Apple's zip implementation while they have bz2 in hand is just because win32 users won't jump up and down to find a tool to open them or even ignore attachment as a virus.

I have stuffit deluxe licenses both on os x and win32. I am happy with the compression rate and it serves to my needs especially on os x platform.

I would go with RAR if it natively supported HFS+ metadata.

ZIP became standard because its original author, inventor (RIP to him) was kind enough to give its sources free without any patents. ZIP is, always been a format designed for 8.3 filesytems without metadata.

I see you like opensource and "hate" commercial software but as I said, nobody having stuffit deluxe is sort of "moron" or anything.

Apple should go with tar.bz2 builtin with hfspax scheme but win32 users were the problem.

Zip may have been originally designed without Metadata, but Apple's now supports it. What's the problem?

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