Unix Compression Utilities Review

File compressors have been brought up in very different cultures for the different needs of their users. Most people use of a particular compression tool is simply due to tradition. You rarely get unix source code sent in non tar based files. Similarly zip files are the most common in DOS/Windows platforms. There are good reasons for this and I should probably stress that a few percent improvement in compression is not reason enough to force everyone around you to change. This review is here for fun and to dispel the "our archiver is better than any other by X%". After reading you should carry on as before.
1: Compression Tools
2: Size Tests
3: Compression Time Tests
4: Decompression Time Tests
5: Conclusion