5 ms·

One of the most heartbreaking stories of of the tech world, and one that comes with a lot of bad blood. Be sure to watch Jason Scott's documentary clip on the A

One of the most heartbreaking stories of of the tech world, and one that comes with a lot of bad blood. Be sure to watch Jason Scott's documentary clip on the ARC vs PKARC battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiaM5MT1Ok8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiaM5MT1Ok8 I admit that I've always wondered what a dramatic film based on this story would look like. It has all of the highs and lows of a movie, and it would be worth retelling for both the lessons it has to teach but also the important role in computer history Katz held.

Assembly64 10y ago
Seems like Phil Katz literally stole code from ARC, so much for being a genius.
hyperpallium 10y ago
I feel most sorry for Tom Henderson, esp at 20:20 claiming he's over it. Low barriers to entry make software easy to get into... and easy for your replacement to get into. It seems software businesses aren't common any more for that reason (excepting MS).
- philjohn 10y ago
  They are, it's just rather than installing the software locally, you access it as a service. And games, games developers are still software companies, albeit in the entertainment space.
  - hyperpallium 10y ago
    Aren't most SaaS's not pure software, but sell data, communication or offline product/service, and in that way differ from installed software? The difficult programming in games seems mostly deferred to engines (which are becoming cheaper and nore commoditized), and the game is mostly "content" - more akin to a movie than software. But you're right, games are software, and are thriving.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    And games have largely turned into a service as well. I got two games as a gift recently, and at least one of them require a big download to even function. And both require that i register them with steam before i can play them at all. Effectively even "offline" games have just become a client to a "service" running in the clouds.
zznneezznnee 10y ago
Thanks for sharing this link, in lieu of watching that I wouldn't have had any idea Phil stole SEA's code to create pkarc/pkzip. I still remember running the self-extracting pkz204g.exe on MS-DOS, and never heard of SEA or encountered their software. That's really unfortunate.
- shortformblog 10y ago
  I don't disagree with you on this, but I just want to clarify something: Katz ripped off ARC, that much is clear. But on the other hand, ZIP was a brand-new format that had some differences from ARC. Among those differences is that Katz made the format open, something SEA hadn't done with ARC. This helped ensure its broad uptake as a de facto standard that's still used to this day. I don't think what Katz did in SEA saga is worth defending, but I think we have to delineate the two formats. As Phil Becker of eSoft says in the clip, the reason that Katz's software ultimately won out was that he was more adept as a businessman—and the open nature of the ZIP format was a good example of that.
  - derekp7 10y ago
    Don't forget, that this was also in the middle of the various look-and-feel lawsuits that were going on at the time. Lotus vs. Paperback Software, Lotus vs. Borland, Apple vs. Microsoft, Stac Electronics vs. Microsoft, etc. Also, remember that PKarc was popular because it was faster than Arc. The feeling in the BBS community at the time were feeling a bit of rage, that a superior product was being killed through the courts. So when PKzip came out, which was not only faster, but had a better compression ratio, combined with the general sentiment in the community that were fed up with look-and-feel lawsuits, doing a mass conversion from arc to zip was also a form of public protest.
cuckcuckspruce 10y ago
The linked file is a companion to the wonderful BBS Documentary.

Assembly64 10y ago

Seems like Phil Katz literally stole code from ARC, so much for being a genius.

hyperpallium 10y ago

I feel most sorry for Tom Henderson, esp at 20:20 claiming he's over it. Low barriers to entry make software easy to get into... and easy for your replacement to get into. It seems software businesses aren't common any more for that reason (excepting MS).

philjohn 10y ago
They are, it's just rather than installing the software locally, you access it as a service. And games, games developers are still software companies, albeit in the entertainment space.
- hyperpallium 10y ago
  Aren't most SaaS's not pure software, but sell data, communication or offline product/service, and in that way differ from installed software? The difficult programming in games seems mostly deferred to engines (which are becoming cheaper and nore commoditized), and the game is mostly "content" - more akin to a movie than software. But you're right, games are software, and are thriving.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  And games have largely turned into a service as well. I got two games as a gift recently, and at least one of them require a big download to even function. And both require that i register them with steam before i can play them at all. Effectively even "offline" games have just become a client to a "service" running in the clouds.

zznneezznnee 10y ago

Thanks for sharing this link, in lieu of watching that I wouldn't have had any idea Phil stole SEA's code to create pkarc/pkzip. I still remember running the self-extracting pkz204g.exe on MS-DOS, and never heard of SEA or encountered their software. That's really unfortunate.

shortformblog 10y ago
I don't disagree with you on this, but I just want to clarify something: Katz ripped off ARC, that much is clear. But on the other hand, ZIP was a brand-new format that had some differences from ARC. Among those differences is that Katz made the format open, something SEA hadn't done with ARC. This helped ensure its broad uptake as a de facto standard that's still used to this day. I don't think what Katz did in SEA saga is worth defending, but I think we have to delineate the two formats. As Phil Becker of eSoft says in the clip, the reason that Katz's software ultimately won out was that he was more adept as a businessman—and the open nature of the ZIP format was a good example of that.
- derekp7 10y ago
  Don't forget, that this was also in the middle of the various look-and-feel lawsuits that were going on at the time. Lotus vs. Paperback Software, Lotus vs. Borland, Apple vs. Microsoft, Stac Electronics vs. Microsoft, etc. Also, remember that PKarc was popular because it was faster than Arc. The feeling in the BBS community at the time were feeling a bit of rage, that a superior product was being killed through the courts. So when PKzip came out, which was not only faster, but had a better compression ratio, combined with the general sentiment in the community that were fed up with look-and-feel lawsuits, doing a mass conversion from arc to zip was also a form of public protest.

cuckcuckspruce 10y ago

The linked file is a companion to the wonderful BBS Documentary.