In general, I've observed the following:
- Linux-y files or tools use bzip2 or gzip for distributing archives
- Windows-y files or tools use ZIP for distributing archives
- Many people use 7-Zip for creating and distributing their own archives
Questions:
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of these formats, all of which appear to be open formats? When/why should I choose one (say, 7-Zip) over another (say, ZIP)?
- Why does the trend above appear to hold, even though all of these are portable formats? Are there any particular advantages to using a particular archive format on a particular platform?
Best Answer
There are a large variety of compression formats and methods available, some don't compress at all and are designed to store a number of files in one archive, and other newer experimental compressors (PAQ based) are designed to compress as aggressively as possible, regardless of the time it takes to perform said operation.
You need to evaluate the features you require from your compression method choice, and also consider the context in which it will be used.
Different features and considerations include:
Generally speaking ZIP is the most ubiquitous format, but sizes over 4 GB aren't generally supported (if at all), security support is generally regarded as poor (the standard password can be compromised with a plain-text attack, and further encryption is generally implemented as an unofficial derivative of the format by commercial ZIP software vendors).
Apart from that, most other popular formats will have some form of support on all operating systems by installing more software.
My personal choice is 7-Zip, as it has great and flexible compression; despite it having a peculiar user interface on Windows. There are de-compressors for Linux and Mac OS X (although not GUI based as standard).