[Bf-committers] Suggestion: Drop zip archives (Windows releases)

[kk]

On 03/09/2013 09:05 AM, Thomas Dinges wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> I'd like to drop .zip archives for our windows releases.
>
> At the moment we provide .exe (Installer version) and .zip and .7z
> (Extract & Run version).
>
> Pros:
> * .7z archive is much smaller than .zip, saving traffic and also faster
> for people to download.
> * .7z format is open and supported by different programs: 7-Zip, WinZip,
> WinRar.
>
> Cons:
> * Windows does not support .7z out of the box, needs third party app
> like 7-zip.
>
> I understand that the one con is a problem in theory, but in practise
> most people have a third party app installed, whether it's 7-Zip, WinZip
> etc.
> Windows only supports .zip archives, so without a third party app,
> people can not uncompress/compress .rar, 7-zip, .tar etc...
> Asking people to install 7-Zip shouldn't be a problem, 7-Zip is free
> software (LGPL) and only 1 megabyte large. http://7-zip.org/
>
> 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
>

Hi
I am one of those Win users who prefer an archive over installer. In 
that respect I think that a self containted .exe is perfectly 
one(indicated clearly). One can also use 7zip itself to open the self 
contained exe as a compressed file.

The only thing that can get in way is the permissions/virus app issues 
with .exe files. So providing a .7z along with the exe is a viable 
solution in my view.

k