How important is "unzipping"?

[CanucksRT]

Programs like Winzip, how important are they?

And what do they do exactly, and why doesn't the OS come with it?

[Oz]

Read the winzip faq. Or type it into google. Because I really can't be fucked explaining what has already been explained a billion times.

[imvain2]

If you have windows XP+ you don't have to worry about winzip, because a zipping utility is built into the operating system.

A zipping utility basically compresses the file size of one or more files, allowing for faster downloads/uploads, and takes less space on drives.

In lamen speak:

This is just an example, and my numbers may not represent the actual ones

File A = 1.5mb
File B = 1.5mb
File C = 1.5 mb
Total = 4.5mb

If you take these files and "zip" them, the zipped file will be 3mb. You then can email this 3mb file to a friend, they can unzip it and they will have the 3 individual files installed on their system or whatever.

If you download files (games,music, etc..) off the Internet, it is a good idea to have a zipping utility.

[Oz]

A very simplistic explanation. Depending on the file type and the compression algorithm already used on the file, compression can be as little as 1% and as much as 99% for something like a Word/Text document.

Zip archive's are also useful for grouping a lot of files together into one .zip file for transfer, instead of a whole lot of individual files.