1 GZIP (GNU zip) is a popular data compression program written by Jean-Loup
2 Gailly <gzip@gnu.org> for the GNU project.
4 This program was developed as a replacement for compress because of the UNISYS
5 and IBM patents covering the LZW algorithm used by compress. These patents
6 made it impossible for us to use compress, and we needed a replacement. The
7 superior compression ratio of GZIP is just a bonus.