Hi,
Keep in mind that some of us may have lower-spec PC's. I guess unpacking would take around 3 minutes on my box. It is an unnecessary step, too. Checking an MD5 sum is not any more difficult than unpacking a zip file. Nothing explains why the file should be zipped.
Regards, Endre
----- Original Message ----- From: "Erik Zachte" epzachte@chello.nl To: "Wikitech-L" wikitech-l@wikipedia.org Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005 2:06 PM Subject: [Wikitech-l] Re: Tome Raider files at download.wikimedia.org
Zipping is only done as a quick way to determine download was succesful, without need for md5sum.
I think this is silly. The 32 bit CRC used in ZIP is even weaker than
MD5.
Zipping the files puts a burden on the generator (takes time)
Yep, 5 seconds
and the user (takes time, space)
Time: 5 seconds Space: never fill your PC up till the last Gb, same is true for all wikimedia downloads.
and in this case actually increases the download.
Yep 0.1%
Plus the determination whether the download was successfull needs to be done without ZIP or MD5sum, anyway, because these could be easily forged.
I'm talking transfer errors only.
Digitally sign the files, and put up instruction on how to verify the signature.
I have other things to do.
Erik Zachte