WinZip purchased by turnaround specialist

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missing the obvious: Not you guys, but the reporter.

WinZip is being downloaded "500,000 times a week"? First, I doubt that very much. That would be 26 million downloads per year. Why? Windows XP has zip/unzip function built-in, as does Apple Mac OS X and even Red Hat Linux! Or do most people not know that? In XP, you right click and there it is...

Who's downloading 26 million copies a year? There can't be that many copies of Windows 98 being installed...

So, the obvious point the reporter failed to mention is that zipping/unzipping is now a generic free function bundled with the top most popular operating sytems.

Therefore, I think the "500,000 per week" figure is wishful thinking or PR puffery on the part of the new owners.

I only need a zip program for older Windows operating systems that I happen to encounter in my hobby of working on computers, and even then I refuse to use any recent versions of WinZip. It used to be a good program -- it and PKZip were the leader back in the late 90s. But, there are many free excellant programs that do a better, simpler job for what I need.

The only reason I can figure people download and use WinZip is 1) they don't know any better -- since Window XP has zip functions built in or 2) they have an older operating system like Windows 98 -- but even then they are using WinZip because they don't know any better...

Also, besides the price factor, recent versions of Win Zip are very annoying and intrusive. When you install, the first thing it tries to do is search your hard drive for all your zip folders and categorize them -- as if zip folders are the most important thing in your life and you want to know where they are at all times! (if you want to find zip files, there's the Windows search function...) And then it asks whether you want "classic" or "wizard" interface. NEITHER. I only want to use a zip utility when I encounter a zip folder -- like in a e-mail or something I have downloaded. And then I want it integrated with simple built-in functionality with my mouse right click menu to "unzip" and let me tell it where (usually onto the desktop or My Documents folder). I don't want to have to fire up some program just to zip or unzip a file. I don't need some program that tries to make my life more complicated or has pretensions of grandeur. Same if I want to zip something. Right click and "convert to zip." Yes, I know WinZip will ALSO do that (right-click functionality), but you have to get through setup to use that and they make the installation process so unnecessarily complicated for aspects of the program that I don't want and will never use. Also, did I mention it costs money and others are free?

Now they are being sold to new owners that will try to prey upon people who don't know better....; Posted by: ChazzMatt Posted on: 07/18/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use