[ros-dev] 7-zip - holy smokes!

[Andrew Flynn]

I agree with Michael B.
7Zip is superior to ZIP. You have to remember who will be downloading 
the source, compressed files. Is it going to be standard windows users 
that use winzip and nothing else?
When it comes to mass distribution of images, the iso format seems like 
a sensible choice, where the setup programs can utilise whatever 
compression they like. PKZip may be the most popular, but that does not 
mean that ReactOS files have to use it.




Michael B. Trausch wrote:

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>Thomas Weidenmueller wrote:
>  
>
>>I don't think it's a good choice for our public downloads, the avarage
>>user most likely will not know this format. zip still is THE standard.
>>
>>    
>>
>
>True, it is.  However, end-users will follow whatever trends are set for
>them.  ZIP got to be big and well-known because of PKZip, honestly.
>
>If 7-Zip is that much better, then I'd say we go for it and put in
>something like red text above the link to the downloads page that we use
>7-Zip.
>
>Or, we could give users their option and offer both.  Those concerned
>about bandwidth would use the 7-Zip version, and those who don't care
>can go with the other one.
>
>As far as users and .EXE files - End Users download EXE files all of the
>time.  They don't know any better.  They see the box in MSIE and go,
>"Yeah, whatever, it's my computer and I wanna download it," click it
>away and move on.  *shrugs*
>
>That's why I make money outside of my job, cleaning up after people's
>idiotic mistakes, but that's another story altogether.  If we offer them
>a self-extracting version and a 7-Zip'd version, that'd be even better
>in terms of download time/bandwidth.
>
>Not to mention, if 7-Zip can be distributed with ReactOS, it's a good
>way to get it out there.  Since it's under LGPL, it'd be something that
>could even be built into ReactOS in the same way as .ZIP format support
>is built into more recent versions of Windows (and hopefully, just as
>easy to disable, because I hate that feature, but plenty of people
>absolutely love it).
>
>Not only all of that, but since it's a superior compression scheme, it'd
>be logical to support it and help further it's distribution so that
>people would use it.  People don't just sit down very frequently and go,
>"Hrm.  I think I am going to search out a new way to compress my files,"
>because they figure that compression is compression is compression, and
>that's all there is to it.
>
>All in all, I think it'd be wise, especially over the long-term, to use
>and support 7-Zip.
>
>	- Mike
>
>- --
>Michael B. Trausch                               <fd0man at gmail.com>
>Website: http://fd0man.chadeux.net/     Jabber: mtrausch at jabber.com
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