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

[Sean Olson]

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 <blender at dingto.org> 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
> >>> Bf-committers at blender.org
> >>> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
> > _______________________________________________
> > Bf-committers mailing list
> > Bf-committers at blender.org
> > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
>
>
> --
> Thomas Dinges
> Blender Developer, Artist and Musician
>
> www.dingto.org
>
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>



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