Intel MacBook: No More StuffIt Expander???

[Amie]

I noticed that the new Intel MacBooks don't come with StuffIt like the older iBook G4s. Why in the world did Apple remove this from the software package? How do the new MacBooks open StuffIt files and .zip files and unstuff and stuff and unzip, etc.?

[ElDiabloConCaca]

ZIP is built-in to Mac OS X now, and has been for quite some time. You can unzip a file by double-clicking it, and zip a file by right-clicking and selecting "Create Archive of..."

You can download StuffIt Expander free from http://www.allume.com. It seems Apple is moving away from the proprietary .sit format toward a more universal archive format like .zip.

It's not a factor of what machines come with StuffIt, it's a matter of what operating systems come with StuffIt -- it has nothing to do with the MacBook vs. the iBook G4.

[Amie]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

ZIP is built-in to Mac OS X now, and has been for quite some time. You can unzip a file by double-clicking it, and zip a file by right-clicking and selecting "Create Archive of..."

You can download StuffIt Expander free from http://www.allume.com. It seems Apple is moving away from the proprietary .sit format toward a more universal archive format like .zip.

It's not a factor of what machines come with StuffIt, it's a matter of what operating systems come with StuffIt -- it has nothing to do with the MacBook vs. the iBook G4.

You're just full of it! Information, that is!

Thanks for the info. Again, I have learned something from you.

I noticed there was no StuffIt last night when I was helping my parents download Windows Media Player (unfortunately CNN.com is gung-ho on Microsoft and you need Media Player to view any of their news videos/clips) and I went to the Microsoft site and tried to download it for OS X and it was a .stix file, which my parents MacBook would not recognize or open. It downloaded to the desktop but would not open. Got an error message saying "could not find application to open file" or some such thing.

After a bit of troubleshooting and thinking, I went back to the Media Player Web site and downloaded Flip4Mac's QuickTime Components (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...mponents.mspx), which allow you to view ALL videos--regardless if they're supported by Media Player or QuickTime--and it was a .dmg file. THOSE I'm familiar with and I knew it would work. Sure enough, it downloaded and installed smoothly. After repairing permissions via Disk Utility, I took my parents back to CNN.com and--voila!--video galore.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Glad to hear I could be of assistance... and yes, I would highly recommend the Flip4Mac components over the Microsoft-branded Windows Media Player, as Windows Media Player has been discontinued since the release of the Flip4Mac components... but I see you did this investigation already, so kudos! Plus, the Flip4Mac components use the standard Quicktime Player, so you don't have to haggle with two different players for two different media types... they all just work through Quicktime (I'm also glad to hear they're frequenters of the "true" news channel - CNN - over that "other" more "biased" news channel...)

[Amie]

I installed Windows Media Player on my iBook a long time ago because it seems like most Web sites' videos are supported by MP and not QuickTime. Now, whenever I click on a video icon, it just pops up and plays. I can't even tell if it's going through MP (I'm assuming it is) or QT because neither application launches visibly. The video just plays. And I couldn't play them before I installed MP.

I'm wondering now if I should uninstall MP and install Flip4Mac's QuickTime Components, like I did on my parents' MacBook? So far, MP hasn't given me any problems, but I'd have a piece of mind just knowing that I'm choosing Flip4Mac over Microsoft.

[fryke]

(The change was done with Tiger, actually, not with the switch to intel. StuffIt Expander was long bundled with every new Mac, but Tiger got rid of it.)

[Amie]

Originally Posted by fryke

(The change was done with Tiger, actually, not with the switch to intel. StuffIt Expander was long bundled with every new Mac, but Tiger got rid of it.)

I think that's what he said when he wrote:

"It's not a factor of what machines come with StuffIt, it's a matter of what operating systems come with StuffIt -- it has nothing to do with the MacBook vs. the iBook G4."