<snip>
> I know that for many people, file size is not much of an issue,
> but for many others I suspect it is. Whether that is for reasons
> of storage space on smaller drives, like on current laptops, or
> older machines.
Point of Information:
Improved compression efficiency does not help people with small drives.
Case in point: imagine sometime in the future a "supertarball" algorithm
is discovered. This wondrous new algorithm compresses terabytes of data
into a single bit. (Don't ask how -- the deranged computer scientist
who discovered it, went crazy doing so. You might be next!)
So Joe User boots up his trusty 386 with a 500MB hard drive, and dials
into AOL with a 9600 baud modem. He grabs postgresql-7.3.3.SUPERTARBALL
off the 'net, and types into his console (since he doesn't have enough
processing power to run a modern version of windows):
$ supertarball -xvf postgresql-7.3.3.SUPERTARBALL
And Joe User runs out of disk space.
Moral of the Story:
A smaller file to download (via better compression) only decreases the
time it takes to download.
:-D
--
Daniel R. Anderson
Great Lakes Industries, Inc.
80 Pineview Ave.
Buffalo, NY 14218
(716) 691-5900 x218
"Never let your schooling interfere with your education"
-- Mark Twain
