Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Phil Katz
Phillip W. Katz, better known as Phil Katz (November 3, 1962 - April 14, 2000), was a computer programmer best-known as the author of PKZIP, a program for compressing files which ran under the PC operating system MS-DOS.
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Early Life
He received a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
His first foray into the compression world started in the mid-1980s with a faster version of the popular ARC program, which he called PkArc. PkArc's speed quickly made it popular, much to the chagrin of the ARC authors, System Enhancement Associates . They sued and he was forced to change the program. However it appears the suit was not very specific, because he quickly released PKPAK, which was similar in all but name.
PKZIP
Katz soon replaced PKPAK with the new and completely re-written PKZIP, released as shareware, which compressed both better and faster than ARC. Katz kept the new ZIP file format open. As a result, it soon became a standard for file compression across many platforms. Believing that Windows was just a fad, Katz delayed the release of his own Windows version of PKZIP, allowing Nicosoft (makers of WinZip) to gain the larger usershare that it holds to this day.
PKZIP made Katz one of the most successful shareware authors of all time. Although his company PKWARE became a multimillion dollar company, Katz hired people he trusted to run the company and continued writing software himself.
Death
Katz battled alcoholism for years. His friends tried to help him with his addiction, but they were rebuffed, and he gradually shut them out completely. He was arrested several times for driving under the influence, and later in his life, spent more time in cheap motels and strip clubs than his own home.
Katz was found dead in a hotel room with an empty bottle of peppermint schnapps in his hand on April 14, 2000 at the age of 37. A coroner's report stated his death was a result of pancreatic bleeding caused by acute alcoholism.
External Links
- Slashdot article on Katz's death
- Obituary on Phillip Katz
- News Article on Katz's death
- Tribute to Phil Katz
- Phil Katz death by Thom Henderson, creator of ARC
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