Aladdin Pins Hopes on Windows StuffIt New Compression Software Takes on Zip Joel Enos
Watsonville-based Aladdin Systems is hoping that the new Windows version of StuffIt, its formerly Mac-specific file compression application, will allow frustrated users of that other PC compression application to zip over and try something new when they want to send smaller files over the Internet or back up desktop files.
Actually, in addition to the StuffIt archive format, the $29.95 StuffIt 5.5 for Windows, slated for release this month, incorporates .zip files. So if you do need or prefer to use Zip files, you can still open them, read them, and even make them (though, .sit files are the default setting, of course). Registered owners of Windows Zip programs can upgrade to the new Stuffit for $10.
Marty McGillivray, Director of Product Development at Aladdin says that he knows that habits are hard things to break, and while Mac folk have been using StuffIt for years, in the PC world, .zip has because almost as synonymous with compressed files as the word Kleenex has with tissue paper. He says that's why he believes that StuffIt will "prove itself" in the market without having to exclude .zip files. And it will also easily open just about any other compressed file you can think of, including uuencode (the bane of all AOL users trying to open attachments from other email formats), lesser-used files like .rar, .bin and .hqx, and Japanese files like .lha (14 file types in all).
Another new feature of note in StuffIt is that users can manage files within the StuffIt Browser application. This function displays a Windows Explorer-like window to easily manage groups of files to be compressed, encoded, archived, and accessed. With the StuffIt Browser, users can add to or delete from groups of archived files, as well as view archive file documents, copy, move, rename, and synchronize directories. StuffIt Browser also lets users quickly create self-extracting files. And, in keeping with the international vibe, McGillivray says that StuffIt is the only compression application designed specifically with the global feel of the Internet in mind so you can read files from almost anywhere, in almost any language.
The focus on being multi-lingual is good news to people doing business overseas, but even better news for those dealing with the most horrible language barrier of all--Mac OS vs. ANY OS on the PC.
McGillivray says that many problems with compression applications stem from files traveling from one platform to another and back again before anyone gets a hold of it. Pieces of data are shaved off like peeling an orange until, most of the time, you only end up with the barest bone version of the original file, if that.
According to McGillivray, StuffIt files tend to be about 25% smaller than similar files archived and compressed by Zip utilities or other compression utilities.
StuffIt for Windows incorporates four previous Aladdin Systems programs--DropStuff (a compression application for the PC previously only available as shareware), DropZip, Aladdin Expander and StuffIt Browse--into one package.
