Comments on: Useless fuss about ZIP and RAR http://www.iovene.com/50 The thoughts of a computer programmer, open source supporter and free-thinker. Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:38:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Ravi http://www.iovene.com/50#comment-104744 Ravi Wed, 14 Apr 2010 06:06:53 +0000 http://www.iovene.com/useless-fuss-about-zip-and-rar/#comment-104744 Twice in my life I stucked due to WinRAR. Firstly when I sent an email with a .rar file attched the vendor replied "How to open this file" . No need to say I had to sent a .zip file. Second time it was my personal problem. I reformatted my PC and went to install all my softwares, but to my horror all files were in the RAR format. I did this to save some space and to protect files from virus.Worse was that my PC was not having an internet connection.That day I sweared that I will never use WinRAR especially for my personal & important files. Also .zip is the favorite format for corporate users which is not the case with .rar. Adding another point WinZip generated a revenue of US$ 22.7 Million in 2009 whereas nothing has ever been reported for WinRAR in this regard. So its clear that WinZip is better ; WinRAR may be popular but only among pirates. Twice in my life I stucked due to WinRAR.
Firstly when I sent an email with a .rar file attched the vendor replied “How to open this file” . No need to say

I had to sent a .zip file.

Second time it was my personal problem. I reformatted my PC and went to install all my softwares, but to my

horror all files were in the RAR format. I did this to save some space and to protect files from virus.Worse

was that my PC was not having an internet connection.That day I sweared that I will never use WinRAR

especially for my personal & important files.

Also .zip is the favorite format for corporate users which is not the case with .rar.
Adding another point WinZip generated a revenue of US$ 22.7 Million in 2009 whereas nothing has ever

been reported for WinRAR in this regard.
So its clear that WinZip is better ; WinRAR may be popular but only among pirates.

]]> By: Mike Leigh http://www.iovene.com/50#comment-14532 Mike Leigh Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:59:14 +0000 http://www.iovene.com/useless-fuss-about-zip-and-rar/#comment-14532 > for bob: Tar is not a compression application. You will havt to use bzip2 on the tar archive at the same time or after to see the actual compressed archive. Please rerun your test and publish your results again. > for bob:

Tar is not a compression application. You will havt to use bzip2 on the tar archive at the same time or after to see the actual compressed archive. Please rerun your test and publish your results again.

]]> By: bob http://www.iovene.com/50#comment-14022 bob Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:04:59 +0000 http://www.iovene.com/useless-fuss-about-zip-and-rar/#comment-14022 I am compressing a game image at "best" compression rate using Power Archiver 10: original .iso is 650mb.......... ZIP: took about 3 min and shrunk it to 400mb. TAR: took 7 min and didn't make any any difference in size at all.... 7ZIP: took about 5 min and shrunk it to 370mb! Have not tried RAR yet. I am compressing a game image at “best” compression rate using Power Archiver 10:

original .iso is 650mb.….…..

ZIP: took about 3 min and shrunk it to 400mb.

TAR: took 7 min and didn’t make any any difference in size at all.…

7ZIP: took about 5 min and shrunk it to 370mb!

Have not tried RAR yet.

]]> By: Andy http://www.iovene.com/50#comment-1351 Andy Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:59:12 +0000 http://www.iovene.com/useless-fuss-about-zip-and-rar/#comment-1351 It's unfair comparison. It’s unfair comparison.

]]> By: Jack http://www.iovene.com/50#comment-403 Jack Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:04:08 +0000 http://www.iovene.com/useless-fuss-about-zip-and-rar/#comment-403 Unfair... You should have used the "Best compression" options for the 3 of them. You would have seen that for instance ZIP and RAR have the same compression rate when you use the best scheme. Unfair… You should have used the “Best compression” options for the 3 of them. You would have seen that for instance ZIP and RAR have the same compression rate when you use the best scheme.

]]> By: Olaf http://www.iovene.com/50#comment-114 Olaf Sat, 24 Feb 2007 17:59:04 +0000 http://www.iovene.com/useless-fuss-about-zip-and-rar/#comment-114 Hi concerning data recovery there is always par / par2. In my opinion this is much better than built in recovery options. Look here for more info: http://parchive.sourceforge.net/ Olaf Hi

concerning data recovery there is always par / par2. In my opinion this is much better than built in recovery options.

Look here for more info:
http://parchive.sourceforge.net/

Olaf

]]> By: Salvatore Iovene http://www.iovene.com/50#comment-113 Salvatore Iovene Sat, 24 Feb 2007 10:16:16 +0000 http://www.iovene.com/useless-fuss-about-zip-and-rar/#comment-113 suihkukokki: oh well, I'll have to try that, then :) suihkukokki: oh well, I’ll have to try that, then :)

]]> By: Salvatore Iovene http://www.iovene.com/50#comment-112 Salvatore Iovene Sat, 24 Feb 2007 10:15:49 +0000 http://www.iovene.com/useless-fuss-about-zip-and-rar/#comment-112 nomel: I was using default options with all the three methods. nomel: I was using default options with all the three methods.

]]> By: suihkulokki http://www.iovene.com/50#comment-111 suihkulokki Sat, 24 Feb 2007 06:30:52 +0000 http://www.iovene.com/useless-fuss-about-zip-and-rar/#comment-111 Salvatore, you are outdated. LZMA beats the crap out of anything else. A popular LZMA compression implementation is 7zip, also available for windows. But ofcourse, abstracting file metadata and compression is good so having tar.lzma is better :) Salvatore, you are outdated. LZMA beats the crap out of anything else. A popular LZMA compression implementation is 7zip, also available for windows. But ofcourse, abstracting file metadata and compression is good so having tar.lzma is better :)

]]> By: nomel http://www.iovene.com/50#comment-109 nomel Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:25:05 +0000 http://www.iovene.com/useless-fuss-about-zip-and-rar/#comment-109 But, does it have data recovery!? I only use RAR with a somewhat large recovery record (5% or so). It has allowed me to recover corrupted archives from failing hard disks, cd's, and of course, crappy data connections. BTW, what size dictionary were you using with RAR? The newer windows version supports 4096, bringing compression up to where ACE used to be (it has supported 4096 since I can remember). Did you create a solid archive? Not a fan of your "results" since you only try compressing text files (and don't give details on compression options). Would be nice to see some binaries, images, combination of all, etc. I found different results for large amounts of jpeg images, binaries, "program folders" (with a combination of all), etc. But, does it have data recovery!?

I only use RAR with a somewhat large recovery record (5% or so). It has allowed me to recover corrupted archives from failing hard disks, cd’s, and of course, crappy data connections.

BTW, what size dictionary were you using with RAR? The newer windows version supports 4096, bringing compression up to where ACE used to be (it has supported 4096 since I can remember). Did you create a solid archive?

Not a fan of your “results” since you only try compressing text files (and don’t give details on compression options). Would be nice to see some binaries, images, combination of all, etc. I found different results for large amounts of jpeg images, binaries, “program folders” (with a combination of all), etc.

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