I personally love 7-Zip, but I think it is not the defacto standard and is mostly unknown in the Windows community at large. According the the steam software survey 45% of Windows users have Winrar installed. 18% have 7-zip installed. I believe (but don't know) that winrar opens 7z files. That still leaves 38% of windows users in the dark. I too, if you are going to choose only one, would choose zip. It's become a standard. You can reassess in the future of course if 7z becomes more prevalent.
Relevant Link: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey -Sean On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 12:48 PM, Thomas Dinges <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > ok I see the resistance here. :) > > I introduced 7z a few months ago, in the hope it will be a progress > (smaller file size and faster download). > On Linux and Mac we only have 1 archive and people are happy with it. > > Anyway, I am not willing to keep providing all 3 versions (this is also > extra work on the dl page then) so I guess I have to drop 7z. > I had the impression the 7-Zip program is a "must have" on Windows, > apparently I was wrong. ;) > > Thomas > > > Am 09.03.2013 18:20, schrieb Alexandr Kuznetsov: > > Hi, > > > > .zip is natively supported on Windows. Not only that, it is the most > > supported format. So, I don't think there is good reason to drop it > > except for size. Also, 7z is only 30% percent smaller, which makes a > > difference only ~10 seconds to download on good connection. Self > > unpacking archives are not trustworthy and worse than installers. > > If you want, I can pack .zip archives! > > > > Best, > > Alex > > > > > > > > > > On 3/9/2013 11:58 AM, Thomas Dinges wrote: > >> It's stupid to have 3 binaries for Windows (*2) and building etc is not > >> really a batch process for me. ;) > >> > >> We have the installer (.exe) for convenience and that is probably the > >> format that is used by most people. This will stay. > >> For the archives though I'd like a change. > >> > >> 1) Only provide 7z > >> 2) Provide an auto extract .exe (7z compression inside a .exe) > >> 3) Only provide zip > >> > >> But imho 3) is the most stupid thing, and the only reason 3) has one pro > >> argument is that stupid windows does not know any other format than zip. > >> > >> Thomas > >> > >> > >> Am 09.03.2013 17:16, schrieb Harley Acheson: > >>> Thomas, > >>> > >>> You talked about the pros and cons of the *formats* but not of the > >>> pros and cons of your proposal. What maintenance is really involved > >>> in taking a folder of files and compressing it into two archives versus > >>> one? > >>> > >>> The "pros" include more choice and much more convenience for the > >>> user. The "cons" include 5 seconds more time involved in a batch > process > >>> creating two archives, and 50 megabytes of storage on the server per > >>> release. > >>> > >>> I'd say if you really have to drop one of the two archive types for > >>> Windows then drop 7z and keep the zip - the one that is *integrated > into > >>> the operating system*. > >>> > >>> It is true that you only use one archive format for Mac, but that > format is > >>> zip. All arguments about 7z being better than zip would apply there > too but > >>> I doubt anyone would consider changing all archives for all OSs to 7z. > >>> > >>> Harley > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Anyway, I don't think we should keep 3x different types of binaries (*2 > >>>> for the architecture) for Windows, as for Mac and Linux we also only > >>>> provide one for each bitness. > >>>> > >>>> Best regards, > >>>> Thomas > >>>> > >>>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Bf-committers mailing list > >>> [email protected] > >>> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers > > _______________________________________________ > > Bf-committers mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers > > > -- > Thomas Dinges > Blender Developer, Artist and Musician > > www.dingto.org > > _______________________________________________ > Bf-committers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers > -- ||------------------ Instant Messengers ---------------------- || ICQ at 11133295 || AIM at shatterstar98 || MSN Messenger at [email protected] || Yahoo Y! at the_7th_samuri ||---------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Bf-committers mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
