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

[Robert Köpferl]

This topic seems to be rather popular. But if you look at the relations
of files size, this seems natural.

Waldo has absolutely right, in my eyes. Setting up a build environment 
is as 10 times more difficult than installing 7zip. So at least the 
src-distr. isn't required any more as zip (since src needs buildenv). So 
I as the one who packs and uploads the stuff decided, that the 
src-package will only be distributed as .7z rather than .zip.
For the other packages (esp. qemu) I don't know. I think that will have 
both.
At least for my part I am a canny guy. And if I can save bits/s and MB 
on sf.net's and other's hard disks, I think that's good. So I would save 
these bits. HDs are cheap but what tells us to be dissipative. So I 
rather invest some CPU cycles to save many MB(/s).

Other opinion?
Let's read it.



Waldo Alvarez Cañizares wrote:
> Hi:
> 
> I doubt normal Windows users will be downloading sources of anything
> ever. BTW is a lot more dificult to set the build environment than to
> decompress the sources using 7zip. Beleiveme is a real pain to
> download ROS if you have a dialup connection. Why waste our time when
> we don't need to. Again if still you consider that a zip distribution
> should still be available for download why not distribute both zip
> and 7zip. Is that much space? Or it takes to much time to pack? I
> would answer no to both questions.
> 
> Regards Waldo
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: ros-dev-bounces at reactos.com on
> behalf of Andrew Flynn Sent: Thu 4/14/2005 4:28 AM To: ReactOS
> Development List Subject: Re: [ros-dev] 7-zip - holy smokes!
> 
> 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:
> 
> 
> 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 Phone: +1-(678)-522-7934              FAX (US
> Only): 1-866-806-4647 
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