar than "features we are used to", and "we're" probably isn't a valid contraction for "we were".

      So he/she may have a point :)

  80. WinRAR by SecularG · · Score: 1

    [url:http://www.rarlabs.com/]WinRAR[/url] supports more formats and has always been quite easy to use. The system context menu addin makes life simple. It does the task you ask and finishes. No opening up a window and clicking buttons. You click, 'Extract Here' and it extracts.

  81. Re:all the linux zealots are out in full force tod by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "this 'press release' is useful information if you work with windows"

    No, it's only helpful if you've been 'branded' to WinZip. I run Windows, but I haven't had WinZip installed in years. Right now I use TUGZip, but as many people have pointed out there are plenty of free and/or open-source zip utilities to choose from.

    WinZip is simply irrelevant, except to people who refuse to use anything else because they've used WinZip for the last ten years.

  82. Winzip sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Winzip can't hold its own when compared to Winrar.

  83. It needs more features by fwitness · · Score: 1

    I need to be able to read my email with WinZip. Someone brighter than I stated that "all applications grow until the point at which they can read email." This is when you know you've gone too far.

    Don't get me wrong, added functionality is nice, but why not integrate with other apps? Like have a plugin that works with my Nero/EZCD/WhateverBurn so we can all focus on our own specialized tasks?

    --
    -- I have fans? Wow.
  84. This is new? I've had it since 1997 by mimarsinan · · Score: 1, Redundant

    I wrote my first archiver, called CompreXX, back in 1997. It had the exact "new" Explorer interface that's the big deal in WinZip 10 now, 8 years later.

    In 1999 I added plug-in extensibility to the product, so it could be extended to support more archives while keeping the same UI.

    In 2002, I made the product manage archives natively in Windows Explorer itself - just like what Windows XP does for ZIP files, except for all archive types (that plug-ins support) and all Windows platforms. Give WinZip another 8 years and they'll figure that one out.

    CompreXX right now natively compresses ZIP, RAR, ACE, SIT, 7ZIP (7ZIP has the best compression), and 28 total archive formats. It extracts 48. Of course, because I do not have a multimillion dollar marketing budget, there is nothing I can do to get the word out about it.

    And reading about WinZip's revolutionary "new" features, especially on Slashdot, is really depressing.

  85. What about batch unzip? by Travoltus · · Score: 1

    DOS mode unzip doesn't work on NTFS systems. It recognizes 8 character files and extracts only 8 characters.

    This is God awful for when I have 200 zip files in one directory and need to unpack them all in a single run (as in, "unzip *.zip") instead of having to open and unzip each one with WinZip.

    --
    --- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
  86. Filzip is another by sinkemlow · · Score: 1

    http://www.filzip.com/

    I've been using Filzip for a while and it takes care of all my archival needs.

  87. This is important, why? by drwho · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Really...I don't understand why this is important enough to rate a slashdot article. I've noticed that lots of important news doesn't make the cut here, or comes in late, while trivia such as this pops in without reason.

  88. Informative? by trezor · · Score: 0

    Not to sound like a bitter old man, and not to imply that you parent poster does either, but just how is this informative?

    As long as the author of the post doesn't even include a link for people to check out (ie actually doing the advertising he claims he isn't capable of doing), this isn't more than random claims made to infer that WinZip isn't particulary revolutionary (which to I wholeheartedly agree) and that anyone can do better.

    Now, if parent poster makes up a link to said software, I'd be more than happy to try it out. As it does in fact sound a hell lot better than WinZip 10.0 :)

    --
    Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
    1. Re:Informative? by mimarsinan · · Score: 1

      Hmmm, Google CompreXX, or just try CompreXX.com :) As you can see, I suck at marketing. Grumble grumble.

    2. Re:Informative? by trezor · · Score: 1

      Grumble, grumble. And I evidently suck at doing the reading and googling after a long week with 14 hour work-days. Now mod my post into oblivion!

      --
      Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
    3. Re:Informative? by Call+Me+Black+Cloud · · Score: 1


      If you suck, why are you grumbling? Hire someone who's better or learn to do a better job yourself.

    4. Re:Informative? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      just try CompreXX.com

      Yawn... more propreitary closed-source bullshit this world doesn't need nor cares for. 1995 called: they want their shareware business model back. Oh and thanks for spamming the same comment two times in one article.

    5. Re:Informative? by Maxim+Kovalenko · · Score: 1

      You may suck at marketing...but you make a damn good program. I bought it, and will not use anything else for compression work.

    6. Re:Informative? by mimarsinan · · Score: 1

      Thanks! Help spread the word :)

  89. No support for Unicode by clamx · · Score: 2, Informative

    Winzip 10 is still unreliable since it still doesn't support Unicode filenames. Use WinRAR or 7-zip instead.

    1. Re:No support for Unicode by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Winzip 10 is still unreliable since it still doesn't support Unicode filenames

      I can remember having contacted them a year back and they said this was not a priority. Windows is now Unicode compliant, even if some programs still need to work on this (Firefox for example), but this is so stone age thinking of them.

      I use the zip compressor on MacOS X and it creates the entries in Unicode. WinZip can't deal with these files. I have files, whoes filenames are in multiple languages, including Chinese and Russian, so these have be compressed without WinZip.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    2. Re:No support for Unicode by haruchai · · Score: 1

      I've been using the freeware ICEOWS since it was known as ARJfolder. Does everything I want although
      I don't think it makes self-extracting executables.

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  90. Re:Tip o' The Hat To Info-Zip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Hey, I think we really ought to give a quick mention to the granddaddy of all alternative zip tools - the zip and unzip tools from the Info-Zip Foundation (http://www.info-zip.org/). This large group of collaborators produced portable source code that has led to :
    • zip & unzip being available in all our other "favourite" operating systems (just check the list of platforms on the homepage)
    • the creation of the very wonderful zlib (http://www.gzip.org/) - now an indispensible part of almost every system everywhere - not least the Intarweb itself - phew !

    There's even a Windoze GUI (http://www.info-zip.org/WiZ.html) - if you really want one, though I didn't like it much when I last looked at it.

    All it's lacked for ages now has been diskette spanning - though, as someone else points out elsewhere in this thread, in these days of USB flash drives and CDRWs there's much less need for that.

    So Big Thanks, a Tip o' The Hat and a beverage of your choice to the Info-Zip folks.

  91. Do people still use Zip? by Prophet+of+Nixon · · Score: 1

    I've had too many zip archives turn out corrupt over the years, not to mention they are large compared to other compressed formats. Hasn't everyone more or less stopped using zip anyway?

  92. 7-Zip by BinLadenMyHero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Have you tried 7-Zip?

    1. Re:7-Zip by m50d · · Score: 3, Informative

      I have in a pretty similar situation, I was compressing 1.4gb of various binary data in the hope of getting it onto a cdr. Zip and gzip I didn't even bother with (no, ok, I did try them, they sucked, about 1.2gb). 7-zip and ace were better but pretty bad, about 8-900mb each. Arj got it down to about 706mb, just too much without overburning. Rar blew them all away, compressed it down to just over 550mb. Took two hours to do though.

      --
      I am trolling
    2. Re:7-Zip by zerocool^ · · Score: 1


      Yeah, not to be elitest, but it pisses me off nowadays when I don't have 7zip installed on a computer I'm working on. I carry it with me on my thumb drive.

      I'm just so used to "right click; Extract here", and having it work for so many file formats. Seriously, I hardly ever compress something unless it's on my server, and then it's gzip via command line, but in windows, there's no substitute.

      ~w

      --
      sig?
    3. Re:7-Zip by cyclop · · Score: 1

      I'm just so used to "right click; Extract here"

      That's why I love Konqueror.

      --
      -- Patent no.123456: A way to personalize /. comments with a sig attached to the end.
    4. Re:7-Zip by Lagged2Death · · Score: 5, Informative

      I believe RAR does what they call "solid archiving," which means that a single compression dictionary is created for the entire archive.

      ZIP doesn't do that; each file in a ZIP archive is compressed individually, with a separate compression dictionary. That hurts the compression ratio for ZIP archives that contain many files, particularly many small files, particularly many similar small files, like source code, for example. But it does mean that archive operations (like extracting or updating individual files or and adding files to or removing files from an archive) are fast and simple.

      It's possible, in some cases, to dramatically increase the compression ratio ZIP achieves by ZIPing twice, emulating the "solid archive" method. (This is also what using .tar.gz does.) For the first ZIP, specify "no compression" (sometimes called "archive only") for the degree of compression desired. No compression dictionary will be created. Then ZIP that uncompressed ZIP file, using maximum compression this time. Since you're compressing just one file, only a single compression dictionary will be created. Especially for files that have a lot of similarity to each other (like human-language text or computer-language text), there's a big savings in using a single dictionary.

      I tried this with some source code archives and reduced ZIPs from (IIRC) ~150KB to ~90KB. Not really a worthwhile absolute savings, these days, but a huge improvement, percentage-wise. I also tried this with the Windows distribution of Emacs (which is distributed as .tar.gz.). ZIP managed ~17MB, double-ZIP managed ~12MB - slightly smaller than the .tar.gz distro, in fact.

      Doing this is a little clumsy, but it can offer a much-improved compression ratio in a format that virtually every Windows user already has access to.

    5. Re:7-Zip by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yes I have and It's what I hand out to everyone. but 7zip really needs to make the user interface a bit more braindead. it's got some klunky parts that they need to fix up a bit.

      I have saved many a copy of winzip from being keygened by a colleague by handing out discs with lots of freeware and OSS tools.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    6. Re:7-Zip by LnxAddct · · Score: 2, Informative

      You should give 7-zip's own file format set on "Ultra" for the compression ratio, by far the best in the industry.
      Regards,
      Steve

    7. Re:7-Zip by theTerribleRobbo · · Score: 1

      Tried bz2?

    8. Re:7-Zip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can I Paypal you a dollar for a blank DVD, you cheap fuck? You spent hours jerking off to save yourself the trouble of burning a DVD instead?

    9. Re:7-Zip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks.

    10. Re:7-Zip by Azarael · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure if you're right there. I don't think tar uses any compression, and that is the reson for using gzip or bz2 afterwards. I did a couple tests with the version of tar with Cygwin to compress some text files and the tar files were much bigger than the sum original file sizes.

    11. Re:7-Zip by bigbigbison · · Score: 2, Informative

      I haven't tried the method that you suggest, but 7zip, using zip compression can routinely create archives smaller than winzip by using the paramater pass=4 and the archives are compatable with any program that will open zips. I'm not sure if this would beat your method, but since it is one step rather than two it is worth trying.

      --
      http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
    12. Re:7-Zip by wiredlogic · · Score: 1

      ZIP doesn't do that; each file in a ZIP archive is compressed individually, with a separate compression dictionary.

      That is an intentional design decision that Katz made so that an existing zip file could be dynamically altered. The current Windows tools are pretty simplistic and don't expose the full power of the zip file format. With the DOS tool you can add, delete, and update/replace files in the archive all based on file modification times. The DOS tool also readily handles splitting ZIP files onto multiple floppies and other useful functions.

      If you want monolithic compression using the PKZ algorithm then you always have tar|gzip or the less conventional tar|pkzip. The savings isn't worth the inconvenience of having to go though the entire gzip|tar decompression process when you want to extract a single file (though I assume tar will abort once it has reached the file you are interested in). With PKZ, you can seek directly to the desired file and decompress it without sifting through the rest of the archive.

      These issues aren't such a concern now that copious hard drive space is available but it was important in the 80's.

      --
      I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
    13. Re:7-Zip by Lagged2Death · · Score: 1

      I don't think tar uses any compression...

      Absolutely right. Tar just concatenates all the files to be archived, so that the following gzip step only operates on one file and only creates one compression dictionary. That means .tar.gz files are always solid archives. The 1st non-compressed ZIP file in the double-zip method is analogous to the tar process.

    14. Re:7-Zip by Lagged2Death · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I haven't used it much, but 7-Zip looks pretty neat. Besides better compression with .zip compatibility, it looks like 7-Zip's native .7z format directly supports solid archives - I imagine that would give better results yet.

    15. Re:7-Zip by Thundersnatch · · Score: 1

      In my tests on mixed binary and text data, 7-zip with LZMA and solid archiving came out on top in terms of compression ratio. It's very slow in this mode, but the best choice for archiving on Windows if you want as much compression as possible. It's also free and open source, and there is a Linux/BSD port available.

    16. Re:7-Zip by flithm · · Score: 1

      This isn't really generally true. Note I'm not calling you a liar; it's entirely possible that your dataset was just more suited to RAR.

      Over the long haul bzip2 and 7-zip are definitely better than RAR.

      See this page for some actual benchies if you're interested.

    17. Re:7-Zip by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1
      ZIP doesn't do that; each file in a ZIP archive is compressed individually, with a separate compression dictionary. That hurts the compression ratio for ZIP archives that contain many files, particularly many small files, particularly many similar small files, like source code, for example.

      And this, boys and girls, is why you archive and then zip. The archive program combines all of the nasty littles filezees into one big file with mucho redundancy for your compression algorithm to chew on. This allows for maximum compression while retaining the ability to update the non-archived portion of the file.

      --
      That is all.
    18. Re:7-Zip by NicklessXed · · Score: 1

      That's what gp was saying: Put the stuff in a container without compression (be it tar or an uncompressed zip), then gzip/bz2/whatever it. So, tar doesn't have to have any compression, in fact, in this scenario, it isn't supposed to.

    19. Re:7-Zip by m50d · · Score: 1
      I believe RAR does what they call "solid archiving," which means that a single compression dictionary is created for the entire archive.

      ZIP doesn't do that; each file in a ZIP archive is compressed individually, with a separate compression dictionary. That hurts the compression ratio for ZIP archives that contain many files, particularly many small files, particularly many similar small files, like source code, for example. But it does mean that archive operations (like extracting or updating individual files or and adding files to or removing files from an archive) are fast and simple.

      It's optional. You can do solid archiving, but it's not the default, for the reasons you mention. The files were several megabytes each, and the zip performance so much worse that I doubt it could be made competitive.

      --
      I am trolling
    20. Re:7-Zip by m50d · · Score: 1

      Huh? I used the maximum compression setting for all the archivers I tried, at least when I could figure out how to set it. My experience says rar is certainly the best of those I tried (though I didn't compare uharc, which I've often seen called the best for general binary data)

      --
      I am trolling
    21. Re:7-Zip by m50d · · Score: 1

      Yeah, can't believe I forgot about that. It was something like 834mb, in the same region as ace and 7z.

      --
      I am trolling
    22. Re:7-Zip by m50d · · Score: 1

      I don't have a DVD burner, just a dvd-rom drive. If you're willing to buy me a DVD burner go right ahead, I'll give you my address.

      --
      I am trolling
    23. Re:7-Zip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about getting a job, so that 30$ purchases don't become critical life choices?
      Yeah, so go right ahead, I'll mail it out to you.

    24. Re:7-Zip by sillybilly · · Score: 1

      There are still versions of powerarchiver you can find on the net, from before it went shareware, when it still claimed to be freeware forever, that can deal with tar.gz and even bz2 files on windows, if I recall correctly.

    25. Re:7-Zip by Tigen · · Score: 1

      -1 reading comprehension

    26. Re:7-Zip by bigbigbison · · Score: 1

      Yes, 7zip's native format kicks zip's ass. IU just installed it on their wondows machines so now I can use the .7z format when i want to transfer files between home and school. Still the ammount of variation in the size of .zip files is interesting. Perhaps someone needs to start maximuumzipcompression.com

      --
      http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
    27. Re:7-Zip by larry+bagina · · Score: 1
      he didn't say tar uses compression (it doesn't). He said that gzipping 1 large file gives better compression than gzipping a dozen small files. Likewise with zip (the uncompressed zip archive being equivalent to tar).

      If the files are somewhat similar (ascii text, code, etc), processing them as 1 (large) file gives you a more efficient compression dictionary.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    28. Re:7-Zip by legirons · · Score: 1

      "It's possible, in some cases, to dramatically increase the compression ratio ZIP achieves by ZIPing twice"

      The added bonus being that with password-protected archives, zipping twice means that it doesn't store the list of filenames in plaintext.

    29. Re:7-Zip by m50d · · Score: 1

      For what it's worth
      62 Weyland Rd
      Witnesham
      Ipswich
      Suffolk
      England

      --
      I am trolling
    30. Re:7-Zip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      7-Zip has a Far Manager plugin, which is very convenient.

      Far Manager is a better "Norton Commander" for Win32.

    31. Re:7-Zip by shellbeach · · Score: 1

      it's got some klunky parts that they need to fix up a bit.

      Actually, I've noticed it's improved heaps recently - the latest versions support drag'n'drop into and out of archives, which was a much-missed feature.

      Personally, I can't believe people out there pay for WinZip when an OSS alternative like 7-zip exists ... It's a sad testament to the fact that market share begets more market share, I guess :-(

    32. Re:7-Zip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He is right. Re-read his post carefully.

    33. Re:7-Zip by Breakfast+Pants · · Score: 1

      You are so lost that were you a whale I would expect to find you on a beach any day now.

      --

      --

      WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
    34. Re:7-Zip by Luke-Jr · · Score: 1

      Can I have some free $, too? :p

      --
      Luke-Jr
  93. I did. :) by KitesWorld · · Score: 1

    Because it makes sense to make that point - If they've got a new proprietary implementation (which is what it sounds like) then chances are that they'll try to file for a patent for it in the near future - assuming they haven't done so already.

    Although copyright is the problem that the great-grand-parent was pointing out, It's not likely to be the only problem that other developers would face trying to implement a compatible algorithm. Something to bear in mind, no?

    1. Re:I did. :) by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

      If they do get a patent in the US, the different patent laws in the EU do not help much. Sure we can develop a workalike over here, and use it ourselves, but no Linux vendor can include it in their distro if they want it to be legal in the US. It would be as popular and useful as DeCSS which never made it beyond being a novelty.

    2. Re:I did. :) by thunderbee · · Score: 1

      Why do you think debian has a non-us archive?
      And I'm very grateful that deCSS allows me to view DVDs in xine on linux. I'm sorry it didn't make it past the "novelty" stage for you. You're missing a useful tool.

      --
      In my opinion, Scientology is a cult you should avoid.
    3. Re:I did. :) by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1
      I'm sorry it didn't make it past the "novelty" stage for you. You're missing a useful tool.

      No I'm not. I use DVDShrink, which uses DeCSS. I still maintain that it's made negligible market penetration, and an archive tool needs market share in order to be really useful.
  94. And some more commercial ones by metamatic · · Score: 1
    --
    GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
  95. Geeze, it wouldn't be a fake would it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Considering he already knew about WinZip?

    1. Re:Geeze, it wouldn't be a fake would it? by Liselle · · Score: 2, Funny
      OP borked the quote badly, it's supposed to look like this:
      <mage> what should I give sister for unzipping?
      <Kevyn> Um. Ten bucks?
      <mage> no I mean like, WinZip?
      --
      Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
  96. I stick to Filzip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Small, fast, ugly and the occasional error-message in German. It does the job, and it doesn't get in the way, and it has never managed to fuck up the registry.

  97. This is what's wrong with the software industry by Dasher42 · · Score: 1

    Every single specialized program turns into yet another bloated, all-singing, all-dancing swiss army knife.
     
    We're Unix people, right? Familiar with small tools that do their job right and work well together? I need only one GUI swiss army knife, and it is Konqueror.

  98. Did they fix the old one yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WinZip jobs support encryption of your zipped data using either standard Zip 2.0 encryption or WinZip's advanced AES encryption ...

    WinZip's AES implementation was sharply criticized in a 2004 paper by Tadayoshi Kohno:

    http://www.cse.ucsd.edu/users/tkohno/papers/WinZip /

    "Zip 2.0 encryption" is a joke, of course, but WinZip's lack of encryption for the metadata (file names, sizes, dates, etc.) made their AES implementation a lot less useful than it ought to have been.

    Anybody know if they finally fixed it?

  99. Then zlib should fix it, they have the means. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    7-Zip supported deflate64 months ago, and it's open source.

  100. News? by AugstWest · · Score: 1

    A new version of WinZip merits a story on /.? What the hell is going on over there?

    1. Re:News? by EllF · · Score: 1

      One word: payola.

      --
      We who were living are now dying
      With a little patience
  101. Info-ZIP unzip claims deflate64 support by balamw · · Score: 1

    While zlib doesn't support deflate64, such support is already available in info-zip unzip. If clamd were to use unzip instead this particular problem would not be an issue.

    B
  102. Powerarchiver rocks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Powerarchiver

    Yeah it's payware, but then again, so is Winzip. Since this whole /. article was free advertising for them, I don't mind posting a link to Powerarchiver, which I find superior.

  103. I chose, PowerArchiver! by herstarkeeper · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry but I switched to PowerArchiver many moons ago. It has served me well and is more compatible with compressed archives that I create on my UNIX machines and Mac.

    --
    "...the soul of this machine has improved..." Douglas A. Maske
  104. Isn't Zip Dead? by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 1

    I mean, when you can suck 100mb off the internet in a few minutes, do we need an archiving utility?

    I actually get annoyed when large files are broken into smaller zip or rar files for distribution over the web. Sure there are still many people that use dialup networking that need access to the same files (patches and such), but providers should really offer 1 large file for broadband and then lots of small files for dialup, or opt to use a download manager that can pause or restart downloads.

    Also, except for text and Windows bitmaps, what really CAN be zipped these days? Most web/photo image formats are pretty much compressed as are various video and music formats. I don't know how many times I download a zip or rar archive and find out the overall compression rate on the archive is less than 5%. What am I saving by having it zipped, 100kb? The kind of large files that people are downloading and distributing are alreay very dense in their native format, zipping them offer little improvement in reducing file size.

    About the ONLY reason for zip like archive utilties these days is for encryption, packaging files in protected archives for secure delivery. WinZip has been beefing up their encryption support, but I think they need to really change focus and become an encryption archiver rather then a compression archiver. Compression can always be an option, but shouldn't be the focal point of the utility. Encryption should become WinZip's priority and focus if they wish to continue developing a winning product for the future.

    --
    I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
  105. Phil Katz... by jar240 · · Score: 1

    PKZip anyone? You don't need anything else! Chris

    --
    "You can drive out Nature with a pitchfork, but It always comes roaring back again." - Tom Waits
  106. On The Other Hand by Lagged2Death · · Score: 1

    Read through the thread and look at all the great commentary on and links to alternative archiving programs. Many of them are gratis, and a few are even F/OSS.

    Whatever the original intent of the post, the discussion has created in this thread a useful resource for fans of non-commercial software. That can't be all bad, can it?

  107. Lzip support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    The software now supports the PPMd and bzip2 compression formats

    Does anyone know if the free version supports lzip? I've been looking for a Windows tool that can read my old lzip archives - there's some good stuff in there.

  108. Who bought floppies? by sconeu · · Score: 1

    I think local computer stores were making a small fortune with the amount of floppy disks being bought.

    <HUMOR>
    You bought floppy disks? AOL sent me all the floppies that I ever needed!
    </HUMOR>

    Seriously, though, I bought high-quality floppies when data integrity was important.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  109. Why bother ? by digitalrevolution · · Score: 0

    Slashdot users already know 7-Zip has been doing the same thing for free for years. What is this an advertisement ? WinZip is history.

  110. Why do I need a 48-format GUI tool? by matt+me · · Score: 1

    I don't need a GUI tool that can handle 48 different formats... I can use just select correct program for the job in the command line. For .zip use unzip, for .rar use unrar, then there's untar, and unace. I;ve set some Bash aliases so I don't need extra handles on the command, and can extract tar balls in one.

  111. Comparison... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For cross-platform use use 7-zip...
    http://www.7-zip.org/

    For Windows, tugzip is nice...
    http://www.tugzip.com/

    Here is a nice comparison....
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_ar chivers

  112. Seen this before somewhere by ajs318 · · Score: 1
    The main addition to the Pro edition is an automation feature called 'WinZip Job Wizard' which allows scheduled archiving instructions to be set.
    You mean something like
    ajs318:/home/ajs318/warez $ at 20:47
    at> for i in *tar.gz; do tar xvzf $i; done
    at>[ctrl+D]
    ?

    Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery :)
    --
    Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
  113. Have you tried..... by spect3r · · Score: 0
    --
    The beatings will continue until Morale Improves!
  114. Another Slashvertisement by isecore · · Score: 1

    IMHO Winzip peaked at around version 5 when they finally introduced long filename support. Everything after that was more of the same, nothing really new. Sure, this "archiving faster" crap sound cool but is it really faster? And do the customer really wanna fork over cash for a 3% (or whatever) increase in zipping?

    Also, I'm rather tired of using fifty billion archivers and have therefore switched to PowerArchiver which does a good job at most every format.

    --
    I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
  115. No command line support? by FerretFrottage · · Score: 1

    I see no mention of command line support which is great for scripting. Winzip8/9 and winrar both offer command line options for compression/decompression (winzip via a downloadable extension). izarc looks full featured, but I see no mention of command line support, so IMHO, it's just free.

    If someone who uses it knows that it does support a CLI than please reply and I'll give it a shot.

    --
    "Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
    1. Re:No command line support? by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      7zip supports commandline.

  116. Zip Files on Windows ME and beyond by rubberbando · · Score: 1

    Why would I want to install WinZip?

    Windows has supported Zip files since Windows ME.

    Heck, it opens them up like regular folders and lets you view/open items inside as well as cut/copy/paste to and from them.

    I'm surprised that Winzip hasn't gone after Microsoft for anti-trust issues.

    --
    DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
  117. Why is WinZip still revelant? by theurge14 · · Score: 1

    There are plenty of better alternatives that have been around for *years*.

    This might have mattered back in the early 1990s, back when pkzip was DOS only.

  118. Alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Today it's no longer necessary to install WinZip on a Windows machine. I know of at least two good alternatives: the open source (7-zip and the free as in beer ALZip.

  119. Keep it simple, STUFF bloatware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OMG! No! No! No!
    Next thing WinZip will be playing MP3 and DVix, allowing editing of MS Orfice docs and have a calculator strapped on in the menus.
    If I want to burn a CD/DVD, use a burner, not a zipper. In fact, I made the big mistake of buying Roxio 6 (yes, 7 is out, etc - so blah), and I will be firing it and going BACK to version 5. Why? Bloatware. It owns my PC, is invasive and in the bloody way.
    Now WinZip is also going the way to Hell and trying to be the ONLY app apart from the OS itself. The OS again, is trying to be every app - what a f***ked up industry. Don't the "leaders" have any brains?
    Keep the tools simple, small, focussed and VERY, VERY good at doing what each one does.

  120. Re:or... by DavidTC · · Score: 1
    Except that nowdays Usenet has moved to using par2 to recover files, and thus there's absolutely no reason to segment files anymore. If the file can actually be compressed, sure, but segmented? No.

    A very very few people have caught up with the times, and just split AVIs, or even post the entire huge file, and you download everything you can get, put it together, and download pars to fill in the cracks. It works fine.

    Clients are even including par2 support themselves, where they automatically download the smaller par2 (The empty one) and see how many blocks they need, and download that many, and magically repair the file before you knew anything was wrong.

    I've heard a lot of excuses for this 'raring avis' and not one of them holds up anymore. Stop compressing the damn files.

    And, yes, there are people with old crappy clients out there that won't download fiules where parts are missing. This is a) idiotic, and b) not important, as everyone has switched over to using yEnc, and thus old clients don't work at all!

    So, basically, the 'small files work best on Usenet' is dead.

    And small files have never worked better on FTP, because FTP has always had something called 'resume'.

    --
    If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
  121. Winzip Crack? by l0rd · · Score: 1

    Now we wait for the crack....

    Is it just me or are the winzip cracks one of the most downloaded pieces of software on the internet? They may as well just add a winzip page to altavista....

    PS I am in no way promoting piracy here. Piracy is bad, very bad. Downloading too much will make you go blind!

    1. Re:Winzip Crack? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ROFL!
      I have always hated the flush screen to the extent that since version 6 of WinZip I 'fix' everybody's machine I come across with a magic code I found somewhere on a website someplace.... to the extent I have this code memorized!
      Pester the user, and you get a backlash.

  122. UTF-8 by taobill · · Score: 1
    I am told that the Zip file format doesn't support unicode filenames.

    The file name is a byte array right?

    So why can't we just stuff UTF-8 into it?

    One of the major points of UTF-8 is that it doesn't cause too much grief even if the thing on the other end doesn't understand it.

    We would just need to use the relevant unicode-filename APIs in the Zip manipulator software and interconvert that with UTF-8 for the Zip file. Maybe have a command-line flag to have the filenames interpretable as ISO-8859-1, but have UTF-8 as the default.

    Of course it already does this in unix because filenames are just a byte array there already. But it might be nice to be able to interpret the names as UTF-8 to be able to get listing columns to line up etc.

    Would need to be implemented in Info-Zip first, and then waved around on a big flag in front of the other Zip software authors.

  123. 7-zip bloats the right-click menu unnecessarily by Gnavpot · · Score: 1

    I briefly tried 7-zip 4.23 and ditched it. 3 observations:

    1. Right click noise
    7-zip adds these items to the right click menu for any file type:
        Extract files...
        Extract Here
        Test archive
        Add to archive...

    I can understand the last one. Every zip utility has this, and it is nice to have.

    But the three first? Why would I want to "Test archive" when right clicking on a shortcut to Mozilla Firefox? Does 7-zip think that my shortcut might be a compressed archive in disguise?

    If so, why stop here? Why not have my MP3 player present at least one option in the right click menu for any file type? And (all) my movie player(s) too? And my word processor - after all, that Firefox shortcut could be a Word or OOo document in disguise. And if the right click menu grows too large, I can always buy a screen with better resolution.

    I was not even asked if I wanted those extra items in the right click menu.

    THIS IS NOT WHAT THE RIGHT CLICK MENU IS FOR. Right click options for compressed files should only be visible when right clicking on compressed files. That is why the menu is also called a CONTEXT menu.

    2. All files in an archive are shown organized in folders.
    This may be ok. Winzip's behaviour of showing all files in a long list is sometimes more confusing, sometimes less. It is a question of taste.

    But when files are shown in folders, I would prefer a left pane with a folder tree and a right pane with contents of selected folders. Most compression utilities do this, but I could not find an option in 7-zip. I could find a 2-pane view, but it was more like Norton/Midnight Commander with 2 independent panes.

    Again this is a question of taste.

    3. Uninstaller want to reboot computer.
    WHAT? Reboot necessary for this? For God's sake - it is a simple compression utility. How much damage did the installation do to my system since a reboot is necessary to revert to my old setup?

    It was not even because of those annoying right click items. They disappeared prior to rebooting.

    1. Re:7-zip bloats the right-click menu unnecessarily by 40000 · · Score: 1

      4. The 7-Zip file manager opened a zip file using Winzip when I clicked on it (because Winzip was the default application).
      I don't mind the non-tree format of Winzip, instead of all these archive programs trying to copy Windows Explorer, how about Windows having the option of a Winzip style 'flat' directory listing?

    2. Re:7-zip bloats the right-click menu unnecessarily by julesh · · Score: 1

      3. Uninstaller want to reboot computer.
      WHAT? Reboot necessary for this? For God's sake - it is a simple compression utility. How much damage did the installation do to my system since a reboot is necessary to revert to my old setup?


      This usually means that you're running on a Win9x, NT4 or 2K system and the installer upgraded a system DLL when you installed it. The uninstaller wants to downgrade it, but one of the applications you're running is using it, so the file is locked. The uninstaller writes instructions on what needs to be done into the registry, and it happens at next reboot.

      It's basically because Windows' file locking is fsked up. Thankfully, they fixed it in XP.

    3. Re:7-zip bloats the right-click menu unnecessarily by Gnavpot · · Score: 1

      It's basically because Windows' file locking is fsked up. Thankfully, they fixed it in XP.

      This is an XP installation. XP Pro SP2 to be exact.

      But XP or not - in my opinion, simple compression utilities should not mess with Windows system files in any way. When random programs upgrade parts of the operating system, you loose control over your own PC.

    4. Re:7-zip bloats the right-click menu unnecessarily by julesh · · Score: 1

      Strange. Reboots should never be necessary under XP, because you can now delete the files associated with a running program.

      Probably the uninstaller program's author hasn't realised this yet and is still doing it the old way on all platforms.

    5. Re:7-zip bloats the right-click menu unnecessarily by Gnavpot · · Score: 1

      Strange. Reboots should never be necessary under XP, because you can now delete the files associated with a running program. Probably the uninstaller program's author hasn't realised this yet and is still doing it the old way on all platforms.

      In other words: My point is valid.

      The uninstaller is part of the 7-zip package I download. If something is wrong with the uninstaller, something is wrong with 7-zip.

  124. WinWhat? by ngdbsdmn · · Score: 1

    I never used WinZIP. RAR is my choice since 1996. Flirted with ACE for a few mounths in 1997, but I went back to RAR and used it ever since. Who in God's green Earth would want to use ZIP?

    1. Re:WinWhat? by Ziviyr · · Score: 1

      People without eyepatches who insist on interoperability.

      Until I can read/write RARs through a FOSS KIO slave I don't care to hear about it.

      I'm not saying I like ZIP, I use alternatives generally, but RAR is a bad joke in my view.

      --

      Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
  125. Finally by dascandy · · Score: 1

    I can now give a normal tar-bz2-tarball to a Windows-user and they'll be able to open it!

  126. gotta love the high quality digg comments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL Fierfox rocks! LOL!

    I think their filter denys posts without at least one LOL.

    Maybe it will improve once US school is back in session.

  127. Just use 7zip. by melted · · Score: 1

    Just use 7zip. http://www.7-zip.org/ Or if you're inclined to spend a little bit of money, get WinRar.

    1. Re:Just use 7zip. by DaveCBio · · Score: 1

      Agreed, this is an excellent tool that does pretty well everything I need a file compressor to do and it integrates into Windows shell nicely.

  128. Are they sure the Standard Edition is free? by R.Mo_Robert · · Score: 1

    ...because I can't find anywhere on WinZip's site that tells me it is. In fact, it says they'll give you a "free" registration code to try out the beta, but it will no longer work for the final release. It also says they are the same download but that functionality will be determined by either a Standard or Professional registration code.

    So as far as I can tell, all they're probably planning to do for this is make you pay more if you want the Professional version.

    --
    R.Mo
    1. Re:Are they sure the Standard Edition is free? by Slynkie · · Score: 1

      That's what I get from it as well, but I thought there'd be more comments here about it. Maybe we're the only ones not getting something obvious?...

  129. Why use winzip? by SystemR · · Score: 1

    If you have alzip. It can read rar, zip, ace, bz2, gz, tar, cab, lzh, pak, etc. It has a great checksum (even if it's a large file), it's fast and simple. 7zip is great too, but I had problems when I extract files that are larger than 3GB.

    Alzip is free for home users and their other programs such as FTP client are great too.

  130. -1, Flagrant misuse of K5 national treasures on /. by The+Cydonian · · Score: 1

    Next time onwards, please stick to the right memes in the right websties. ;-)

  131. "Order now"? by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 1

    Sorry to crash the party but... due to the fact that there are many *FREE* utilities, and ONE commercial utility (worldly famous), what made you think you could actually make money with yours?

    It's not the first time something like this happens, anyway... sorry :(

    1. Re:"Order now"? by operagost · · Score: 1

      Obviously, the feature set for CompreXX is a bit larger than the free stuff. I've yet to see a free archiver that supports compressing 28 formats and has complete shell integration.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    2. Re:"Order now"? by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 1

      I copied this from the iceows site.

      ICEOWS offers :

              * Microsoft Windows Explorer interface (the same one that is on your system).
              * New ICE format which is excellent for reducing the size of text files.
              * Built-in compression for ICE, ZIP and Built-out compression for ARJ.
              * Built-in decompression for ICE,ARJ, ZIP, GZIP, TAR, MS-CAB, RAR, ACE, Quake 3 compressed files, Internet Mail files (Mime, UUE, XXE, B64, HQX), Java Archive (JAR, EAR, WAR), LZS, LZH, LHA, IMP, BZ2.
              * Multi-volume spanning for ICE,ARJ, ZIP, RAR, ACE et MS-CAB
              * Password encryption and comment for ICE, ZIP and ARJ.
              * Data protection with ARJ32.
              * Added properties page for ICE,ARJ, ZIP, GZIP, TAR, MS-CAB, RAR, ACE, Quake 3 compressed files, Internet Mail files (Mime, UUE, XXE, B64, HQX), Java Archive (JAR, EAR, WAR), LZS, LZH, LHA, IMP, BZ2 files
              * Full Drag and Drop (left and right mouse button) and Copy/Cut and Paste functionality.
              * Recursive archive extraction and multi archive extraction.
              * Convert archive file to archive folder (without uncompressing it).
              * Shell integration to create archive ("right-click").
              * Quick-View support.
              * Create and test SFV (Simple File Validator).
              * Restore structure directory, attributes and last modified date for all archives.
              * Restore creation date and last accessed date for ARJ32 file.
              * Test file for ICE,ARJ, ZIP, RAR, ACE, GZIP, IMP, LHA, LZS, LZH, BFL,SFV files.
              * Multithread.
              * Help file.
              * Self-Extracting module for WIN32 and WIN CE 2.0.
              * Full MUI (Multi-language User Interface) with English, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Swedish versions.
              * And more....

      Nice for a freeware package, don't you think?

    3. Re:"Order now"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    4. Re:"Order now"? by Call+Me+Black+Cloud · · Score: 1

      Maybe he offers tech support?

    5. Re:"Order now"? by WalksOnDirt · · Score: 1

      I use ICEOWS, and like it. My brother has stopped using it since he says that corrupted RAR files can crash his XP system. He seems get a lot of corrupted RAR files from news groups.

      As far as I can tell, ICEOWS is free but closed source. It's been quite a while since its last modification.

      --
      a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
    6. Re:"Order now"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The TCO of this software is pretty high. If you read the end user agreement, you are agree that you own at least 3 different pieces of software. Here it is:

      MimarSinan CompreXX mark4 (GALACTICA Release)
      END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

      0. Agreement

      By installing and/or using this product, you (the end-user) are entering a binding legal agreement with MimarSinan International. You acknowledge that you have read, understand, and agree to comply with all of the terms of this license agreement.

      I. Shareware

      This product is shareware. You are entitled to a thirty (30) day trial period for evaluating this product. This evaluation period has the following restrictions:

      a. You may NOT distribute any applications created with the API and/or SDK included in the product.
      b. You MUST cease using the product at the end of the evaluation period.

      Upon completion of the evaluation period, if you wish to continue using the product, you MUST purchase a license from MimarSinan International. Visit http://www.comprexx.com/ for more information on purchasing a license.

      II. Distribution

      This product may be distributed ONLY in the original form in which you have received it. You are expressly denied permission to distribute any parts of this product, or to repackage and distribute the entire product in any form. You are granted permission to distribute this product only in the "MimarSinan InstallAware" self extracting and installing executable form.

      III. Bundled Third Party Components

      This product contains the third party components described below:

      a. 7-Zip command line modules, provided by http://www.7-zip.org/

      MimarSinan International is NOT associated in any way with the vendors named above. The third party components included in this product are PROVIDED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE ONLY. You must already hold valid (evaluation) licenses to use these third party components. By installing MimarSinan CompreXX mark4, you indicate that you already hold valid (evaluation) licenses for these third party products.

      IV. Borrowed Third Party Components

      This product, if it finds the third party components described below, will borrow portions of the named components, to extend its functionality:

      a. WinRAR command line modules, provided by http://www.rarlab.com/

      MimarSinan International is NOT associated in any way with the vendors named above. The third party components are NOT included in this product, and are only borrowed from an existing installation IF THEY ARE ALREADY PRESENT ON YOUR SYSTEM. You must already hold valid (evaluation) licenses to use these third party components. By installing MimarSinan CompreXX mark4, you indicate that you already hold valid (evaluation) licenses for these third party products.

      V. Plug-In and Application Development

      This product contains an SDK and API which you may use to engineer your own Codex Compliant plug-ins and applications. You may freely distribute all plug-ins and applications created with this product, without any royalties, provided you hold a valid non-evaluation license for this product.

      VI. Downloaded Third Party Components

      This product, if chosen by the user, is capable of downloading third party compression providers directly from their vendor websites. If the download succeeds, the product will then install a plug-in bridge enabling Codex applications to invoke proprietory compression functionality. This is not a mechanism intended to circumvent the licensing procedures required for the legal use of such proprietory third party technology.

      THIS INSTALLER, IF CHOSEN, WILL SIMPLY DOWNLOAD SUCH THIRD PARTY TECHNOLOGY, DIRECTLY FROM THE PUBLIC THIRD PARTY WEBSITES, AS A CONVENIENCE TO THE END-USER. THE PROCEDURES THE INSTALLER

  132. Re:Tip o' The Hat To Info-Zip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From the WinZip acknowledgement help page:

    WinZip incorporates compression code by the Info-Zip group, used with their permission. Special thanks to the entire Info-Zip group, in particular to Jean-loup Gailly, Greg Roelofs, and Mark Adler. The original Info-Zip sources are freely available by anonymous ftp. We will also, upon request, mail you the Info-Zip sources if you send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address in the WinZip "About" dialog box.

    WinZip started out as a frontend to PKZip/PKUnzip. Eventually they replaced the PKZip stuff with Info-Zip.

  133. one more reason by tezbobobo · · Score: 1

    The reason I haven't upgraded - I'd have to find the more recent serials.

  134. What's wrong w/the zip built into XP by f0dder · · Score: 1

    I am perfectly happy for 99% of my zipping requirements using the zip utility built into WinXP.

    1. Re:What's wrong w/the zip built into XP by wolverine1999 · · Score: 1

      I usually use ZipCentral, though it hasn't been updated in ages..

  135. Spanning on one volume by dazedNconfuzed · · Score: 1

    Here's hoping that they include a feature to do "disk spanning" on one volume where the max file size has been reached. I've got 500GB of storage in FAT32 form, limiting file sizes to 4GB - too small for zipping up backups of file systems (notebooks); when it hits a file size limit, WinZip should check for available space and (optionally) create sequentially-numbered subsequent .zip files.

    --
    Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
  136. Somebody Still Uses Winzip? by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 1


    Why?

    There are fifty million free archive programs out there that do just as much and more - and have for years.

    I've NEVER used Winzip. I used to use a version of PowerArchiver. Currently I use ZipGenius.

    I've never understood the need for fifty million features in archive programs either. I zip a bunch of files, I unzip 'em. Occasionally I try to repair a damaged one - which never works.

    And do we really need any NEW archive formats that save 7% more space - with 200GB hard drives going for $100?

    --
    Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
  137. Re:What about rar? What about it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WinZip upgrades are free to, however if your going to spend any money on an archival program WinRAR is by far the better program.
    I have paid for both of them and haven't even bothered to install WinZip in about five years on any computer.

  138. Hmm by Sonic+McTails · · Score: 3, Informative

    While it's more common on Macintosh, I use Stuff Expander for Windows. It opens almost anything thrown at it, and it doesn't need the proper extension so it can open mystery files as well. It works in the background and the only time you see any windows from it when you explicately open it, or when it's decompressing.

    I used to use WinZip back in the day though, and it was realible, and quick, so maybe it's time to re-evaluate it.

    --
    This signature was left intentionally blank.
  139. Automated Archives!!! by INetEngineer · · Score: 1

    "allows scheduled archiving instructions to be set"

    I wrote a program to do just this, since WinZip didn't have it and others cost lots of money or sucked. Finally, I can use tried and true software for auto-archiving... Wonder how flexible their implementation is though?...

    --
    --I smoked my sig.
    1. Re:Automated Archives!!! by oglueck · · Score: 1

      Yeah I this too:
      crontab -e
      0 18 * * * /usr/bin/tar cjf $HOME/backup.tar.bz2 $HOME/backup/*

  140. Windows' builtin (de)compression is rubbish by 21mhz · · Score: 1

    When I used Windows XP "Compression Wizard" for the last time, I was trying to unzip a 500K archive from a Windows network volume in the same office. It went sluggish with very slow progress for minutes and used network like crazy. Dropped that, installed 7-zip, it completed the work in a few seconds.

    --
    My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
  141. Re:Last chance saloon. So the headline should be. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WinZip screws it's paying users.

  142. why make it out to be a drag to buy software? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0



    re: "Almost all the other features we're used to now come completely free in the Standard edition."

    Why make it out to be a drag to buy software? Is it better to settle for less, inferior, to spend the money on a half tank of gas that you putter away in a few hours? Think, man! And don't be so cheap.

  143. WTF is the point??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have always preferred the good ol' DOS version of pkzip. I cannot stand the wizard crap they put into Winzip. The last version of PKZIP for DOS was 2.50 released in 1999, and I still use it to this day.

  144. User Interface by Traa · · Score: 1

    99% of the time I want to:

    [x] click on a zip file and see the zip files content

    [ ] in a file/folder way rather then a flat directory list

    [x] press a button to extract

    [ ] have this button be obvious and not hidden between other options

    [x] pick or create a target folder

    [ ] then with one simple button I would like to close winzip and have it drop me in the folder I just unzipped my files to!

    Is this really all that hard?

  145. Solid archiving is optional by ESqVIP · · Score: 1
    I just checked: though .rar files do support solid archiving, it is not enabled by default in the WinRAR archiving options.

    From my experience, WinRAR (when producing .rar files, of course) provides the best compression-to-compression-and-extracting-time ratio. 7z files, when smaller than .rar files, do not show any significant advantages, while taking a considerably longer time to compress and decompress. Bz2 really excells at raw uncompressed data (like pure text, .bmp and .wav files), but operates quite slowly and tends to give less satisfactory results if the data already has some kind of compression on its own. Zip (and gzip) are quite fast, but don't compress as much as the former methods.

    In the end, as much as I like open-source, I still use .rar for most of my archives. But 7zip is my favorite self-extracting generator.

  146. Let me just say it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CompreXX is a horrible, horrible name for a product. Pretty much like naming it "Wo0t!39# Deluxxx" or something.

  147. use ZipCentral instead by Splork · · Score: 1

    its free. never been nagware. and it just plain works.

  148. PAQ and UCL by apankrat · · Score: 2, Informative


    You should've given PAQ a try too. From what I understand PAQ compression uses adaptive switching between multiple compression algorithms on the fly based on which produces the best result for a current block. Be warned that it is pretty slow and memory intensive.

    Another one to try is UCL . This is a compression engine behind UPX, executable file compressor. It has a remarkable property of having super-fast decompression.

    --
    3.243F6A8885A308D313
  149. Re:Fuck this! by Bluetrust25 · · Score: 1

    I'm tired of the editors acting like assholes. I'm so fucking out of here.

  150. Re:or... by benna · · Score: 1

    The thing is that the sites they are FXPing between are fast enough that it's not worth comming up with a more complicated system. It takes just a few seconds to send a 15mb file.

    --
    "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
  151. Re:or... by benna · · Score: 1

    Resume doesn't work for corrupted files. The idea is to to be able to replace the corrupted part quickly. Thats not the main reason though. The main reason for splitting the files is that multiple people FXP files to an site from different sources at the same time (called a race), and this is only possible when it the release is split up.

    --
    "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
  152. I use 7-zip on windows. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a good alternative to winzip.

    The 7-zip Web Site.

    7-Zip is free software distributed under the GNU LGPL.

    The main features of 7-Zip:

            * High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
            * 7-Zip is free software distributed under the GNU LGPL
            * Supported formats: 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, LZH, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB
            * For ZIP and GZIP formats 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
            * Self-extracting capability for 7z format
            * Integration with Windows Shell
            * Powerful File Manager
            * Powerful command line version
            * Plugin for FAR Manager
            * Localizations for 57 languages

  153. parent should get a funny tag instead... by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 1

    I paid for Winzip too. Just before version 8.

    Since then, I've paid a lot of upgrade fees to other companies, but not to WinZip.

    I think the last money I spent with them was very well spent and I'll consider that when choosing whether or not to pay them again. I'm likely to.

    But if they want me to pay again a year later, they can kiss my shiny metal...

    --
    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
  154. My biggest gripe with 7-zip is no Desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The authors seem to have used their own File Selection widgets and have failed to account for the Windows Desktop metaphor. In any normal Windows application, the File Selection dialog is a tree structure with Desktop as the root element. I find this convenient and it is the way I"m used to working in Windows. (I also use Debian and do not use the Desktop metaphor there.) But 7-Zip seems to have ignored this and so browsing to a folder on my desktop in order to extract requires going through C: -> Documents and Settings -> etc. which is annoying and unnecessary.

  155. Re: Free? Says who? by Ahnteis · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can't see anywhere that it says this will be free?

    In fact, the only "free" on the page is in this sentence:
    "Caution, WinZip 10.0 is not a free upgrade."

    Have I missed something burried in one of the links? I looked and I see nothing that says it'll be free.

  156. Good ol' Winzip by Darksoftnet · · Score: 1

    Yeah, the last time I used winzip was the last time I opened a zip file on an old beastly computational device...

    Too used to windows default 'Compressed Folders', and when needing the smallest of files - WinRAR. Sometimes you just need it to fit on that 1.44!

  157. Speed up Acrobat load times by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Download PDF SpeedUp. Makes it so Acrobat doesn't load any of the useless plugins. Load time for me (3000+ XP) is literally under a second as opposed to the original and aggravating 10 seconds or so.

    http://www.acropdf.com/products.html

    I've also seen you can just hold shift to do the same thing, don't think I've tried it.

  158. Not a free Update anymore by Val314 · · Score: 1

    "Caution, WinZip 10.0 is not a free upgrade. If you are a registered user of a previous version of WinZip and install WinZip 10.0, you will no longer be registered."

    http://www.winzip.com/whatsnew100b.htm

  159. I disagree by geekoid · · Score: 1

    if they had a 'free upgrade' policy at the time youpurchased/register then in all liklyhood a court would make them stick to that agreement.

    Fortunatly, I use 7zip.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  160. insanity by sum.zero · · Score: 1

    in response to a post about your failure to include a link to your own product, you respond by telling the person to google for it.

    uhm, why not include a working link in your response? this is the 'intarweb' after all...

    btw, you are correct; you do suck at marketing ;P

    sum.zero

  161. for the best compression for .zip, use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  162. Winzip 8.0 is backdoor usable by websites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You say you use Winzip 8.0? Hmm, hit the right website and you get infected with a virus. You need to be on the latest 9.x release to prevent this;

    See the details;
    http://secunia.com/search/?search=winzip

    Same thing with Adobe Reader;
    http://secunia.com/advisories/16466/

    Good luck. I wouldn't want to be your bank.

    1. Re:Winzip 8.0 is backdoor usable by websites by Evro · · Score: 1

      Do you just make up statements like that?

      http://secunia.com/product/566/

      I see nothing in there about "going to a website causes virus infection." Do you set your browser up to automatically download and execute .zip files? If so then I can see your problem, however I don't do that, so it's not really an issue. As for PDF vulnerabilities, the odds that I might execute a malicious PDF are far smaller than the odds that I'll be aggravated by Acrobat 7's spyware-laden bloat. There's just no reason to require a net connection and a 25 meg program to read a 1 meg PDF. I open maybe 10 PDFs a year, and most of them are from "reputable" sources. If I have to choose between choosing who to trust, and offloading that choice to Adobe, the choice is clear.

      In short, as I said in my original post, the new "features" of the newer versions don't outweigh their annoyances. If they are more prone to exploits then I'll just be that much more careful.

      --
      rooooar
  163. WinACE by TexNex · · Score: 1

    So how does this compare to WinACE? I know everyone has their favorite (TAR, RAR, PAR, GWAR) but, who really has the best compression with usability?

  164. Re: by bergeron76 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Actually, the price depends on who unzips.

    --
    Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
  165. s/^I/I've/g should have previewed [nt] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


  166. 7 zip by saur2004 · · Score: 1
    F___ proprietary........

    7 zip

  167. features in standard free ?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well the article said this:"Almost all the other features we're used to now come completely free in the Standard edition."
    What i found out by simply going to the win zip site is this :"Once released, the Standard version of WinZip 10.0 will cost $29.95, WinZip 10.0 Pro will be $49.95. Existing registered single-users will be able to upgrade to WinZip 10.0 Standard for only $14.95 and to WinZip 10.0 Pro for only $24.95. Proof of purchase will be required. Attractive multi-user license pricing is available."

    Now can anyone tell me how this software (the standard version) could have all the old winzip features *free* ? In fact even if you bought the latest version of winzip you will still have to buy the new version when it comes out. If the software does not have a nagg screen it dosen't mean that it's free !

  168. Bwahaha by diorcc · · Score: 1

    Winzip on Slashdot? Bwaahahahahahaah! Read most of the replies and coulnd't agree more.. How did this pass the moderation? -SERIOUSLY- There's so many good projects out there, let alone other more decent commercial software like the german winace and winrar, (and they both have a linux client!) I prefer winrar myself, or linuxrar ;)

  169. I'll give you one step. by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

    tar -cjpSf foo.tar.bz2 foo/

    Uncompressing is also a single step:

    tar -xjpf foo.tar.bz2

    If users can't open it, give them the software. I know WinRAR handles these, not sure what else, but it's nothing too onerous.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  170. Re: Free? Says who? by rayde · · Score: 1

    i think it's free as in, the standard version no longer will nag you for registration, while the pro version will still require a registration. that's what i gathered, at least.

  171. Bunch of BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Acrobat 7 is actually fast (6 was the slow crap) and accesses the net to check for security updates, which is good since pdf could be used for exploit in same as jpg and others have been. There's been 2-3 updates already, no doubt your 5 is still exploitable in same manner as those lame fck corps still using Win 2000 were. When do they learn? XP SP2 or 2003 SP1 is the way to go (as of sept 2005)!