Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Zip file made on Mac

I recently sent a zip file made on this Mac to some relatives who are on PCs. One of them has reported that they cannot open it.

I would have thought that jpg files were jpg files the whole world over but a quick Google reveals various downloads to render Mac zip files readable on PCs.

Sigh.

So which app or download or whatever would you folks recommend? All I want to do is share some photos like that with relatives who still plod along the PC trail.

Please don't bother recommending Facebook or any other websharing site. I'm not into that and never intend to. Yeah I could email them as attachments I suppose but I'd like to know if anyone else has this alleged PC users can't unzip Mac zip files scenario.

Thanks.

big question is how did you zip it? You may have used a tool that doesn't make 100% spec-compliant zipfiles.

The people who can not open it...do they know how to handle a .zip file? Windows computers don't come with unzip programs.

I followed the Mac instructions, viz:

Archiving files and folders

Edit by moderator: found at this link to Mac OS X 10.4 Help.

It worked like a dream, I thought.
Archive.zip is the one I sent.

They don't? Windows computers don't unzip zip files? <astonished look>

THAT explains a lot. Blimey.

Clarification: Windows computers do unzip files, but it requires an add-on piece of software to do so. Unzipping is not built into the System as it is on a Mac.

Many years ago, when there was no single compression standard on the Mac (remember StuffIt?), Windows settled on the zip format, but left it to others to create the needed software. The Windows shareware developer of the #1 zip software commented at the time if everyone who used his software had paid the shareware fee, he would be a multi-millionaire (in 1980's dollars).

he should have just refused to make updates until it broke in a version of windows for good, and then courted MS to bundle his software. (and I don't mean shareware, as in MS pays to license it as bundled sw)