[Python-Dev] Planning to drop gzip compression for future releases.

[Josiah Carlson]

> At this point, I'm planning to drop the gzip-compressed archives for all 
> future Python releases.  The bzip2 archives are much smaller (saving 
> bandwidth, disk space, and download time), and supporting software seems to 
> have become widely available in both free and commercial tools.

Sounds good.  When are we going to start offering a bzip2 library in
Python?

> I'm still planning to make ZIP archives available.  If anyone would like to 
> argue that I should drop that as well, feel free.  ;-)

Zip has been the de-facto standard for compression in the windows world
for around 10 years.  While other formats are making inroads (rar, ace,
bzip2, etc.), they are not supported by the most popular windows
archiver, WinZip: http://www.download.com/sort/3150-2250-0-1-4.html?

When the most popular compression tool for Windows starts offering bzip2
compression, then it seems like a good idea to toss the zip file format.

 - Josiah