The best free open source software for Windows
If you run Microsoft Windows, you owe it to yourself to try these 10 killer open source apps -- InfoWorld's top picks
Tighten your belt with 7-Zip
7-Zip is another great example of a free open source project that takes over where many commercial solutions stop. Incorporating a wide range of decompression formats (from ARJ to ZIP, and virtually everything in between) and its own advanced LZMA-based compression engine, 7-Zip delivers performance on par with proprietary formats like RAR and ACE while remaining entirely open and extensible.
I first encountered 7-Zip while downloading archived Nvidia drivers from the fount of all things mobile, LaptopVideo2Go.com. All of the driver packages were encoded with 7-Zip using its self-extracting option, making it easy to pull down the sometimes bulky Nvidia ForceWare suites over my sometimes spotty international Internet connection.
After downloading, I found that the packages decompressed quickly and reliably. I’ve never encountered an error or data corruption with 7-Zip, which is more than I can say for PKZIP and its myriad derivatives. And because 7-Zip is a free open source project, released under the GNU LGPL, I don’t have to wade through all of the nagware screens that accompany the trial versions of commercial versions.
Bottom line: 7-Zip provides everything you could want in a basic file compression solution. It’s fast and reliable, and it supports a wide range of formats -- a real no-brainer.
