Distributing Rev Stacks (was The age of user-translatable applications...

[Tony]

Windows has such a wide range of users. The way you compress your files 
is almost going to determine your market.

Novice: doesn't know anything about compression and unless they're 
running XP, they have no native utilities for .zip files. Will probably 
only be able to install programs using an exe installer.

Beginner: knows about ZIP compression ala WinZip, has downloaded the 
free "trial" software, and can unzip standard ZIP files. Although this 
user has the ability to decompress other formats with the WinZip 
software, the user is unaware of it.

User (or moderate level): Can probably figure out how to open a tarball 
using WinZip. May be too paranoid to do so.

Power User: Can and will extract file(s) from a tarball if there's 
something in there he wants. This person is probably considering 
learning Linux or MAC. At this point, he's learned enough about Windows 
to guess that there must be a better way.

System/Network Administrator: See User.

Professional Computer Consultant: See User.

Professional Programmer: See Beginner (especially if the guy's last 
contribution was a DOS app) or User.

Most Windows users fall into the Novice or Beginner categories.


miscdas at boxfrog.com wrote:
> One of the questions was if Windoze users can deal with GZ format. Yes. 
> the following was copied from the gzip site http://www.gzip.org/#faq3 :
> Is there a Windows interface for gzip?
> PowerArchiver 6.1 and Winzip include the gzip compression code and can 
> decompress .gz and tar.gz files. Win-GZ can compress and decompress 
> files in gzip format. Please note that gzip, PowerArchiver 6.1 and 
> Win-GZ are freeware but you must register Winzip and PowerArchiver 7.0 
> if you use them regularly.
> How can I extract a tar.gz or .tgz file?
> For Windows 9x/NT/2000/ME/XP, use PowerArchiver 6.1 (freeware) or Winzip
> miscdas
> _______________________________________________
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
> 
>