I want to install mplayer. I downloaded the files. They are in several formats.
I just got used to tar.gz now I find two new types:
.tar.bz2 and .tar.bz2.tar

Two questions:
How do I unpack these formats?
Why are there so many types of zipped files in linux?
Cheers

tar -xvjf filename.tar.bz2

The J is the difference.

Cool

Didn't see this second question:

Taste, compression, portability. Probably the 3 biggest reasons. A 'zip' file is probably VERY portable, but doesn't have as good of compression as a bzipped2 file, which has better compression than a gzipped file, but isn't as portable.

A tarball (.tar) is basically just 'zipping' up the all the files/directories into something easier to work with and compress (a single file). When it's compressed the extension is added (simply to appease the eyes, not absolutely necessary) (.gz or .bz2) to show what kind of compression was used.

Cool

Thanks MasterC

Sure, no problem

Cool

Maan this Master C dude is smart