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The unrar package that you're supposed to use according to that blog post, is non-free. This is of course not something that should be recommended, especially here on Free Software Daily!
There is a free unrar program, which in Debian is named unrar-free. However, it doesn't work with newer versions of the proprietary, undocumented RAR format.
The best thing to do would be to reject RAR files that you cannot extract with free software, and tell people to use the free 7z format for archiving instead of RAR. 7z usually has better compression ratio and much faster decompression than RAR.
Open source code actually exists and is free for downloading (the latest versions). But, it's restrictive license will deny recreation of free alternative, based on this source code. We can see perfect example of difference between open source and free software.
I think that it is better to use classical compressor and archivers that will be like standart gzip and bzip2. 7zip is a good format, but it can not even compress or decompress from/to stdin/stdout. It is totally non-UNIX programm. There is lzma compressor, that is included afaik in most of modern distributions. It's compression algorithm based on 7zip - so it has very high compression ratio (comparable with 7zip and RAR). Together with TAR, split it will perfectly replace non-UNIX wayed programms and there will be no need in installing additional 7zip program (as lzma goes together with gzip and bzip2).
People do realize you RECEIVE files sometimes in rar format and sometimes you just need to get the damn thing extracted, regardless about your ideals on "free" software? Sometimes I think most FOSS advocates don't have jobs.
I am working and if I recieve files in damned propriatery formats (.doc, .rar, etc) I am gently asking sender to resend it in necessary one. Why we have to destroy our freedom because of this people? In most cases they will deny our formats (such as .odt, .ogg) - and we describing them that they are not right. Everything goes fine after this brief describes.
Quadduc
15 years 22 weeks 3 days 7 hours ago
Unrar is non-free software
The unrar package that you're supposed to use according to that blog post, is non-free. This is of course not something that should be recommended, especially here on Free Software Daily!
There is a free unrar program, which in Debian is named unrar-free. However, it doesn't work with newer versions of the proprietary, undocumented RAR format.
The best thing to do would be to reject RAR files that you cannot extract with free software, and tell people to use the free 7z format for archiving instead of RAR. 7z usually has better compression ratio and much faster decompression than RAR.
stargrave
15 years 22 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago
Source code exists, but it won't help
Open source code actually exists and is free for downloading (the latest versions). But, it's restrictive license will deny recreation of free alternative, based on this source code. We can see perfect example of difference between open source and free software.
--
Happy hacking
stargrave
15 years 22 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago
7zip vs LZMA
I think that it is better to use classical compressor and archivers that will be like standart gzip and bzip2. 7zip is a good format, but it can not even compress or decompress from/to stdin/stdout. It is totally non-UNIX programm. There is lzma compressor, that is included afaik in most of modern distributions. It's compression algorithm based on 7zip - so it has very high compression ratio (comparable with 7zip and RAR). Together with TAR, split it will perfectly replace non-UNIX wayed programms and there will be no need in installing additional 7zip program (as lzma goes together with gzip and bzip2).
--
Happy hacking
devnull
15 years 22 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago
People do realize you
People do realize you RECEIVE files sometimes in rar format and sometimes you just need to get the damn thing extracted, regardless about your ideals on "free" software? Sometimes I think most FOSS advocates don't have jobs.
stargrave
15 years 22 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago
Re: People do realize you
I am working and if I recieve files in damned propriatery formats (.doc, .rar, etc) I am gently asking sender to resend it in necessary one. Why we have to destroy our freedom because of this people? In most cases they will deny our formats (such as .odt, .ogg) - and we describing them that they are not right. Everything goes fine after this brief describes.
--
Happy hacking