this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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Fuck AI
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AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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You individually? No. But RARLAB aren't saps; the "40-day limit"(TM) transforms their software from nagware into something valuable the user is "getting away with". If one or two stray consumers happen to purchase a license based off of that, then excellent. The real kicker, though, is that a culture where everyone uses WinRAR for creating and extracting archives is one where they can push a ton of business licenses – one of the main reasons e.g. Microsoft will often provide Office to universities at steep discounts. By using WinRAR, you act as a brick in the wall of WinRAR's (thankfully waning) hegemony.
They want you to feel like you're getting more value than you are out of a product that is near-strictly inferior to free and open-source software with a public domain compression algorithm like 7-Zip. This has been common knowledge for over a decade.
4.83 Million USD is quite a lot.
I wonder if Berlin Berlin is different than Berlin Germany
It's the city of Berlin in the state of Berlin (similar to New York City, NY).
The country Germany consists of 16 states.
I did not know that about Berlin. Thanks for the info
It's called Stadtstaaten (city states) and there are 3 of them (of the 16 states altogether).
How is 7-Zip superior to Winrar? Every time I tried using 7-Zip it felt a little... weird to use, plus every RAR file I tried to use with it was a pain in the ass. But then again the last time I used it was like... uh, 14 years ago?
It’s faster, has more algorithms, you can choose your compression type. It’s also been standard as the choice for at least a decade now.
https://www.xda-developers.com/reasons-to-use-7-zip-over-winrar/
That's not directed at you, but RAR archives are so inconvinient to deal with I'm surprised to even see one in the wild. ZIPs may be created and opened by most file managers nowadays, and it's not so much to compress files with modern bandwidht, but to collect multiple files as one package. The RAR formar times are seemingly almost over.
rar and 7-zip are both compression formats as well as applications, so it can help to not get them confused. 7-zip as a compression format is simply more advanced and better than rar, which should be expected as it's a newer format.
As for the software used to interact with the compressed archives, the official 7-zip client isn't as streamlined and as nice as WinRAR, but it is open source and cross platform. And it's not the only option, there are other applications that can be used to open 7-zip files (maybe WinRAR can even do it). Nanazip is a nice option that I'm currently using on Windows. But it's ultimately a personal decision and comes down to whatever you prefer.