WinZip Alternative

I get technical (computer related) questions from some of my friends and acquaintances, just like I ask about stuffs I don’t know but they know. Many a times it helped me understand some concepts better, or made me think, or sometimes it even demanded some research from my side. It can be useful to others also. So, I thought me blog a couple of them.

Q: I use WinZip evaluation copy.. Can you get me a serial? Is there any other software I can use?

A: It’s not a big deal to get a serial for your WinZip. Yes, there are many WinZip alternatives. If you are not specific about WinZip, I suggest you to ditch the idea of getting a serial and go for an alternative. Why don’t you try 7 Zip? It has three major advantages over WinZip.

It’s free.
It takes 80% less space (WinZip12 takes about 14 MB space where as 7 zip takes less than 3 MB).
Its open source.

If you want high compression rate, you can go for KGB Achiever. Its purpose is not to compress small text files and hence its not resource friendly.