I have seen an increase in files that use the rar compression. Why though? Someone should enlighten me about its wonders. Because I just don’t see it. RAR is just another proprietary compression that they want you to pay for. Why should I use it when I can use the Open 7z format from 7-zip.org which compresses to a smaller size then .RAR anyways. (I used 7zip, maybe if you pay for the official WinRAR it works better.). The general public doesn’t have a program to extract them either.(meaning it doesn’t come with Windows).

I’ve seen alot of these files coming from open source projects as well. (albeit less serious ones like glest.org, ta spring mods) Which doesn’t make sense to me. I guess it could be that they are using 7zip but they are just saving it in a proprietary format that works better then zip and has a greater userbase then open formats.

I say turn over a new leaf and embrace an open standard instead.