Stuffit Expander - is it Necessary?

[TechieJustin]

I went to download the SL 10.6.2 update and I saw Stuffit Expander as a popular freeware download.
What can it do that the normal install of Leopard/Snow Leopard can't?

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says....I wouldn't call it "necessary" but it can be handy sometimes for decompressing certain archived files. Yes, many can be done by the OS but once in a while you come across something that it doesn't but Stuffit will. If you don't have an immediate need for it then don't bother, if you ever need it then download it...oh yeah!

 

[MisterMe]

I went to download the SL 10.6.2 update and I saw Stuffit Expander as a popular freeware download.
What can it do that the normal install of Leopard/Snow Leopard can't?

What do you mean by necessary? If you never have need of it , then it is not necessary. If you do, then it is necessary.

Some history. The Stuffit family of archive utilities started as freeware and then became shareware. Stuffit was so good that Apple dropped its own Compact Pro in favor of Stuffit. For the better part of two decades Stuffit was the archive utility for Mac users and developers. Eventually, Apple and Stuffit's developer had a falling-out. Apple had already incorporated .zip capability into the MacOS X Finder. It stopped bundling Stuffit Expander with MacOS X. However, I have been a user of Stuffit Deluxe since there was a Stuffit Deluxe. It is the most convenient was to manage archives in all of the formats available on the Mac. AFAIK, the MacOS X Finder is limited to the various flavors of ZIP.

 

[c.dub]

As posted above, it WAS a very useful app back in the day.

Nowadays, OS X can handle most compessed file formats. Most things are .zip or just in a .dmg file, which OS X can handle.

I myself find a lot of files I download are archived in .rar format, which I use UnRarX to decompress.

I haven't used any Stuffit apps for years now.

 

[EndlessMac]

Apple had already incorporated .zip capability into the MacOS X Finder. It stopped bundling Stuffit Expander with MacOS X.

Nowadays, OS X can handle most compessed file formats. Most things are .zip or just in a .dmg file, which OS X can handle.

Those are the main reasons why I don't use Stuffit Expander anymore. I don't run into many files that can only be opened by Stuffit Expander and I hardly ever compress files so I don't really need Stuffit Expander for my compressing needs either.

 

[TechieJustin]

I remember BinHex and how it was such a pain in the ass being a PC user and somebody would send me a Mac file... this was my undergrad days pre 2000.
I never really understood why mac files couldn't just go through email. I knew what UUencode, base64 and yEnc were but BinHex always baffled me. Resource forks and unclean 8 bit transfers were strange even to a Comp Sci major.
Anyway, I'll use it if I need it - but I did learn about UnRarX - I was using "rar e" at the CL - something I got used to thanks to my Linux experimentation days.

 

[jon08]

I don't know much about unRarX, but looks like it hasn't been updated in 3 years, so I think your best bet is The Unarchiver. I used to use StuffIt Expander for months, but recently started finding out the hard way that it just won't unRAR password protected files. So I had to ditch it. With Unarchiver, however, I have yet to encounter a problem.

You can download it here. It's free: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22774/the-unarchiver

 

[TechieJustin]

I don't know much about unRarX, but looks like it hasn't been updated in 3 years, so I think your best bet is The Unarchiver. I used to use StuffIt Expander for months, but recently started finding out the hard way that it just won't unRAR password protected files. So I had to ditch it. With Unarchiver, however, I have yet to encounter a problem.

You can download it here. It's free: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22774/the-unarchiver

What about something for usenet that can create par2 files?