Boneheads break Zip format, new versions now incompatible

[dmcowen674]

Zip comes undone

"They've broken the only thing Zip still had going for it, which was ultimate compatibility,"

"The Zip format has always been a sure thing--you knew a .zip file was a .zip file. Now, all of the sudden, people are going to get a .zip file they won't be able to open, and they'll assume it's corrupted."

The new version and a subsequent update include advanced security features that--for now--are exclusive to PKWare.

Connecticut-based WinZip, creator of the most popular competing Zip utility, responded last month with a new version of its software. The WinZip update includes similar security extensions, but they're based on different encryption keys that are incompatible with PKWare's format

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sure these new "advanced security features that--for now--are exclusive to PKWare" are going to be a DMCA issue in the very near future

.

I was going to put this under the DMCA thread, it will go there soon enough. Over 10 years of a software programs success down the drain.

 

[DaiShan]

winrar > winzip

 

[jjones]

Who cares? It's a compression format and I don't use WinZip anyway considering there are so many different formats. I'll just download the newest version of whatever universal uncompression tool comes out just like I do now. Typically I use WinAce which works for most formats I come across.

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: DaiShan
winrar > winzip

hated it though when they changed the format when version 3 was released

 

[Orsorum]

OMG NOOOOESSS!11!!

 

[spaceman]

Originally posted by: DaiShan
winrar > winzip

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: DaiShan
winrar > winzip

winace > winrar > winzip

 

[dexvx]

Oh no... the people who created the .zip format decides to change it. What has the world come to when you cant even change your own invention?

 

[Jadow]

Phil Katz is rolling over in his grave

 

[Jadow]

Phillip Katz

Jack Schofield
Tuesday May 2, 2000
The Guardian

Phillip Katz, who has died aged 37, in a Milwaukee motel room of
complications from alcholism, was the creator of one of the internet's
most popular programs, PK Zip.

Almost all the programs on the internet have been compressed into zip
files, the format Katz developed and made popular though the Phil Katz Zip
program. PKZip allows software publishers to package many different
programs into one file, which is easier for users to download. It uses
sophisticated algorithms to compress the zip file and make it smaller,
saving users countless hours of telephone time.

Katz studied computer science at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin
(UMW), where he used many archiving programs that worked like PKZip. His
first version, released in 1986, was called PK Pak, a name that chimed
well with the local American football team, the Green Bay Packers.
However, a rival company objected to his use of their .arc extension, with
which Katz's program was compatible.

In 1989, Katz produced a new version, using the .zip format, and the
program's popularity exploded. This was partly because other computer
users supported him (they were furious about the lawsuit), partly because
his program was faster, and partly because it was available free. Under
the shareware system, you only sent Katz a fee if you liked the program
and decided to keep using it. So many people liked Katz's programs that
his mother gave up her teaching post to help process orders.

The kitchen-table operation grew into PKWare Inc, a privately-held
software publisher based in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, employing more than 20
people. In an interview in 1993, Katz said: "It was just a hobby. I didn't
expect it to turn into a business."

According to Professor Leonard Levine, of the UWM computer science
department, Katz "would appear at local computer societies and talk about
his concepts. People understood that he was important, but he wasn't a
smooth talker. He just wasn't a chummy kind of guy." However, at some
point during the 1990s, Levine said, Katz "just disappeared."

In 1997, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported that his neighbours had
"complained about odours, insects and mice" at his luxury condominium,
where the city authorities later found knee- deep garbage and decaying
food. Katz's lawyers paid the city of Mequon about $8,000 for the cost of
cleanup and legal fees.

Katz's death, surrounded by empty liquor bottles, was a sad end for the
man Levine summed up as "a quiet hero". He is survived by his mother and
sister.

Phillip Katz, computer programmer, born November 3 1962; died April 14
2000

 

[Warin]

Originally posted by: dexvx
Oh no... the people who created the .zip format decides to change it. What has the world come to when you cant even change your own invention?

that's not the point. The point is that PK Ware has taken something that they pushed as a standard and made it impossible to open newer versions with other compression tools.

This would be like Microsoft making their own proprietary version of say... Java... and having it incompatible with most ... wait.. they did that

If it says .zip, any tool capable of dealing with .zip should open it. Not just the PKware one.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Warin

Originally posted by: dexvx
Oh no... the people who created the .zip format decides to change it. What has the world come to when you cant even change your own invention?

that's not the point. The point is that PK Ware has taken something that they pushed as a standard and made it impossible to open newer versions with other compression tools.

This would be like Microsoft making their own proprietary version of say... Java... and having it incompatible with most ... wait.. they did that

If it says .zip, any tool capable of dealing with .zip should open it. Not just the PKware one.

Thank you, well said.

 

[Macro2]

Famous final line from the original "Planet of the Apes" may just apply.

"Damn them to hell, they blew it up!"

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

I thought i was in ATOT or something... how come this is in ATPAN?

 

[Macro2]

Yeah, you think it would have been under software...or OT...

 

[CaseTragedy]

damn.
nothing that couldn't be bypassed, but still annoying.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Gnote
I thought i was in ATOT or something... how come this is in ATPAN?

If you'll notice I mentioned that above. I am sure that this was a Political move on the part of PKWare, you will undoubtedly see them invoke the DMCA shortly after this release for some money angle.

There was no Market demand or people screaming for the new "advanced security features that--for now--are exclusive to PKWare".