Mac OS X Tiger lacks StuffIt Expander
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is no longer bundled with the popular decompression software, StuffIt Expander, from Allume Systems (formerly "Aladdin Systems"). StuffIt Expander has been included with every Mac OS X and "Mac OS classic" edition since Mac OS 8.
At that time, including StuffIt Expander was important for compatibility with the vast majority of Macintosh-related downloadable files on the growing Internet. These files were compressed in StuffIt's ".sit" format. In the meantime, Allume has also introduced a newer ".sitx" format, which was designed to be more friendly for cross-platform transfers.
In 2005 when Mac OS X Tiger was released, Apple apparently decided that the ability to expand StuffIt archives ˜ as well as handle MacBinary (.bin) and BinHex (.hqx) files ˜ was no longer necessary. Apple already builds compression technology into Mac OS X, including the ability to compress and decompress ZIP (.zip) archives from the Finder and create/open compressed disk image files (.dmg) from Disk Utility.
At RIT, we find Apple's decision curious, because there are still quite a few files ˜ often from specialized sources ˜ that were compressed with StuffIt technology and thus require StuffIt Expander to decompress on your computer. It likely saved Apple some licensing and bundling fees, however.
Those providing these StuffIt-compressed files now have to provide instructions on obtaining StuffIt Expander, or change the way they are providing the downloads to use a different format (such as ZIP or disk image files). For the most part, we have distributed compressed disk image files (.dmg) so you should not have trouble with downloads from ITS.
You may still have StuffIt Expander if you have:
- Upgraded directly from a previous Mac OS X version, without using the "archive and install" process
- Installed StuffIt Expander separately from Allume Systems, its vendor.
If you do not have StuffIt Expander installed on your Mac OS X Tiger system and you need it to decompress an archive file (ending with ".sit" or ".sitx"), then you can obtain it for free from Allume Systems's Web page. If you are decompressing ZIP archives (.zip) or disk image files (.dmg), you do not need StuffIt Expander.
If you are managing a lab or systems that others may log in to, you may wish to include StuffIt Expander for convenience.