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Nope. Windows defender is more than enough if you knowingly don't go to infect-my-pc-please.com. I work in 20k+ people corp and there is no other than defender installed.
WinRAR can upgrade the standard of compressed formats, forcing users to use their software, there are numerous examples like this.
After all, Microsoft only provides a basic feature.
WinZip is still around despite Windows getting basic ZIP support over two decades ago.
True, but nowhere near the traction it had before. I used arj in DOS times :P
just like you didn't use windows media player or ms anti virus software.
7zip and Bandizip are nice alternatives.
these benchmarks - fake. Synthetic.
Let me show just example on real data right now. Real use data, mix of files, different formats, not mp3 or videos, tons of code, exes, projects inside one folder.
WinRAR with diffent options select in option tabs.
Compression - normal.
This is 7z-zstd
Compression normal
and
and just zip
Result:
no cheats, just classic thing. Thats why i telling - in winrar a lot of hidden gems.
Not fake, synthetic:
https://www.howtogeek.com/200698/benchmarked-whats-the-best-file-compression-format/
Even if that wouldnt have been true, for 1-2% at most, I prefer the ease of use and versatility of a FOSS project.
rar is cool. Scene uses it to split files still. Only annoyance for me for a while was that there no option to create rar's on arm server. Now that server gone and I can create rars on my new linux box
FFF?
Main reason is that the warez scene rules require that.
True, but there is a reason for those rules.
If there is one thing the scene is known for, its efficiency. If there was a superior format out there, the rules would require you to use that instead.
The day I got to know about 7-zip, I forgot everything else.
If there is one thing the scene is known for, its efficiency. If there was a superior format out there, the rules would require you to use that instead.
Scene is known for conservative standards and rules more than efficiency. In fact, rules for some kinds of releases allow or mandate different packing/compression methods than rar. 0DAY rules being the best example I can think of.
It should be the only example you can think of, since 0day is the only kind of release where zip instead of rar is allowed. I admit I have not been active on the scene for quite some time, but I doubt that rule has changed.
The reason for different packaging and compression is usually efficiency. You could call the standards and rules conservative I guess, they rarely change, but that's simply because it is still the most efficient way of doing things.
Rar took 3X longer. (check the decompression speed as well). As we're long past the dial up days, I'd rather have that 6 minutes back than 1GB. If I NEEDED the absolute smallest file, one needs to twiddle the knobs from defaults anyway.
Anyway, this is something AI can actually be useful for, using the best algorithms for data type and intended purpose.
Yes, infecting PC's with cracked winrar. It's nonsensical for them not to use open source options that were available. They get access to millions of PC's for credit cards and legit software keys this way.
You guys don't think these guys are all 14 year old basement dwellers and not semi-amateur organized crime? There's no reason to take that risk without a possible reward or personal gain.
That is nonsense. Malware in a scene 0DAY release of WinRAR would be detected fast, nuked and it would have very serious consequences for the group, they would be kicked by their affiliates for sure.
Of course the scene is organized crime by definition, maintaining a topsite involves a lot of money and effort, but it does not mean that malware is common, not at all.
https://www.howtogeek.com/200698/benchmarked-whats-the-best-file-compression-format/
no no no, with all the respect, i'm not saying that 7z bad software. I do not like it, this is matter of my personal taste. Its free, small, a lot of options, cool. What else is needed? Nothing. I love more winrar, because i used to it, and i discovered a lot of hidden things in ptions and combo of options to make different cool sfx, different solid archives, different duplicates relinking, and so on. With 7z i do not have maybe half of options that i use everytime when use winrar. And because of that i do not use winrar. I hate lzma, lzma2, very slow, archive size 1-2% different to rar. But time increased in 5-10x times.
zstandart - very good option. Very very very fast. Results not so good, but for fast archiving and saving data = great. One minute to archive several GB of data like copying it on localdisk - awesome thing. Especially for small files.
But what about big files, and files re-linking = bad. I hope maybe one day they will (7z zstd) an option to mark duplicate files as links, and instead of storing each file - store just link to them, and extract all files as copies, instead of storing all files separately. There are many things like that that mke it bad. BUt over all - 7z is great. Winrar = my personal love. No holy war. Make love
You do realize that winrar is not the only software capable of handling rar archives, right?
You can use Winzip, 7-zip, B1, Ashampoo or whatever you see fit. If you use linux, all distributions have multiple options to handle rar in whatever package manager they are using.
I have never seen any of the major groups even releasing any version of winrar, cracked or otherwise. Who the hell runs a cracked version of winrar, it works anyway so way bother?
The reward and personal gain is cred. Nobody does warez for money. Viruses and malware yes, but that's a completely different scene, I have absolutely no clue whether or not they even have any rules or standards.
Huh? I don't think I've seen as many malware infections (aside from search hijacking) as I have from rar cracks. The people downloading cracked files have to disable antivirus as standard operating procedure and has been that way for decades.
We are talking about the warez scene here, which is very different from the various public shady download sites.
Ha. We have vastly different experiences. In the days of dial up, the guy with the BBS board hookup had a CD burning business selling the warez. He certainly wasn't the only one.
Then in 2023, we have a shit ton of key/license/serial selling websites.
Yeah? And... If it's not a pure key included, you're running modified software that you didn't do yourself. You have no idea unless you're Virus Totalling the Internet.
Probably not as different as you might think, I was one of the guys running a BBS and selling CDs. And believe me, I made absolutely no profit from it, it did not even cover the costs of burners and CD-R's. Factor in the cost of the multiple landlines to run the BBS and I could just as well have thrown money into a fire.
No, it is a very different model based on reputation and competition among groups, some of them have been active for decades. They are not in the business of malware and most of them do not profit from their activities. Scene access is/was precious enough not to waste it with some dumb shit.
I hate it when someone send me an attachment in .rar or other than .zip format. It's like forcing me to install WinRar or 7zip. It's on business laptop ffs
This discussion might never end. Some people prefer RAR, others prefer ZIP, others 7ZIP, and so on. It is a matter of preference.
I was a huge fan of RAR archive for many years. Now I prefer ZIP due to its compatibility with Linux and BSD environments, as well as Windows, iOS, or Android. I know ZIP is not the best (I still remember RAR efficiency) but ZIP gets the job done.
For personal use and storage, I user TAR.GZ (because I switched to Linux). On the personal gaming machine (the only one with Windows at my home) I still have WinRAR installed not because I use it, but because it reminds me of a glorious past and success. Deep down I still consider RAR as the best archive mechanism; but sadly RAR time has passed.
If I am allowed to dream: I believe RAR could become a huge success if it would be turned into open-source; but this is just a dream of mine.
No. That's what you're supposed to think. It was similar in satellite TV days where supposed freeware champions were actually commercial pirates making a killing.
It's also like baseball where for years pitchers would use banned substances and not rat on each other because they all did it.
And also, "The Scene" didn't handle all distribution and nothing stopping malicious distributors from just removing the sfv file so user doesn't know there was one.
But you can also see they gave a shit about little stupid things and not necessarily the big things. They're not going to be running antivirus software on their own PC's.
But here's a reference to what I mean:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/22/fancy-bear-goes-phishing-by-scott-shapiro-review-a-gripping-study-of-five-extraordinary-hacks