What on average compresses files the best?
 

I have been exploring and people tell me its .tgz or something I think it could be .bz2. If you think you know what on average compresses files the best just post. I have a relatively fast computer.(So compression speed is not an issue.) Ratios on file compression are a good sign of how good some file compression formats are. I have heard bz2 gets on average 3 to 1. I have been getting 2 to 1.

I've played with both over several years and have to say that my experience is that bzip2 and gzip seem to give be about the same performance. Depending on the machine, number of files compressed at once, types of files, one will be marginally better at compression or marginally better at speed.

xz and 7-zip, both of which use the same algorithm.

that depends on what you mean "as the best"
tar.bz2 : but it is VERY slow
a 1 gig folder in 20 min.

or best as in the fastest
tar
best for all text , source
7z

Yeah, LZMA, probably the best compression you can get today, for free. Only problem is, it's not too fast, but often faster and better than bz2.

Fast may be a function of SMP aware versions. An extra core working on compression sure does help.

Speed is not a problem for me. I have a pentium 4 with hyper threading. bz2 used only one thread of my single core processor and it only took 5 - 10 minutes to compress 2 gigs of files.

I have a nice computer so if anyone knows of the best as in compression ratio on average let me know.

Um, as stated above: LZMA as implemented by numerous programs.