WinRAR was good in ancient times when it was the only zip program available. Even in the Windows XP era there were better things to use if you knew about them. I doubt 7zip was really that usable in the early 2000s but it eventually got good and nowadays 7zip is so good that of you aren’t using it, you’re doing it wrong.
Winrar in ancient times? Lol. People have been arching for a long time before that. Unix, amiga, apple, pc… that is a funny sentence.
Don’t remember PKARK, ARC, and PKWARE? Zip became popular after the battle with SEA.
I believe Winrar became popular because it was easier to use with multi volume archives. Which conveniently worked well with parity files, which all worked great for distributing on usenet.
What should blow your mind is that it’s 2023 and you still need a separate program to extract compressed files on windows. 😂
Good thing they’re adding native support for it in windows 11. FINALLY.
If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your distro and why did you settle on that particular one? I’m in the process of trying out different distros in anticipation of eventually moving all my stuff over and getting out of Windows completely, and that was really high praise, lol.
So if you have a moment I’d really appreciate hearing about why you picked the distro you did, because being front loaded is one of the things I’m low key looking for: I don’t know Linux well enough to know what I might need out of the box, so the more that’s already on it the better (no shortage of drive space, fortunately). If it appeals I’ll load it up on a LiveUSB and test drive it myself. Thanks!
I don’t mind. I have two machines that run Linux and one that runs windows.
Main desktop I built last month runs endeavourOS. A 13" laptop that runs Ubuntu. A 15" laptop that runs windows.
I like arch because it is always on the latest software. Some people like to be on the cutting edge and others don’t. I’m the former. But I didn’t want to run vanilla arch because I’m too lazy for maintenance and building my distro from ground up. EndeavourOS is arch with an installer and extra repos. It gives you a solid distro out of the box that you don’t need to do much work on after it’s installed. It just works. Never had an issue. I just update twice or once a week and I’m good to go. I have it set up with btrfs and snapshots in case it does break.
Ubuntu on the laptop because I like Ubuntu on little machines. Every single thing works out of the box. Ubuntu is very neat. A lot of people hate on it and on snaps, but I honestly don’t care. I use what works for me. Anything Linux is good to me and they vary in how good they are. Also, Ubuntu is kind of nostalgic to me. It was the first thing I knew about Linux back in 2013.
But here is the thing, I told you what I use, but it may not work for you. That’s why I love Linux. There is a distro for everyone. You can try what I use and see if you like them, if not keep distro hopping until you settle on something you love like I did. I personally wouldn’t listen to any suggestions on here, Reddit or anywhere on what distro to use (that’s just me btw). I distro hopped for almost two years until I settled on what I have now. Hope this helps.
Thank you for your response, this is exactly the info I was looking for. It may not work for me, but knowing WHY someone else loves it tells me a lot about it. I listen to every suggestion, but I first tried Linux back in the 90s: I’m not really swayed by emotive pleas because I’ve already heard them all. (The first time I ever heard that joke about if OSs were airlines and Unix/Linux would be the one where people brought the parts and assembled it on the runway while fighting the entire time was around that same period; it has only ever gotten to be even more true over the ages, lol.)
At this point I have over a dozen LiveUSB or install sticks and I’m just rotating through them, spending a week or two on the distros I like. I’m on Zorin OS right now, which is on the list because it claims to have great Windows app support out of the box, and it’s great but I still need to test that part (and I’m procrastinating because it’s a major pain in the ass but I will eventually).
EndeavourOS is one of the ones I keep hearing about, and it’s very high on the list at distrowatch.com, but I don’t really hear about it from the folks that use it so this is exactly what I was looking for. I really appreciate you taking the time to spell out what you’re using on what hardware and why, it cuts out a lot of the chaff that inevitably flies around distro choices. “Yeah, I know you like [____], but WHY does it work for you?” is a lot more helpful, and you gave me that. EndeavourOS is absolutely on my list now, and knowing that it comes preloaded with everything I might ever need helps a lot. Thank you again.
If you’re new, Ubuntu (or one of its variants, like Xubuntu or Kubuntu) or Linux Mint are great “safe” options. The only thing to consider with Mint is that there is only an LTS release so you will end up with older versions of some programs. I’ve been using Linux as my primary OS for 17 years but I will still throw Xubuntu on a laptop if I just want to get something up and running quickly - other than having some extra packages installed out of the box there’s nothing “wrong” with it.
That said I use openSUSE Tumbleweed as my daily driver. I like the rolling release and cutting edge packages, plus I like that YaST allows me to install the system exactly the way I want - picking and choosing individual packages.
Thank you so much for your response. I have tried Mint; it ran perfectly out of the box with zero issues on a 13 year old laptop; I just didn’t care for the Cinnamon DE so I have it on my list to try again with a different DE. Snaps aren’t too much of an issue because it supports other repositories.
I’ve also tried OpenSUSE Leap but not Tumbleweed; I think I had to do the full install (no LiveUSB) but as an OS it was great. I ran it for a week but had some video issues with it, weird horizontal lines that go across the screen for a few seconds at boot, shut down, and login. Not a deal killer but I’ve set it aside for right now while I try other distros. (One thing I love so far about the Arch distros is that the online knowledge base is truly easy for someone with basic tech knowledge but no Linux knowledge to find what they need.) Really appreciate you taking the time to respond, thank you!
Windows’ built in unzipping tool has really messed up my system before by uncompressing files wrong in subtle ways. I’ll always prefer to use a program made by a third party whose livelihood depends on the quality of their software over some value-add baked in junk.
I’m willing to bet a big part of that are all the antitrust lawsuits they got for internet explorer and windows media player back in the day and just not wanting to open that box as it comes to rarlab.
.zip support they’ve had for well over two decades though.
Why not? I prefer it over 7-Zip because it has built-in parity both in the archive itself and as separate files. You can achieve the latter with 7-Zip using PAR, but it’s just more convenient to have it built-in for both parity creation and recovery.
I also feel like it’s consuming a lot less RAM while compressing at similar speeds and achieving similar, if not sometimes better (RAR5), results.
Just because it had a zero-day bug that has already been fixed doesn’t mean it’s bad software. I wouldn’t be surprised if zero-days came to light in other archival software. 7-Zip isn’t magically immune to this.
WinRAR also has clever password and encryption features. (Set short master password, quickly encrypt/decrypt any saved very long passwords.) Integration is great. Updates are regular. I only wish the UI would be updated a bit (more than just icon packs, dark mode).
There is a certain sense of old friend that you know by heart, I’ve downloaded so much things where the last step was to pass it by WinRAR, but yeah I should change when there are proofs like that
Blows my mind that anyone still uses WinRAR when 7zip exists.
WinRAR was good in ancient times when it was the only zip program available. Even in the Windows XP era there were better things to use if you knew about them. I doubt 7zip was really that usable in the early 2000s but it eventually got good and nowadays 7zip is so good that of you aren’t using it, you’re doing it wrong.
Winrar in ancient times? Lol. People have been arching for a long time before that. Unix, amiga, apple, pc… that is a funny sentence.
Don’t remember PKARK, ARC, and PKWARE? Zip became popular after the battle with SEA.
I believe Winrar became popular because it was easier to use with multi volume archives. Which conveniently worked well with parity files, which all worked great for distributing on usenet.
What should blow your mind is that it’s 2023 and you still need a separate program to extract compressed files on windows. 😂 Good thing they’re adding native support for it in windows 11. FINALLY.
What could possibly go wrong.
You do on Linux as well, it’s just installed by default.
For my personal use, Linux has every single thing I need right out of the box. That’s why it’s my main OS.
Your chosen GNU/Linux distribution installs the applications.
deleted by creator
If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your distro and why did you settle on that particular one? I’m in the process of trying out different distros in anticipation of eventually moving all my stuff over and getting out of Windows completely, and that was really high praise, lol.
So if you have a moment I’d really appreciate hearing about why you picked the distro you did, because being front loaded is one of the things I’m low key looking for: I don’t know Linux well enough to know what I might need out of the box, so the more that’s already on it the better (no shortage of drive space, fortunately). If it appeals I’ll load it up on a LiveUSB and test drive it myself. Thanks!
I don’t mind. I have two machines that run Linux and one that runs windows. Main desktop I built last month runs endeavourOS. A 13" laptop that runs Ubuntu. A 15" laptop that runs windows. I like arch because it is always on the latest software. Some people like to be on the cutting edge and others don’t. I’m the former. But I didn’t want to run vanilla arch because I’m too lazy for maintenance and building my distro from ground up. EndeavourOS is arch with an installer and extra repos. It gives you a solid distro out of the box that you don’t need to do much work on after it’s installed. It just works. Never had an issue. I just update twice or once a week and I’m good to go. I have it set up with btrfs and snapshots in case it does break.
Ubuntu on the laptop because I like Ubuntu on little machines. Every single thing works out of the box. Ubuntu is very neat. A lot of people hate on it and on snaps, but I honestly don’t care. I use what works for me. Anything Linux is good to me and they vary in how good they are. Also, Ubuntu is kind of nostalgic to me. It was the first thing I knew about Linux back in 2013.
But here is the thing, I told you what I use, but it may not work for you. That’s why I love Linux. There is a distro for everyone. You can try what I use and see if you like them, if not keep distro hopping until you settle on something you love like I did. I personally wouldn’t listen to any suggestions on here, Reddit or anywhere on what distro to use (that’s just me btw). I distro hopped for almost two years until I settled on what I have now. Hope this helps.
Thank you for your response, this is exactly the info I was looking for. It may not work for me, but knowing WHY someone else loves it tells me a lot about it. I listen to every suggestion, but I first tried Linux back in the 90s: I’m not really swayed by emotive pleas because I’ve already heard them all. (The first time I ever heard that joke about if OSs were airlines and Unix/Linux would be the one where people brought the parts and assembled it on the runway while fighting the entire time was around that same period; it has only ever gotten to be even more true over the ages, lol.)
At this point I have over a dozen LiveUSB or install sticks and I’m just rotating through them, spending a week or two on the distros I like. I’m on Zorin OS right now, which is on the list because it claims to have great Windows app support out of the box, and it’s great but I still need to test that part (and I’m procrastinating because it’s a major pain in the ass but I will eventually).
EndeavourOS is one of the ones I keep hearing about, and it’s very high on the list at distrowatch.com, but I don’t really hear about it from the folks that use it so this is exactly what I was looking for. I really appreciate you taking the time to spell out what you’re using on what hardware and why, it cuts out a lot of the chaff that inevitably flies around distro choices. “Yeah, I know you like [____], but WHY does it work for you?” is a lot more helpful, and you gave me that. EndeavourOS is absolutely on my list now, and knowing that it comes preloaded with everything I might ever need helps a lot. Thank you again.
If you’re new, Ubuntu (or one of its variants, like Xubuntu or Kubuntu) or Linux Mint are great “safe” options. The only thing to consider with Mint is that there is only an LTS release so you will end up with older versions of some programs. I’ve been using Linux as my primary OS for 17 years but I will still throw Xubuntu on a laptop if I just want to get something up and running quickly - other than having some extra packages installed out of the box there’s nothing “wrong” with it.
That said I use openSUSE Tumbleweed as my daily driver. I like the rolling release and cutting edge packages, plus I like that YaST allows me to install the system exactly the way I want - picking and choosing individual packages.
Thank you so much for your response. I have tried Mint; it ran perfectly out of the box with zero issues on a 13 year old laptop; I just didn’t care for the Cinnamon DE so I have it on my list to try again with a different DE. Snaps aren’t too much of an issue because it supports other repositories.
I’ve also tried OpenSUSE Leap but not Tumbleweed; I think I had to do the full install (no LiveUSB) but as an OS it was great. I ran it for a week but had some video issues with it, weird horizontal lines that go across the screen for a few seconds at boot, shut down, and login. Not a deal killer but I’ve set it aside for right now while I try other distros. (One thing I love so far about the Arch distros is that the online knowledge base is truly easy for someone with basic tech knowledge but no Linux knowledge to find what they need.) Really appreciate you taking the time to respond, thank you!
Windows’ built in unzipping tool has really messed up my system before by uncompressing files wrong in subtle ways. I’ll always prefer to use a program made by a third party whose livelihood depends on the quality of their software over some value-add baked in junk.
I’m willing to bet a big part of that are all the antitrust lawsuits they got for internet explorer and windows media player back in the day and just not wanting to open that box as it comes to rarlab.
.zip support they’ve had for well over two decades though.
Not like zip is supported and Windows added (finally tbf) support for other archives.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/23/23734625/microsoft-windows-11-rar-support-native
If you’re on Windows (I know I know, switch to Linux) I prefer NanaZip over base 7zip
https://github.com/M2Team/NanaZip
Why not? I prefer it over 7-Zip because it has built-in parity both in the archive itself and as separate files. You can achieve the latter with 7-Zip using PAR, but it’s just more convenient to have it built-in for both parity creation and recovery.
I also feel like it’s consuming a lot less RAM while compressing at similar speeds and achieving similar, if not sometimes better (RAR5), results.
Just because it had a zero-day bug that has already been fixed doesn’t mean it’s bad software. I wouldn’t be surprised if zero-days came to light in other archival software. 7-Zip isn’t magically immune to this.
I don’t get why someone would prefer rar over zip and 7z.
Even tar.gz and all their flavors are more common.
Yeah, well technically .cab is more common than tar.gz but that doesn’t mean I’d start using it.
I personally use RAR because I think it’s a better format than ZIP, but I use ZIP when I have to share the archive with anyone.
How does it compare to 7z (the file format) though?
According to this benchmark, 7z compression is better.
https://peazip.github.io/peazip-compression-benchmark.html
WinRAR also has clever password and encryption features. (Set short master password, quickly encrypt/decrypt any saved very long passwords.) Integration is great. Updates are regular. I only wish the UI would be updated a bit (more than just icon packs, dark mode).
Well it would blow your mind to know that many people just use whatever they know that does the job
There is a certain sense of old friend that you know by heart, I’ve downloaded so much things where the last step was to pass it by WinRAR, but yeah I should change when there are proofs like that
There’s the occasional RAR archive 7-Zip doesn’t open for me, but WinRAR does. 🤷🏻