7Z
7Z is an open source parent free compressed archive file format designed by Igor Pavlov and released in conjunction with the 7-Zip archive program on 1999-07-19. The format supports multiple lossless compression algorithms, spans multiple files at once, preserves directory structure in Unicode, multiple encryption algorithms, and a few other features. Because the format's dictionary spans multiple files, it results in noticeably smaller archives than older formats like ZIP or ARJ, and, because it uses a more powerful compression algorithm, it compresses data better than even proprietary formats like RAR or ACE.
The format supports the following compression algorithms: LZMA, LZMA2, Bzip2, PPMd, and DEFLATE, and the following encryption algorithms: AES-256 and ZipCrypto.
Although ZIP is the most popular compression format on the Internet, 7Z has become the standard compression format for large archives. It sees some competition from RAR and BZ2, but RAR is held back by its proprietary nature, and BZ2 really only sees use on Linux which is too esoteric for typical users.
Contents
Personal
In my quest to always find a superior format, I moved from ZIP to RAR, but, when I discovered that 7Z not only had all the benefits of RAR, but also compressed better and was totally free, I quickly adopted it. I use the format for all my personal archiving and only use ZIP when I want to share archives with a non-technical person. Although 7Z doesn't offer the absolute best compression, it has so many positive features that I continue to use it.
Software
| Program | Platforms | License | Functions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Zip | Linux, Windows | Free, Open | Compress, Decompress, Edit | Native 7Z archiver. |
| PeaZip | BSD, Linux, Windows | Free, Open | Compress, Decompress, Edit | Not recommended. Poor UI. |
| WinRAR | Windows | Crippleware | Decompress | Not recommended. Can't create. |
| WinZip | Macintosh, Windows | Crippleware | Decompress | Not recommended. Can't create. |
See Also
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