What do you think about the hate for StuffIt?

[yuhong]

It seems that by the time it is 20 years old, a lot of hate for StuffIt has been accumulated in the mainstream Mac community. What do you think?

[Emehr]

Huh? Why? Doesn't it do the same thing it's always done? I usually use Mac OS X's native archiving anyway.

[Osgeld]

I always hated it because 9 out of 10 times I would run across a program, oh you need the new stuffit, go through that song and dance just for the new stuffit to say, oh were sorry you have os 8.5 and we need 8.6 (or insert any other 0.1 version difference tween what it needs and what i dont have) meanwhile after screwing around with their site, digging though archives, begging them to send me a download link and finally trying it I have usually wasted enough time to thoroughly piss me off and still not have the stupid "whatever" uncompressed

[Anonymous Freak]

I have no problem at all with the software.

I have a problem with the spammy company that *REQUIRES* that you sign up for their spam in order to download their free product. In addition, they don't make any of their older versions available for download. Running OS X 10.3? Sorry, out of luck, can't download the version that's compatible with Panther anymore.

[BarnacleGrim]

It got really annoying when .sitx arrived. Putting an X at the end of anything automatically makes it crap, Mac OS X being the exception that confirms the rule. And unlike .dmg it clutters up the desktop and you have to pay to be able to make your own archives.

[yuhong]

I have a problem with the spammy company that *REQUIRES* that you sign up for their spam in order to download their free product.

Yea I know. I downloaded StuffIt 11 for Windows a long time ago. I eventually unsubscribed from the emails.

[PowerPup]

Actually, I found out a long time ago that you can still download Stuffit even if you leave the email address blank. I do this for QuickTime and iTunes as well.

[ppuskari]

Actually I'm finding the regular Stuffit format a godsend. Since at least I'm seeing more and more of a problem storing my vintage Mac software files for upload on remote sites a problem. At least with the .sit I can download on a PC with stripped resource forks etc, so it only shows up as a "document" on the old OS7 systems then drop onto Stuffit Expander of the required era on the destination mac, and voila. The internal files are unpacked and have all the right forks and file types still in place.

What I can't find is a good .hqx app for os7 or os8 for that extra ounce of conversion protection. DropStuff can't do it I've found recently and neither can a bunch of OSX utilities I've tried. I'd love one for WinXP or Win7 for that matter.

Any suggestions?

[BarnacleGrim]

I remember making .sit.hqx files on my Performa 6400 with a version of DropStuff that came with the Apple Internet Connection Kit (There are probably different versions of that CD, though). But I'd probably use MacBinary II instead. I think BinHex was mainly for Usenet, etc.

[ClassicHasClass]

I just use the original, classic BinHex. Always worked for me.

I put up with StuffIt because it does the job, and is about the only tool that does the job well in Classic environments, but I've never cared for it.

[MCP]

http://sites.google.com/site/oldmacarch ... ivalformat

That is how I deal with archives, given the current state of affairs with OSX, Windows, and emulators, in addition to my old Mac hardware.

[Unknown_K]

Outside of hating people who use the OSX version of stuffit to archive 68k/classic apps its not too bad. Having to have specific versions of stuffit can get old fast.

I actually have a legit CD version that works on 68k and ppc, how many here do as well (for archiving not the free unarchiver)?

[Baboon!]

I actually have a legit CD version that works on 68k and ppc, how many here do as well (for archiving not the free unarchiver)?

I have a Stuffit Deluxe 5.5.1 CD (with reg. code on box) that has worked flawlessly in every system on which I have tried it (7 - 9.2.2) - never had a single crash or error, or version issue. I've never even had a problem with the Finder integration aspect of it (which is great to get rid of those aliases on a little desktop) either.

Only annoying characteristic of it is the reminder that an additional nine versions have past since I purchased it every time I expand.

[yuhong]

It got really annoying when .sitx arrived. Putting an X at the end of anything automatically makes it crap, Mac OS X being the exception that confirms the rule.

Really? Anyway, for one thing, .sitx can store Unix file permissions, important for archiving Mach-O applications.

[Scott Baret]

The upgrading deal, the registration with Spam Micro, I mean Smith Micro, and the fact that with broadband there is really no need for archives anymore is why I dislike Stuffit these days.

I used to love Stuffit, so much that I wound up getting Stuffit Deluxe on CD after trying out Stuffit Lite as shareware. I still have it installed on my OS 9 iBook but have used it probably twice in the past year for the purpose of backing up files without taking up much space. This was one of the original uses of the program and is still very valid today. The other was to compress larger files, such as shareware programs, so they could easily be transmitted over the old dial-up modems.

Trouble is, the world is using high-speed connections these days. Even a combined OS X update doesn't take all that long to install over regular no-frills DSL. Furthermore, most software is either one or two files (for Macs) or an installer (for Macs or Windows)--it's not like how it used to be under OS 9 where there were hundreds of data files.

There hasn't been a need for Stuffit in the web world for a long time now. Most everyone is using broadband, and the ones who are still using dial-up probably aren't the type who would be trying out shareware--they are likely very casual users who log on once a month to look at their e-mail. Those who can't afford broadband use it wherever it is available for free, such as a library or coffeeshop.

Stuffit is bad these days and has been since Aladdin Systems was bought by Spam Micro, who knew at the time that it was necessary for most people to have a copy of it. They tried to take advantage of that but ultimately wound up making an undesirable product to take care of necessities, much like Real Player, AIM (admit it, the software was bad, thankfully nobody seems to be using it anymore), and Flash.

I do wonder what would have happened if Compact Pro had won the compression software wars...

[yuhong]

So why isn't .zip dead? "Spam Micro", yes I know. As I said, it is pretty trivial to unsubscribe after downloading. I did it when I downloaded StuffIt 11 for Windows years ago to extract some .sit on Windows. It is not as bad as say RealPlayer.

[yuhong]

But I'd probably use MacBinary II instead. I think BinHex was mainly for Usenet, etc.

Yep, BinHex is wasteful on 8-bit clean mechanisms, which is why MacBinary was created in the first place. And I don't think StuffIt 5 format needs MacBinary.

[yuhong]

Some recent features of StuffIt seems to be recompression, which will be more important as Office 2007 and ODF files get more popular. If you are wondering why, do you know that both of these formats are basically XML and binary files packed in a .ZIP file? Have you ever packed two .ZIPs inside another .ZIP?

[yuhong]

I have a problem with the spammy company that *REQUIRES* that you sign up for their spam in order to download their free product. In addition, they don't make any of their older versions available for download. Running OS X 10.3? Sorry, out of luck, can't download the version that's compatible with Panther anymore.

Go to http://www.stuffit.com/mac-expander.html, leave email blank, uncheck checkbox above, click download, and see what you get.

[Paralel]

ZIP isn't dead because it's the only compression format natively supported by Windows. If Microsoft had chosen a different format it might have become the default instead, although it's hard to say as ZIP had a tremendous amount of support by the time handling of ZIP files was integrated into Windows.

[yuhong]

I was referring to the claim that *archiving* is obsolete. And don't forget that .app is really just a folder. I once had to download individual files and manually reconstruct a Mac OS X bundle.