New Winzip in the Works

flufster writes "Today WinZip released a public beta version of WinZip 10.0, the latest version of the popular archiving software. The biggest change in this version is that the software has finally been broken into two versions - Standard and Professional, offering paying users additional functionality in the Professional version, while allowing others to use the Standard edition without an annoying nag screen. Version 10.0 has a revamped interface designed to mimic XP's Windows Explorer, and claims to zip archives faster. The software now supports the PPMd and bzip2 compression formats, and can burn from zip archives directly to writable optical media such as CDs and DVDs. The main addition to the Pro edition is an automation feature called 'WinZip Job Wizard' which allows scheduled archiving instructions to be set. Almost all the other features we're used to now come completely free in the Standard edition."

-1, buy an ad.

[QuantumG]

Oh wait, you did.

Multiple Zip Files

[jdvuyk]

The ability to unzip large groups of ZIP files in one action would be a lovely addition!!! I just use winrar anyway as, although it can be alot more ugly, the methods it uses are much more elegant. My 2c...

Must compete with Microsoft

[Dr. Evil]

Now that Microsoft has incorporated an unzip utilitiy in the OS, WinZip can't profit from people who just want to unzip files.

Who needs it

[jb.hl.com]

I have 7-zip...it handles almost all archives I come across quickly and well, and to boot it just works. Why the hell would I want to go back to WinZip, which from the sounds of it is even more bloated than it was before?

Makes sense.

[Max Romantschuk]

Since most people just click past the nag screen this is the sensible thing to do: Give people the basics for free, and charge for the advanced features that really are corporate time-savers and hence worth paying for.

And we care because... ?

[SirGarlon]

Why does the Slashdot community, one of the largest Free / Open Source communities on the Net, care when a new proprietary version of some Windows-only software comes out? Find another place to post this nonsense.

Re:What about rar?

[Anonymous Coward]

What about the annoying rar format?

Annoying? Why's it annoying?

It's widespread enough it's not really a niche format. And it is actually better than zip on a file-by-file basis even if you don't use solid archives.

This has always been the case.

[Crixus]

This has always been the case with software. Once a fairly mature release is in the market, with lots of useful features, they then need to make you think you need the latest features. Of course some marketing wonk writes lots of stuff that people ultimately read, and then they're convinced.

I mean seriously, whenever I boot into Windows, Office '97 provides me with EVERY POSSIBLE word-processing feature I need.

MS has the advantage of making the OS too, so they can force you to upgrade either the OS or the application software at their whim.

Why is there an ad on /. again?

Re:has it got any new features

[Anonymous Coward]

1) You replied to the first post just to get your post near the top. It has nothing to do what gp said.

2) You are a dumb fuck if you think SQL Server 2000 is SQL Server 7 with a splash screen.

3) Your grammar sucks out the ass.

Re:-1, buy an ad.

[interiot]

One of the reasons people switched away from Altavista/Lycos/etc to Google was that the previous search engines presented advertisements in the same exact format as actual content. Reputable newspapers don't do this either.

Fortunately, back then, Google was a great alternative. And fortunately today, we have another alternative [digg.com] that hasn't taken this practice up (yet).

Re:What a ridiculous advertisement!

[evil-osm]

Not only that, it's for a Windows product on a Linux-based website!

Slashdot is Linux biased?!?!?!(Mouth gapes open)

Taco you lead me into a trap, a trap! Curse you and your offspring!!

Re:what?

[tomstdenis]

And people flame me when I say people should learn how to use computers... :-/

Maybe if people realized how to put a shell script together [like back in the day BYTE used to put batch scripts on how to automate this or that] they wouldn't shell out money.

But you say "that's anti-american". I say no.

I say, if the people at winzip didn't have a market they'd put their talents to something that actually is needed, furthering technology and bringing humanity further along.

These companies that write dime-a-dozen utilities are nothing more than leaches on society. They're not really contributing anything and just trying to suck money out of a stone.

Tom

Re:what the hell

[RobotRunAmok]

Is slashdot being paid by the winzip authors to post this story ?

Yes.

how about posting a story about an opensource/free compression package ?????

Because no money changed hands.

At the top of my screen there's a bar with links to "freshmeat, sourceforge, thinkgeek,

Because money has changed hands. See how easy that was?

Does Malda and his crew care about that stuff anymore

More people visiting this site use Windows than Linux (I'm not one of them, but facts are facts). Any journalist/entertainer whose pitches fly counter to what the majority of his audience is interested in catching will fail. Linux adds to the slashdot "geek cachet" -- that's what's being marketed here, not genuine Linux news, for which there are hundreds of supeior sources.

or is this just a sleazy and easy money making operation for them ?

Sleazy? From a guy calling himself "Adult Film Producer?" Get a grip, chum. As for "easy," well, they've got to put up with idiots like you and me pissing in their pool 24/7. I doubt anyone could pay me enough to wade through the whining here on a daily basis. Hardly "easy."

Re:What a ridiculous advertisement!

[nmg196]

Exactly where does slashdot claim to be a Linux based website?

News for Linux based nerds? Stuff that matters to Linux users?

Re:And we care because... ?

[thelost]

there's nothing sad about using windows, slashdot is not a linux advocacy site, though many of it's users seems to think so. Slashdot is a news site for technology orientated geeks, windows is a piece of technology and so very much worthy of coverage on slashdot. The parent article though is not news, it's a piece of press pr for a product, dressed up as information on a yesterday piece of tech that no-one really cares about anymore.

Re:Thanks Winzip

[toxcspdrmn]

From TFA:

Caution, WinZip 10.0, when it is released, will not be a free upgrade. If you are a registered user of a previous version of WinZip and install WinZip 10.0, you will no longer be registered.

So much for those of us who supported them back in the mid-nineties by paying for a copy - we don't even get the "Professional" features.

Way to change your terms and conditions, WinZip.

Re:has it got any new features

[SoloFlyer2]

Recently i had to compress a 768mb memory dump file

Winzip .ZIP 152MB
Winrar .RAR 103MB
Winace .ACE 117MB

Rar kicked ass :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAR [wikipedia.org]

"RAR compression operations are typically slower than compressing the same data with ZIP, but a much better rate of compression is achieved whenever the data can still be compressed further."

Need i say more?

Re:And we care because... ?

[Jugalator]

Fuck Micro$oft Windoze and fuck revisionists who say this isn't a Linux site!

You're the revisionist if you want to make it a Linux site.
The special Linux section of Slashdot is right here [slashdot.org].

7-Zip

[BinLadenMyHero]

Have you tried 7-Zip [7-zip.org]?

Re:what?

[tomstdenis]

And defending the status-quo as proper is better?

I'm not against free-market economies quite the opposite I'm for them. Specifically because I AM for them I despise companies like this that blue button theorem something and then demand to get paid for it.

There SHOULDN'T be a market for this application and solely because the powers that be want to make it so doesn't mean it's right.

I mean there was a time when people knew how to use their computers. But now that everything is shiny and impressive corporations don't tend to make products that require customers to think.

So they do the thinking for them. Except their thinking is how to make profit, not a good product.

If corporations had customer best interests in mind we would never had seen half the shit that is in Windows [and tools that run in it]. We wouldn't have had WEP or WPA. We wouldn't have 900 page ever-growing drafts for WiMAX, etc, etc, etc.

There are a lot of "trivial" applications that are getting throw around as the be all. and only through corporate dominance [e.g. MS Office] does it succeed.

A lot of people say "but can it open .doc files?" as a complaint against OO.o. Or they say "but this device doesn't work in linux", etc. There was a time when application/device developers would strive for compatibility.

Does linux support your SCSI card? Wrong question. Does your SCSI card support Linux!!! Does your SCSI card follow standards? Is it properly document? etc...

But people are so void of visible options that they assume that's the way it is, has been and always will. I agree that whatever Dell sells is what people "think exists".

And it's specifically because companies like Dell, Intel and Microsoft collude that a free-market DOES NOT EXIST.

Sorry to rant but if you think you live in a free market society you're totally fucking clueless. Your entire life has been mapped and fits within corporate profiles of maximum profitability.

McDonalds doesn't make a lot of money because they sell things people need. Same applies to the oil companies, microsoft and in this case WinZIP.

Tom

Re:WinRAR 3.50 recently released, fyi

[tono]

Thank you very much, now I can get rid of Nero Image Drive.

Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997

[Anonymous Coward]

WinZip is NOT free (not free as no free beer for you).

The Evaluation License [winzip.org] states you only have up to 21 days to evaluate it.

Just because it doesn't actually strictly enforce the 21-day evaluation time period and go kapoof and stop working, doesn't mean you are really legally allowed to use it forever (although that's what everyone does).

If you were responsible for deploying WinZip in a large corporate environment that might ever get audited by the WinZip company (probably because some disgruntled employee reported you to the BSA), are you, your CEO, and your company lawyers willing to possibly risk your job and whatever financial penalties over a dinky little shareware program?

(Yes, I know a lot of us having standing issues against the whole concept of the BSA and their tactics but that's another story...)

Re:This is new? I've had it since 1997

[Call Me Black Cloud]

I agree with you 100%. Just 2 days ago I ran into this with our sysadmin. He had set up some computers (Windows) for my team in our secure space (SCIF) and I was unpacking our code. I had some tarballs I needed to open. Conversation:

Sysadmin: Didn't I install winzip?
Me: No, it's not on here.
Sysadmin: Ok, well let me put it on the machines.
Me: Did we buy it? Do we have a site license for these boxes?
Sysadmin: No, I just downloaded it.
Me: Well, don't bother installing it because it would look bad as a major defense contractor to get caught using it without registering it. Let me get a copy of 7-Zip [7-zip.org] and we can be legit.
Sysadmin: No, we're going to use winzip.
Me: But this is free and we'll be legal. I'm going to go burn it to a CD now (the computers aren't connected to the Internet, obviously).
Sysadmin: Well, I'm just going to install it on your machine and not the others.
Me: Fine, I'll put it on those myself.

I shouldn't have said that last bit because he decided we didn't need to keep the CD and shredded it (once it touches a classified machine it's classified, even if it's not re-writable).

Fortunately, I think I can just copy the 7-Zip directory to the other machine. I'll also probably be changing jobs in the next couple of months, though not over this.

Re:what?

[beeblebrox87]

Congratulations, over 2000 characters of stating the obvious. Yes, people are stupid. Yes, there is a lot of market failure and collusion in the US that the government is bribed not to fix. How does this hurt you? You don't buy products from winzip or intel or microsoft or dell, so what do you care if they collude? The only way the mass of stupidity can hurt you is through the stupid corporate-owned government they've elected, but you can just move to another country.

I really don't understand why Slashdotters get so worked up about the market share of Linux or Firefox or whatever. We will be free to use and improve good tools no matter what crap other people are using, so why worry about them?

Re:And we care because... ?

[geekoid]

If you a sysadmin, you need to know this kind of stuff. Even a Linux System admin will have windows on their network.