Basically there are two kinds of people (actually there's way more than that but for the purposes of this example let's just assume the two extremes). One person doesn't particularly care what is installed on his computer and installs pretty much anything that crosses his path whether he really needs it or not. Generally this kind of person soon ends up having no real clue as to what is on his computer, why he needs it, or even knows how to use half of the stuff that he has. This kind of person usually ends up with a screen full of icons of which only a small percentage is ever used and a task manager full of processes about which he knows absolutely nothing.

The other extreme is someone like me that will only install something if they have a demonstrated need and even then checks what services are installed and what process need to be automatically started and will then make a decision on whether the overhead of the app is worth having it on their system. Also the realization that apps are not particularly careful about all the crap that they leave behind when uninstalled makes even installing something "just to see how it works" somewhat problematic. That's why I take a disk image of my boot drive before installing *anything* and if I don't like the result then I simply restore the boot image as if the install never happened. There is no backup, restore point or uninstall that can make the same guarantee.

For example I have yet to be convinced that it's worth it to me to install Impulse on my system. I can't really justify the installation of a download support system just to keep one program up to date even though I do care very much about that one program and even though as far as software companies go I would trust Stardock and otherwise believe that Impulse is as non intrusive as possible.

Anyway I know more people are like the 1st example than the second and that's fine with me but I at least *know* why I have everything that is on my system and how to use it and am in control of what processes I allow to automatically run.

However none of this says that 7-zip or even winrar is inherently bad it's just that I have yet to encounter a demonstrated *need* to have it on my machine and until I do have such a demonstrated need I won't install such software. Who knows, by the time I really need such software we'll be another 2 operating systems down the line and it will be integrated into the OS (not that that's any guarantee that it will be good).

For folks who only occasionally or rarely have need of an compression/decompression program and are particular about what gets installed on their computer, I heartily recommend the portabilized version of Z-Zip, which is available either alone or can be rolled into a larger suite of tools from PortableApps.com.

All programs distributed from PortableApps are:

-Free.  They cost nothing, don't give you pop-up reminders, aren't gimped (well, except for PortableGIMP, which is GIMPed, but in a good way).

-Opensource.  All programs distributed from PortableApps can be modified and redistributed, and the source code is auditable.  

-Portablized, which means no permanent registry changes.  You can run them from portable media like a cd or a flash drive.  You don't have to install them to run them, and you don't have to uninstall them to get rid of them.  Just delete them when finished.  Keep the suite on a spare flash drive and only plug it on on those .rar occasions when you need to use one of the programs in it.

Thanks to the I-Mod team for these handy posters, and the apparently even-more handy poster creator forthcoming.  Merry Korxmas!

<edit> messy links, I'm used to using other forum markup language

Question:  If I download and install winrar, does it override winzip, as a tool?

Or will the computer ask which program (winzip or winrar)  to use to extract a file? 

I would agree with that.  Nevertheless, the capability is already present in the OS.

Hey Sole Soul, thanks for the *.zip link for all of us whiners.  You get karma for that!

I have to say though, this *.zip versus *.rar debate is rather silly, at least for this particular example.  By placing it in an *.rar archive, you've limited its usefulness, because it is guaranteed that someone won't be able to open it - and it was done for a whopping 1.2 MB.

I have to ask, is it really worth it?

If you get 10000 downloads of a file, 1.2MB difference will give 11.7GB of saved bandwith, is it worth it ? Yes when you pay hosting!

Do you care about people getting to download a useful piece of software from elsewhere ? not at all it's not your bandwith.

that's the way I see it.

(calculation note : 10000 * 1.2 MB = 12000 MB / 1024 = 11.72GB approx.)

Thanks for the request, why not, I will tell our programmer about it.

@Solesoul: I am not a big fan of reupping our material on other side without permission.

I have reupped the posters in a zip format, please remove your download link.

here you can download the trees in zip format: http://www.i-mod-productions.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=106

PS: hey guys,  please don't make this thread a compression debate

Thanks!

these images are not thought to be printed out.

We are working on printable Techposters with colorsaving backgrounds.

Thank you very much!!!

Thank you!

Posters now in printable solution & ink-saving!

http://www.i-mod-productions.com

The Public Techviewer will come out this week!

Hi, is this tool still available? The links do not seem to be working. Thanks