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What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by jeffjohnvol on Wed Jan 18th at 9:04pm 2006

Since XP doesn't come with a RAR uncompress tool but it does work with ZIP files, I'm confused why some prefer RAR files over ZIP. There must be a reason that I'm not aware of. Linux perhaps?

Also, Getting 30 day licenses of rar decompression tools is getting tiresome. Is there a freeware version out there? I don't mind paying for software, but I'd rather invest in something more exciting (RAM, etc) unless it just becomes necessary. It'd be like paying for a web browser, imho. Unless its a browser that has something I can't get easily with my OS.




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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by French Toast on Wed Jan 18th at 9:05pm 2006

WinRAR is free.




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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by jeffjohnvol on Wed Jan 18th at 9:10pm 2006

? quoting French Toast
WinRAR is free.

Ok, I'll check that one out. Still, any reason I should prefer rar over zip? Thanks.




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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Monqui on Wed Jan 18th at 9:58pm 2006

Rar is proprietary, if I recall correctly. This basically means that one company makes things that create and extract .rar files. Others can emulate this, but it's not guaranteed to work. Long story short, some people are unable to open rar archives if they don't have the same software that you're running. Zip is an open format, meaning that anyone can create a zipper/dezipper that should be pretty universal in the world of zip files.

Rar's have some decent features- they offer a clean way to chop-up the arcive into smaller chunks (ideal for sending large things over, say, email that only allows 2mb max upload size).

Rar files also have a higher coputational load in the processing of the compression, but as a result, they have the capability to compress things much better. Long story short, they make smaller files, but take a bit longer to do it.


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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by DesPlesda on Wed Jan 18th at 10:41pm 2006

WinRAR is proprietary, yes - the format is defined by RarLab, and if you want to create the archives, you have to use their software.

However, he's actually made the extraction software open source, which is nice.

Me, I like bzip2 (used by Valve themselves, actually) and 7-zip.




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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Forceflow on Wed Jan 18th at 11:01pm 2006

7-zip rocks.

If you want to know which compression is best: http://www.maximumcompression.com/

Paqar comes out very strong, but don't be deceived by its high scores: it's a command line tool, and sure, the compression is very good, but it takes hours to compress large files.


:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer



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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Pegs on Thu Jan 19th at 12:23am 2006

it sounds better when you say "rar" .i only use it cos i can.




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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Windows 98 on Thu Jan 19th at 1:28am 2006

RAR compressed files to smaller sizes i think? anyone verify on this? Also, RAR is a lot easier to use in my opinion. I like to say it is easier.

WinRAR also lets unzip ZIP files and RAR files, so your covered both ways just incase you need to unzip a RAR.



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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by FatStrings on Thu Jan 19th at 3:00am 2006

yes i agree with ForceFlow
get 7-zip




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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Fjorn on Thu Jan 19th at 8:30am 2006

I dunno about 7-zip, never used it, but

winrar > winzip






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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Loco on Thu Jan 19th at 9:23am 2006

I'm using 7-zip, which seems to do the trick at the moment.

Not sure I agree with French Toast that WinRAR is free. Their download page lists it as "trial".


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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Naklajat on Thu Jan 19th at 9:57am 2006

Hello again all. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif"> 7-zip pwns. I prefer bz2 compression in zip format. The one thing is I'm not absolutely 100% sure those files can be unzipped successfully with winzip... or winrar (rawr) for that matter. I'll have to test that sometime soon.



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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by BlisTer on Thu Jan 19th at 12:45pm 2006

i used to prefer winace over winrar and winzip. seems like they caught up on it in their newer versions though


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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Pvt.Scythe on Thu Jan 19th at 1:11pm 2006

I've been using iZarc. It can handle most packing formats from .zip to .rar and tar.gz. For a complete list and the prog go to: http://www.izarc.org/


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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Fjorn on Thu Jan 19th at 1:12pm 2006

well, dunno if they fixed it, but when winRAR's trial ended, and you open it, it pops up a little window saying that its over and says that you either have to buy a liscence or remove it, but you can just close that window and use it anyways



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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Nickelplate on Thu Jan 19th at 6:40pm 2006

Rar compresses a bit smaller than zip



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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Orpheus on Thu Jan 19th at 9:46pm 2006

Winrar will open Winzip files I believe but not the other way around so.... Who cares. Both are free.

WinZip opens Quake .pak files so Winzip wins. <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/heee.gif">





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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Captain P on Thu Jan 19th at 10:42pm 2006

Winzip is more widely used so I'd go for that, though if compression is more of an issue than wide-spread useability, then I'd use rar. Not the best out there, but it's ok for me and still easy to use.



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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Forceflow on Thu Jan 19th at 11:07pm 2006

Let's do the test:

"Okay, I'll just zip it"

and

"Okay, I'll just rar it"

Conclusion:

Although zip feels more natural to say, it's a silly word and could be misunderstood. Rar all the way, okay ?


:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer



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 Re: What benefit does a RAR file have over ZIP?
Posted by Orpheus on Thu Jan 19th at 11:14pm 2006

? quoting Forceflow

Conclusion:

Although zip feels more natural to say, it's a silly word and could be misunderstood. Rar all the way, okay ?

You know whats funny? I have used Winrar since long before the net and took more flack for trying to get people to use it than I ever did for XAT.

In fact, I had to specifically request its inclusion into the Snarkpit "accepted" file types way back when.

If I recall, I had a version for DOS too. PKZip and PKRaR I think they were way back in the day.





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