Some of my bigger files are compressed with a utility called "gzip". It is available for virtually every UNIX system, MS-DOS, OS/2, VMS, Macintosh,...
Here is the reason why I chose gzip instead of compress (I am on a UNIX box) [Excerpt from a GNU software site]
Because the unix `compress' utility is patented (by two separate patents, in fact), we cannot use it; it's not free software.
Therefore, the GNU Project has chosen a new compression utility, `gzip', which is free of any known software patents and which tends to compress better anyway. As of March 1993, all compressed files in the GNU anonymous FTP area, `prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu', have been converted to the new format. Files compressed with this new compression program end in `.gz' (as opposed to `compress'-compressed files, which end in `.Z').
Gzip can uncompress `compress'-compressed files and `pack'-compressed files (which end in `.z'). This is possible because the various decompression algorithms are not patented---only compression is.
The gzip program is available from any GNU mirror site (see `/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FTP' for a list of mirror sites) in shar, tar, or gzipped tar format (for those who already have a prior version of gzip and want faster data transmission). It works on virtually every unix system, MSDOS, OS/2, and VMS.
If you have trouble using >GNUzip with your version of Netscape then try one of the following:
application/x-gzip
and extension gz
a second time. It is already defined by Netscape but it seems
that the program ignores it's own settings.shift
-click on the link to download the file
directly (or use the pop-up menu) and start the compression program
manually.The versions of other platforms (e.g. UNIX) and any other browsers are fine.
ftp://archie.au/gnu/
ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/gnu/
ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/pub/uunet/systems/gnu/
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/gnu/
mac-gzip
on a mirror of the Info-Mac Archive!
ftp://archie.au/micros/mac/info-mac/cmp/
http://www.univie.ac.at/ftp/systems/mac/info-mac/cmp/
http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/info-mac/cmp/
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/info-mac/cmp/