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No more free WinZip for you FREELOADERS!

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T

TheOMan

Tagged as I see fit
Did a search, didn't see this posted yet.

Article from news.com

WinZip purchased by turnaround specialist
Published: July 17, 2005, 9:00 PM PDT
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Is it possible to make money off a product that millions have downloaded for free? The new owners of WinZip Computing hope so.

WinZip, which specializes in software that compresses large files for storage or mailing, has been bought by turnaround investor Vector Capital.

For years, WinZip's eponymous utility has been one of the most popular shareware programs on the Web. More than 140 million people have downloaded the program, and it's downloaded for free about 500,000 times a week, said Chris Nicholson, a partner at Vector.

Technically, WinZip charges $29 for the program after a 30-day free trial. Unfortunately, the honor system doesn't work as well as it used to. Few customers end up paying for the program.

The company also has never charged for upgrades or new versions, a common practice in the software world. And it has not added extra features for customers that paid the $29 licensing fee.

"There was little emphasis on monetizing what they had," Nicholson said.

Vector will try to change that by reminding users a little more firmly that the software costs money, as well as likely coming out with features that only paying customers can download. Vector also signed a marketing and distribution agreement with Google.

But Nicholson added, "We don't want to be heavy-handed about it."

If anything, Vector has shown that software companies that have been around the block can mount a comeback. The group bought Corel, which lost millions trying to latch on to the next big thing, in 2003. Vector took Corel private, streamlined its product lines and even got a new CEO.

"Corel is making money now. It is very, very profitable," he said. Corel, in fact, last year acquired Jasc Software, which makes Paint Shop. Jasc was also owned by Vector.

"We're not looking to have our investment dollars spent on R&D or building a market," Nicholson said. "We are buying companies that have a customer base."

Terms of the deal, which was concluded earlier but is only being revealed now, were not disclosed.
Click to expand...

Kinda sucks, but I don't see how they are going to get people to pay for this when everybody pretty much has a free copy already that does the job.
 
Why would anyone pay for an inferior product when a vastly superior one (WinRAR) exists for free?
 
Someone should tell them windows xp has native zip support. The program has no use anymore.

Winrar technically isn't free either :lol
 
In fact, unlike winzip, winrar actually stops you from using it after 30 days. Or tries kinda poorly at any rate.
 
IZArc forever. If you are still using WinRAR or any other commercial zipper you should check out this little marvel.

7ZIP, ACE, AR, ARC, ARJ, BGA (GZA), BH, CAB, CPIO, Debian, ENC, GCA, GZ, HA, JAR, LHA, LHZ, MBF, MIM, PAK, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, UUE, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP and ZOO files support, skins, multilanguage, integrated CD and DVD image conversion (ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG, IMG, C2D, PDI, CDI), uncompression of self-extracting packages and pretty much whatever you want FOR FREE.

http://www.izarc.org
 
I use a combo of tar and gzip on my Fedora Core 3 laptop and the other myraid of Linux boxes we use.

Don't use zip format much at all anymore. I can't remember the last time I used WinZip.
 
Funky Papa said:
IZArc forever. If you are still using WinRAR or any other commercial zipper you should check out this little marvel.

7ZIP, ACE, AR, ARC, ARJ, BGA (GZA), BH, CAB, CPIO, Debian, ENC, GCA, GZ, HA, JAR, LHA, LHZ, MBF, MIM, PAK, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, UUE, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP and ZOO files support, skins, multilanguage, CD and DVD imagens conversion integrated (ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG, IMG, C2D, PDI, CDI), uncompression of self-extracting packages and pretty much whatever you want FOR FREE.

http://www.izarc.org
Click to expand...

Thank you kind sir
 
Funky Papa said:
IZArc forever. If you are still using WinRAR or any other commercial zipper you should check out this little marvel.

7ZIP, ACE, AR, ARC, ARJ, BGA (GZA), BH, CAB, CPIO, Debian, ENC, GCA, GZ, HA, JAR, LHA, LHZ, MBF, MIM, PAK, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, UUE, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP and ZOO files support, skins, multilanguage, integrated CD and DVD image conversion (ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG, IMG, C2D, PDI, CDI), uncompression of self-extracting packages and pretty much whatever you want FOR FREE.

http://www.izarc.org
Click to expand...

Whoa sounds cool. Maybe it will replace WinRAR as my fav. archiver.
 
Thanks a lot jerks, this thread reminded me that I paid like $20us to register NetZip way back when I first got an internet connection and considered it only fair to register that shit like it asked. :lol

Nevermind NetZip, I wish I could get my registration money back from GameSpy.
 
Windows, OSX and (in some distros) Linux all have zip compression built into the OS. How are you going to turn around a company which sells a product which is no longer necessary? Its like trying to turnaround a company which sells 8-track players.
 
Winrar can extract .7z nowadays, and thats all i really need...

the only stuff i need to archive need to be zip or rar...

IZArc looks nice tho, i may check it out...
 
Man, i havent used winzip since the late 90's with my old compaq. ever since ive used Winrar. works fine and never askes for money so its all good for me.
 
They should have had better price point offers. I would like to support some developers but my maximum is $10 and most ask for way more than what I am willing to pay for.
 
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