Special User Sections > What's the Best?
Best file archiver/compresser
Bamse:
None of them are any good in comparisons, Squeeze Chart and Maximum Compression but you would also like a usable gui, being able to finish compressing before you must sleep and something that has been proven to work. I think some of these strange formats either die out or get bought by whoever. FreeArc seems like the most promising. Not only better compression than 7-Zip, WinRar, also faster! What they say.
Tuxman:
Recent 7-zip builds with LZMA2 compression introduce an improved multi-media compression algorithm. :-*
(Although, obviously, PAQ is still the leading format. Too bad it is not widely supported yet.)
Innuendo:
FreeArc seems like the most promising. Not only better compression than 7-Zip, WinRar, also faster! What they say.-Bamse (March 13, 2010, 03:54 PM)
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From the FreeArc homepage:
"Compared to RAR and 7-zip, FreeArc at this moment lacks the following: multi-volume archives, 64-bit version, storing of file attributes/extended timestamps/NTFS streams in the archive, bcj2, data segmentation."
I could live without the 64-bit version and *maybe* the multi-volume archives, but the lack of storing file attributes and extended timestamps just isn't going to work for me. The author's got time to implement 11 different compression algorithms, but can't be bothered to put in support to store file attributes? I think his development priorities are a little skewed, IMHO.
And FreeArc is compatible with......nothing. And the amount of people and/or web sites I have seen using this file format......none. My friends & I would never use anything like this till the author gets the basic features in & I suspect most people are the same way.
Bamse:
You are missing the point of better compression ratios. That FreeArc also is cross-platform, opensource and an easy to use GUI just makes it better. And a lot different than most alternatives. Why they say "it’s superior to any existing practical compressor" They hint at strange command line tools which might be better in some tests. FreeArc is ready to go which is why you had to scroll past long list of features and advantages to find planned fixes.
Compatibility means very little in this context but it does SFX as well. Many have used 7zip without knowing what it is. Can be used in Total Commander, PeaZip, Innosetup as they say. Don't expect Windows 7 SP1 to support arc format but who cares.
Innuendo:
You are missing the point of better compression ratios. That FreeArc also is cross-platform, opensource and an easy to use GUI just makes it better.-Bamse (March 14, 2010, 11:59 AM)
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I'd argue that you are missing the point. I don't care if it can compress a 9GB ISO file down to 100 KB if it doesn't support file attributes and extended timestamps the program is worthless to me & I would wager I am not in the minority.
The point of having an archive utility is to create archives (perfect copies) of your data in a compressed form. Lacking file attributes and extended timestamps make the copies imperfect & useless for archive functionality for many people.
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