StuffIt Expander

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StuffIt Expander

Developed by	Allume Systems
Latest release	12.0.1 / 8 November 2007
OS	Mac OS, Mac OS X, Linux x86, Windows
Genre	File Extractor/Decompressor
License	Freeware
Website	Stuffit Homepage

StuffIt Expander is a buyware, closed source data compression software utility developed by Allume Systems (formerly Aladdin Systems). There are freeware clients on some platforms than can do unpacking only. It runs in Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Linux x86/UNIX. It does not compress files. As of October 2007, the latest Macintosh version is 12.0, which requires Mac OS X v10.4. Version 10.0.2 runs on Mac OS X v10.3, and version 8.0.2 runs on Mac OS X v10.0-Mac OS X v10.2. The latest version for Mac OS 9 is 7.0.3.^[1] StuffIt has been a target of criticism and dissatisfaction from Mac users in the past as the file format changes frequently, notably during the introduction of StuffIt version 5.0. Expander 5.0 contained many bugs, and its file format was not readable by the earlier version 4.5, leaving Mac users of the time without a viable compression utility.

The latest stand-alone version for Windows is 12.0^[2], but it only decompresses the new .sitx (and ZIP) archives and requires .NET v2.0 framework. The last version able to decompress .sit and other Mac OS specific archives was 7.02 distributed with StuffIt v7.0.x for Windows. In versions 7.5.x to 11 the Expander capabilities are actually performed by the StuffIt Standard Edition, that allows decompression even after the end of the trial period. To start StuffIt in Expander mode the following command line switches were used: -expand -uiexpander.^[3] Note that the registration reminder dialogue box is not shown in this case.