
After 5 Years there's a new 7zip non-beta release - starquake
http://www.7-zip.org/history.txt
======
ogurechny
To anyone reading this: please don't use “alpha” and “beta” status as an
excuse for not releasing source code, not updating documentation, and not
making clear distinction between stable-beta, beta-beta, and soon-to-be-
reverted-beta features for _months_. Thank you.

For some time, it was a bit of pain in the ass to figure out 7zip status as it
required collecting pieces of knowledge from multiple SourceForge forum
threads.

------
cies
7zip has strong encryption built in. I found it to be the only very useful
x-platform (using Keka on OSX) option when you non-power-users to encrypt some
files with a passphrase (symmetric encryption).

And it's opensource.

~~~
LeoPanthera
Is <archiver of choice> \+ GPG really a big deal?

~~~
dave2000
I find that only helps if you know anyone who uses gpg.

~~~
daurnimator
there are literally dozens of us. dozens!

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scott_karana
The changelog is sparse, but Igor has some comments on the release on
Sourceforge.

[http://sourceforge.net/p/sevenzip/discussion/45797/thread/6c...](http://sourceforge.net/p/sevenzip/discussion/45797/thread/6cc0d82c/)

~~~
dave2000
Why are they still using sourceforge?

~~~
RDeckard
Probably because it works, they have been using it in the past, and there is
no reason to move off of it.

~~~
toyg
Until "sf-editor" comes around and hijacks their project...
[http://www.itworld.com/article/2927973/linux/is-
sourceforge-...](http://www.itworld.com/article/2927973/linux/is-sourceforge-
hijacking-project-accounts.html)

SF is on life-support, it survives only thanks to shady tactics like this and
"repackaging" popular installers with adware. If you have a project on SF and
don't like github, move to Bitbucket or some other provider but please please
move off SF for good.

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kijin
> 7-Zip now can extract ext3 and ext4 (Linux file system) images.

> 7-Zip now can extract ext2 and multivolume VMDK images.

> 7-Zip now can extract GPT images and single file QCOW2, VMDK, VDI images.

These are seriously impressive features! I hope someone will build on top of
them to improve ext4 support in Windows.

The ability to extract files from VM images without actually firing up a VM or
using other convoluted tools is also going to be very useful to me.

~~~
Shorel
> I hope someone will build on top of them to improve ext4 support in Windows.

Is not better to just improve this already working Windows driver:
[http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/)
?

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josteink
Looking at the changelog, I was amazed at how many disk-image formats 7zip
supported and I newer knew. Especially the amount added recent months seemed
impressive.

So I checked my current version... And Ubuntu 16.10 ships version 9.20, which
is from 2010.

Yay.

Edit: On further inspection, downloading the source from sourceforge and
building it locally was a matter of minutes though. But that feels so utterly
un-Ubuntu-ish.

~~~
nikolay
You mean "Ubuntu 15.10", I guess? I'm really tired of having to add dozens of
PPAs in order to have a sane up-to-date Ubuntu environment. I can understand
core packages, which are mostly on the server side to be conservative, but
packages like 7zip and others should be updated more frequently.

~~~
i336_
On the one hand I feel Arch is trying to redefine some kind of OS X-inspired
"chic 1337" and is throwing UNIX history out the window to do so, and on the
other hand the feedback cycle with Gentoo is slow enough I fear I'll
constantly vacillate between "gah, just let it rebuild overnight" and "GAH
THIS TIME MY FINGERS DON'T LEAVE ^C".

What else is there that's sanely up-to-date out-of-the-box, doesn't have
bizarre redistribution issues
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10613518](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10613518)),
and would appeal to someone who uses Slackware but wouldn't mind dependency
resolution?

I was already recommended FreeBSD and that's on the todo list.

~~~
wizeman
Have you tried NixOS?

I run the unstable channel, which is updated quite often.

Don't be scared of the name "unstable", because it's really quite stable since
the channel only updates when all tests pass. Also, it's trivial to go back to
a previous configuration if the current one is broken (which is something that
has practically never happened to me).

~~~
i336_
I've observed NixOS from a distance with a modicum of curiosity and promptly
filed it away as an awesome server OS (due to the networking infrastructure,
coming with a remote management system OOB, the perfect reproducibility, etc),
but it looks like I'll need to take a proper look at it as a desktop OS too.

~~~
josteink
The biggest hurdle I've had with NixOS in practice, on real iron, on a real
machine (not just in a VM) is that there's just no way to "cheat".

NixOS _is_ different, everything is based on the Nix language, and if you
discover that something you need isn't in the package-store, the only way to
get it onto your system is by leveraging Nix to build the package for you.

Basically the only way to get software to work on NixOS is by learning the Nix
language and becoming a NixOS packager.

That is: With NixOS you cannot just wget a tarball, ./configure and make if
something you need is missing.

This is probably a very intended "viral" design to boost the package-store,
but it's also a hindrance for those who cannot put in the time and investment
required to fully learn Nix.

For me, it meant getting my laptop on NixOS was something I wouldn't be able
to accomplish over a full weekend, and because of that it became a non-option.

If those constraints don't apply to you, more power to you :)

~~~
wizeman
Actually, that is not true at all, I don't know why you're saying that.

It's quite easy to set up a development environment with the build tools /
dependencies you need:
[https://nixos.org/wiki/Development_Environments](https://nixos.org/wiki/Development_Environments)

Then you can run ./configure; make; etc; at will.

Or if you prefer, you can install build tools / dependencies in your profile
with "nix-env", like in any normal distribution (but I don't think this is
recommended).

------
nextweek2
I am always amazed 7zip hasn't supplanted WinRar and the Rar format.

~~~
JayJee
You know people who use WinRAR?

~~~
dfc
Have you ever downloaded a scene release?

~~~
JayJee
You do realise you can decompress .rar using 7zip right?

~~~
DanBC
But the scene releases are not using 7zip to create the rars, are they?

~~~
pen2l
Among the movers and shakers in the scene, isn't there generally a
predilection to use free software over non-free software? E.g. the only time I
run across matroska contained movies is when it's released from the scene.

~~~
lmm
Not really. There's a general predilection for the best software available,
especially since they're unconstrained by purchase costs. Often the free
program is the best, but not always.

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bitmapbrother
It's a pity they don't have a native OSX version. I'm aware that options exist
like Keka, but I prefer the interface of 7zip.

