Phil Katz, the brains behind the company and the product, had already dramatically speeded up the compression process when he developed PKPAK and PKUNPAK, and now began to work on improving the compression algorithm in 1988.
#Pkzip program archive#
It's shareware status and simplicity of use were vital to the everyday user, and businesses, recognising its power and versatility began using it to archive data for better storage (necessary in the days of very expensive hard drives. Any improvement meant money in users' pockets, and tighter compression would mean smaller files, which whipped across the POTS much faster. The BBS world began to convert all the compressed files from ARC to ZIP format, and ARC slipped into oblivion.ĪRC had become popular amongst BBS users, who were paying large amounts of money to transfer files across (by today's standards) painfully slow modems. PKWare later developed its own file format, which became immensely popular when the file format was put into the public domain, and BBS users began boycotting the ARC program and using PK programs.
#Pkzip program software#
Following a legal action with SEA, ARC's developers, agreement was reached allowing one last version of the software using the old file format, and PKPAK was released to an adoring BBS public in 1986. PKZip began life humbly, as PKARC, which was effectively a clone of the ARC file compression utility. ".instrumental in inexpensive, dependable communication." - Leonard Levine
A brief history of PKZip, file compression utility
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