Those of us who have spent years in front of a computer tend to fondly remember programs that marked part of our lives. Many of them have remained in the past, but some have managed to remain relevant, accompanying us to the present. These include names like ICQ, MSN Messenger, Adobe Flash Player, Nero Burning ROM, Winamp and WinRAR. Each of them probably has an interesting story, but this time we will focus on the last one, one of the most popular file compressors in the world.
WinRAR was created by a Russian named Eugene Roshal (Евгений Рошал), born on March 10, 1972 in Chelyabinsk. From an early age he showed an interest in technology, using an Elektronika MK-61 programmable calculator and an 8-bit Agat computer, the Soviet equivalent of the Apple II and the BBC Micro.
At school he took his first steps in the world of programming and completing that stage, he entered the Faculty of Instrument Engineering of the Chelyabinsk State Polytechnic Institute, where he studied “Computers, systems, complexes and networks”.
The history of WinRAR
Roshal, while still studying, had the idea of creating RAR. The name came from combining his last name, Roshal, with the word ARchiver (archiver). In order to materialize his project, he focused on studying compression algorithms during the last years of his career, also making them the central topic of his thesis.
In autumn 1993, it released RAR 1.3, the first public version of the archive decompressor. Initially, it only worked through the command line, but over time versions for Windows with a graphical interface arrived. Roshal also worked on a file manager called FAR Manager, which arrived in 1996. It not only allowed you to view, copy, move and delete files, but also connect the program with network resources and FTP servers.
Ron Dwight (left) and Burak Canboy (right).
As the years passed, Roshal decided to transfer ownership of the program to his older brother, Alexander Roshal, and delegated the international marketing of WinRAR to a Briton named Ron Dwight. In the early 2000s, Öncül Kaya and Burak Canboy, two German students contacted Dwight with a proposal: they would help him complete his mission with an elaborate sales plan, marketing campaigns, and so on. This is how it was born Win.rar GmbH in 2002, a company registered in Bremen.
The WinRAR team in 2002. From left to right, (top row) Burak Canboy, Matthias Wanser, (bottom row) Benjamin Ronnenberg, Gerhard Lühning, Sabine Sprinz, Öncül Kaya.
The team got to work and developed a website for WinRAR with translations in several languages. The idea was to channel orders through this new channel. And so it happened. On March 15, 2022, the first sale via www.win-rar.de was completed. However, shortly after that milestone, Ron Dwight passed away.
WinRAR
The students turned entrepreneurs were left bewildered and not really knowing what to do. They contacted the creator of the program in Russia. Roshal agreed to work with the new team thereafter. In April of that same year, the agreement with the development terms, support mechanics and marketing plans had been formalized.
WinRAR has not disappeared and is still alive to this day. It is known for its “try before you Buy” model, which allows users to use the software for free for 40 days. After that trial period, the program does not crash, but asks the user to check out to comply with the license agreement.
Each WinRAR license is priced at €29.95, and presumably most of the company’s revenue comes from enterprise or government customers. Currently there are several alternatives to WinRAR, such as 7-Zip or Windows 11’s own native support. Despite this, for many users this is still their favorite compression tool.
Images | WinRAR | Screenshot
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