It's not only about better compression algorithms and such.

Do we start all talking "Newspeak" or Esperanto because they are so much better and logical? No. We speak English, because it's the language everyone in the world knows. If we'd started to talk Chinese all of a sudden a lot of you guys would be damn pissed off.

Thats the same with programs. A lot of people will prefer to download or use files that are in zip format. Period. It's not the question whether these people are smart. They just have learned to use their tools and don't want to spent a lot of time starting over and over.

If you can live with some people not downloading your stuff and bandwidth is expensive, use 7z. Otherwise I'd say screw bandwidth. Some of you sound like conserving bandwidth is some god-like activity like protecting the environment. When I was at the university there were people producing more traffic on one day than most of us here in a year.

Lastly, never underestimate the power of the user!

He gets 5 slashes on the naked butt, and the 7z icon scratched on the forehead.

That´s a very bad analogy. Learning and mastering a language is a long process, learning how to use a compression software is a matter of a few minutes if you have used such programs before. It´s no rocket science... Especially just unpacking files is basically a no-brainer!

Bandwidth is a common good and doesn´t come for free, actually it´s quite expensive. It´s very often possible to make an archive 30-70% smaller by simply using advanced compression software and it´s no more work than using software with inferior algorithms.

Er...it isn't at all a question of morality but rather a matter of logic,rationality,old fashion common sense plus a firm grasp on reality.

When I tried to download Grey Wolves some of the six separate files took longer than my hour at the library would allow.

From Terrapin's site the whole thing was compressed to 80 MB. I downloaded the complete package in 10 minutes.

Where did you find that on the site ? Do you mean he now has all six files in a single downloadable package? That would be great.

I downloaded the six separate GW files from Terrapin's site and it took the better part of an half hour to get them all....but that was a while back.

And these people put themselves into an environment which endures constant change? Gee, perhaps if these people had their way we'd still all be using DOS? Or...maybe if we're lucky...Windows 3.1? A bit extreme, but you get the point.

Excluding professional packages, I use zip or self extracting exe files for all my smaller stuff, like less than 8mb or so. Anything over gets the 7z treatment. And I make no apologies for it. I have limited space and I don't like getting hit with the over-quota fees, just to appease a minority of users. If they feel intimidated by 7z format, then they miss out.

Anyway, just something to ponder...

uncompressed GW1.0 = 1640MB
ZIP max compressed GW1.0 = 966MB (59% of original filesize)
7z max compressed GW1.0 = 630MB (38% of original filesize and 35% better than ZIP). And coincidently, a perfect size to archive away on a CD.

Now, considering the "weakest links" in the chain...

On the one hand:
-people with slow connections (either dialup or broadband)
-people with download limits
-people with time limits
-hosters with modest server sizes (or those that want to maximise their server space)

On the other hand:
-people that don't like progressive technology (which, ironically is the world in which we live)

Hmmm... I know which people I'd rather appease...