Wednesday, 29 November 2006

7-Zip - File Archiver With A Very High Compression Ratio

7-Zip (www.7-zip.org)

7-Zip is a file archiver with a very high compression ratio. The compression ratio is claimed to be 2-10% better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip. It integrates fully with the Windows environment. Its 7z format files have self-extracting capability.

7-Zip works in Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP. There is port of the command line version for Linux/Unix. 7-Zip (except for the file Rar29.dll) is free software distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License. The file Rar29.dll is under a mixed license, as it is used to re-create the RAR compression algorithm, which is proprietary.

The interface gives a very comfortable feel. It is well-laid out, and almost explanatory about its usage. Excellent for novices.

Compression ratio results are dependent upon the data used for the tests. Usually 7-Zip compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than the Zip format. And 7-Zip compresses to Zip format 2-10% better than most other Zip-compatible programs.

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