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Do Mac Users Need To Stuff, Zip, Or Squeeze Files?
Does anyone still use Stuffit, now at version 13? Mac OS X ushered in a generation of Unix zip capability, and archiving took a new direction. Disk images are all the rage these days. What of Stuffit? It’s alive and presumably well and version 13 has more features than ever. The question for Mac users (and Windows PC users), is, do you need Stuffit when zip archiving and disk images are free and easy? Stuffit is owned by Smith Micro these days, and seems to have a new version every six months to a year. There’s still a Stuffit Deluxe, the full version with all the bells and whistles. Stuffit Standard costs less and comes with fewer bells, and less whistles. The Stuffit Expander, Mac or PC, is still free. It’s a one trick pony that simply unstuffs whatever Stuffit file you’ve received.
Zip archiving took off on Windows PCs back in the 1990s, and Stuffit was the file archive and compress tool of choice for most Mac users. When was the last time you had to unstuff a Stuffit file? That says something about the times and how things change in the computer industry. OS X was launched with a built-in zip archive utility which made it easy to zip up, compress, store and send a bunch of files between Mac users on OS X, and even PC users. Stuffit adjusted to the times and added unzip capability to the growing stack of bells (or, is it whistles?). To be fair, though, Stuffit does much more today. In addition to archiving files, which simply collects a bunch of files and folders and stores them in a single file, Stuffit compresses, too. Even already compressed files such as JPEG images and MP3 music files can be compressed again, saving more space, speeding up file transfers. Beyond that Stuffit also offers encryption security, password protection, back up utilities, and self healing capabilities to protect against data corruption. Some files can be compressed, squeezed by nearly 98-percent. Stuffit also archives files direct to DVDs and CDs, and can be used to span multiple disks in case you have a lot of files to store. Archives can also be made to self extract for Mac or PC users who don’t have Stuffit Expander on their computers. Once you stuff a bunch of files into an archive you no longer need to open it again to see what’s inside. The Spotlight and Quick Look plugins take advantage of OS X’s ability to see what’s inside a file without opening the file in a different application. Remarkably, Stuffit does a lot of what most of use need to have done. It compresses files, archives many files in single file, adds encryption and data protection, comes with password support, and has automated back up routines to ensure quick and easy duplication.
What’s not to like? The problem, of course, is that times change. Hard disks are huge and cheap. Back up of important files is often handled by cloning your Mac’s files to an extra hard disk or using Apple’s Time Machine. The question is simple. Do Mac (or Windows PC) users need a utility like Stuffit when archive and disk images are free, and back up is unattended and easy? The answer is a qualified “maybe.” For four or five years I’ve downloaded only disk images or zip archive files. No Stuffit files in sight. Why? What used to be a common functional requirement has been made nearly obsolete by large hard disks, and built in utilities. For organizations with specific requirements, such as security and auto archiving, Stuffit may continue to provide a solution for years, but what was commonplace has now become a niche, with a dwindling number of users, even as Mac market share explodes. Do you archive? If so, how so? Zip? Stuffit? Disk image? Or, a simple file transfer from one hard disk or Mac to another? Share you experience in the Comments section below. Off Topic Note: Guess what? There’s now over 100 categories in the all new Mac360 Store (it’s really Amazon, so when you want to buy from Amazon, shop the Mac360 Store and help support us). The updated Store has more Macs, more iPods, more Mac books, more software. Click Here and select any category for more detail, or use the handy search function. Remember, when you buy from Amazon buy from Mac360. The Store has discounts and special pricing on Microsoft Office for Mac ($125), Apple’s iWork ‘08 suite ($62), and Adobe Photoshop Elements ($70). Where? At the newly remodeled Mac360 Store. Now with more fiber. • Article by Alexis Kayhill • Published on Wednesday, October 22, 2008
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Talk Back to the folks at Mac360 satcomer says:
I found the little Gem The Unarchiver. It will un-archive any file you throw at it. Plus it is free. — Posted on Thu Oct 23 at 5:38 pm by satcomer
Ed Eastridge says:
The company I work for still finds itself telling customers to use StuffIt whenever possible. The reason behind this is that with the ubiquity of zip files and OS X’s ability to work with them, they’ve come to the conclusion that a zip file is a zip file is a… you get the picture. Unfortunately when it comes to things such as postscript fonts, the end user can only zip from the OS X machine, whereas a lot of folks have a tendency to copy the files to their PC, given the aforementioned a zip is a… Zipping Mac files on a non-Apple system is deadly to postscript fonts due to their resource forks which get stripped away on the PC end, unless software has been loaded to see resource forks and even then, zip still discards the resources because it’s not part that they recognize. Now after rattling all of that off, it’s far easier to say, “Just StuffIt”. This way, 99 times out of 100, they’ll do it on the source Macintosh, not on a PC and things will come out properly on our end. Of course we could also tell the customer to replace their Postscript fonts with their OpenType counterparts, but that gets really ugly, really quick as no one wants to spend any more money than they have to. But for printing and service bureaus, StuffIt helps save a lot of headaches. — Posted on Wed Oct 22 at 5:37 pm by Ed Eastridge
Mark says:
Occasionally I’ll receive a ZIP file that the MAC OS X built-in unarchiver chokes on. Each time, opening it with Stuffit Expander has done the trick. — Posted on Wed Oct 22 at 5:02 pm by Mark
Nick says:
Personally, I find that Stuffit files are a huge pain in the ass. I’ve got to download the file from Stuffit, which requires registration. Then I’ve got to install it, and then the (much larger than OS X’s built-in unarchiver) Stuffit archiver takes over the unzipping functions without my permission. I hate it with a passion. It’s like RealPlayer…useless software that’s required for a tiny percentage of the internet, that takes over your soul. — Posted on Wed Oct 22 at 3:51 pm by Nick
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