StuffIt Expander 16 4+

I hadn’t needed to extract much else than zip files so never needed a utility like this until today where I needed to extract a .rar file someone sent me. I remembered the name Stuffit from back in the day and go figure, they’re still around with a version 16 product. I gave it a try and it fails to do the one thing I downloaded this program for. It said there was something wrong with the .rar file and couldn’t open it. Reading some of the other reviews, I go and download The Unarchiver and guess what? It opens right away with no issues.

Stuffit, you had one job. You’re at version 16! No time for you, the nostalgia isn’t going to cut it. Unistalled.

Way back in the day when computer storage was extremely limited and very expensive, compression archivers like ZIP were practically essential. In the late 1980s, StuffIt was invented and became one of the major players, esp. on Mac. While the current owner of Stuffit (Smith Micro) determined that StuffIt had reached end of life in 2019, they still maintain this expander application to open any StuffIt archives (typically with a SIT or SITX extension) plus it will open common formats like ZIP., RAR, and TAR. A tip of the hat to Smith Micro for not only maintaining the expander but optimizing it for the new M1.

I tried using this app because I heard about it, so I installed it to try it out. Then, when it got to the last step it didn’t let me even try to do it. How am I supposed to use this when it doesn’t even let me attempt the final step? Do yourself a favor and install actually useful programs like The Unarchiver which I have used for years and the only files it wouldn’t open for me are corrupted files and .exe files because a mac isn’t designed to open .exe files normally. Since it’s freeware I didn’t waste any money, but I sure did waste time downloading and trying it out. Complete junk.