File Compression: 7-Zip

7-Zip is a file archiver with high compression ratio. The main features of 7-Zip:

• High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
• Supported formats:
  • Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
  • Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS
• For ZIP and GZIP formats 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
• Self-extracting capability for 7z format
• Integration with Windows Shell
• Powerful File Manager
• Powerful command line version
• Localizations for 63 languages

Why do I recommend this?

While WinZip and PKZip are kind of the old grand-daddy's of the file compression business, I found they only supported a small subset of the compression formats I needed. Specifically, since I use Linux at work I was always running across problems unpacking TAR, GZIP and BZIP files. More recently, my adventures with online forums exposed me to 7Z and RAR formats. What finally sealed my interest in 7-zip was the need for portable applications running from a USB stick.

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