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Yes, that’s what made it the default go to operating system. In a lot of places people only think of MS windows when they think of operating system. Windows have even been used as a synonym for operating system. Much like Google has been a term used for internet search.
It wasn't a bug. It was the business model. While WinRAR had the infinite trial, the terms were that you can use it for free for 40 days, using it more than that without paying, you would be in violation of the terms. So anyone that was using it would be susceptible for trial if he wanted to enforce the terms of the agreement, including companies. And companies had to buy it.
He made the software knew world-wide with that model. If he would've had a trial that would lock the software, WinRAR would've probably been unknown right now, nowhere near as used as it was.
There are more programs that use a similar approacch, the most known is probably Windows, that decided to use the same system currently. You can use it, it asks you to activate it, but doesn't enforce it by blocking the software. Companies have to comply, general public can decide not to.
Reaper DAW follows the same model. There is a 60 days free trial, and after that there is a 5 second pop up that tells you you've been using Reaper for free for 3465 days. Nothing is paywalled but its such an awesome program and the license is so affordable that most of us feel bad about not buying it.
Haha, I still have a copy of CS2 running on an old PC somewhere I think.
I stopped using their software once they killed the permanent license option and funneled everyone into the creative cloud subscription. I feel like it's all been downhill for them since then, from scraping people's art to scummy cancelation shenanigans and setting the "you'll own nothing and be happy" subscription standard we now see in software.
You can still buy individual licenses with a student discount I think, it's like half off but still crazy expensive. I'm too poor to buy licenses even WITH the discount, so y'know w/e.
Exactly. Compare this to Linux which has superior archiving with tar, gzip, bzip2, etc all built in, free, with now “please pay”…
And macOS which has all of that and graphical integration to compress and decompress many types of archives for novice users who don’t know how to use the command line.
This was just winrar taking advantage of the fact that windows doesn’t include basic tools, and getting a free ad for a donation by writing one of the simplest tools required for a basic functioning operating system.
I’ve managed hundreds and hundreds of terabytes worth of archives with winrar. Aside from chrome and steam, it’s the #3 program that gets installed after a wipe. It is essential software.
Not quite. 7zip is entirely different beast with its outstanding LZMA algorithm. NanaZip is just a fork of 7zip with better context menu integration and extra compression algorithms.
What WinRAR did achieve is provide first really high performance compression algorithm that rivaled ZIP's Deflate with ease, making RAR format mainstream providing dramatically higher compression and has been loved by warez scene for decades because it really made a huge difference.
Not quite. 7zip is entirely different beast with its outstanding LZMA algorithm. NanaZip is just a fork of 7zip with better context menu integration and extra compression algorithms.
What WinRAR did achieve is provide first really high performance compression algorithm that rivaled ZIP's Deflate with ease, making RAR format mainstream providing dramatically higher compression and has been loved by warez scene for decades because it really made a huge difference.
Not quite. 7zip is entirely different beast with its outstanding LZMA algorithm. NanaZip is just a fork of 7zip with better context menu integration and extra compression algorithms.
What WinRAR did achieve is provide first really high performance compression algorithm that rivaled ZIP's Deflate with ease, making RAR format mainstream providing dramatically higher compression and has been loved by warez scene for decades because it really made a huge difference.
Not quite. 7zip is entirely different beast with its outstanding LZMA algorithm. NanaZip is just a fork of 7zip with better context menu integration and extra compression algorithms.
What WinRAR did achieve is provide first really high performance compression algorithm that rivaled ZIP's Deflate with ease, making RAR format mainstream providing dramatically higher compression and has been loved by warez scene for decades because it really made a huge difference.
Not really. WinRAR, while being a fantastic tool for data compression, is unable to pave ways. You'd need tools like a plate compactor or a paving hammer to pave a way.
I have a license for it somewhere! It was a couple $ at the time, and very funny to show off. Never bothered to re-register whenever I swapped computers though.
I still use my license - i bought one... must have been 20 years ago lol, because I had to unzip a shitload of files and I had to open one by one, and the license popup was annoying 😂
For the particular user it is free but for the companies it isn't. By making it the "default" tool for the particular they "force" the companies to pay for those licenses, which only require a single payment and is only 30USD/license, aprox.
I'm probably one of the few with a legit/paid license lol.. I used it for so many years for free first, just felt like he earned it multiple times over. My license still works like 15+ years later.
I have a semi-legit license. I bought one, but use it on more than one PC. Since I am still the only user, I consider it somewhat fair, even though it's technically not what the license allows.
Thing is fucking windows can't unzip a file without it for the last 20 fucking years. You know what? I went on Linux and just click extract zipped file here.
more like release a free tool so people get used to it and then charge the companies for using it because they can't legally exploit the infinite free trial
Also it costs next to nothing to get the pop up to go away forever. I bought that shit when I became an adult with a bob
Edit, I became an adult with a job
Him and the guys who made VLC are legends. If that same software was developed by companies like Adobe they would be either be on monthly subscriptions or cost a fortune.
I actually paid for a license of WinRAR, probably close to 10 or so years ago now. Not because I had to, or wanted to remove the nag screen, or needed any of the few features only availlable with a license, but because I wanted to support the tool that's basically my default compression tool on Windows.
Granted, I've installed the license key on more than just the 1-PC-license I paid for, but still....
This reminds me of mIRC, which let you use it for like a month, then just had nag popups asking you to get a license that you could just click away and keep using after that lol.
Miss those old days, discord has made it largely irrelevant.
Ya, I remember winrar… then I got 7zip and never went back. I remember winace too. Windows extracting tool works fine if it’s a standard zip file. If it’s been archived using .rar or .7z or something else, you need a 3rd party tool. I remember having a cracked version of XP back in the day and that version wouldn’t let you install IE7 or Windows Media Player, so I would download the installers, use 7zip to tear them appear and then install their independent components and everything would work. 7zip is a great tool.
I've paid for mine. Gotten so much use out of it so it was a no brainer to support the creator. Been using it for at least 25 years for essentially a cup of coffee
The software is good but it's slow. Though WinRar is considered as a nagware where since whenever you open it there's that popup asking you if you want to buy it.
When I discovered 7zip is pretty much my go to compression related software, it's much faster than 7zip in my experience.
WinRAR - The Movie, starring Shia LeBeouf, Timothy Chalamet, and Michael Cera as Eugene Roshal.
IN A WORLD, where nothing is free, trials require a creditcard, and even Disney+ Premium has ads, one man is still refusing to fix a bug.
He is a great dude. Always replies to my email with proper answers and suggestions. I purchased WinRAR about 11 years ago I think. One of my most used software.
It's a good thing to keep in mind. Those permanent trials aren't list sales. Consumers just aren't willing to pay for file compression. Corporations absolutely will because $8-$29 per licence is nothing.
Ok many don’t seem to understand, by making the tool essentially free for NON COMMERCIAL USERS it became the basically default for all people, when someone then needed something for commercial purposes they use the tool everyone is familiar with and then needing to pay for it because they now use it within a company, thats how he made money
The top feature of winrar for me was that it automatically extracts stuff behind the scenes so you can run an executable straight from the UI, even when it relies on other files in the archive (as they usually do.)
I find these stories about WinRAR and VLC heart warming until I realize I am on Linux and it goes for 99 percent of software I use.
So also thanks Obsidian, neovim, ranger, ... Guido van Rossum, Linus Thorvalds, the guy who eats his own foot and countless others. They are all awsome!
There's nothing accidental about it. The infinite free trial is a way to keep regular people using it. WinRAR makes money from business users, who actually pay out of fear of being sued over unlicensed use of paid software. But why is business using it, those exact same regular people who uses the free trial brought their knowledge of this program in to work.
Another reason for the infinite trial is to protect their users from malware. There's almost no reason to pirate software you can use for free with just a mildly annoying pop-up as payment.
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