Aladdin Systems has shipped two new versions of Stuffit Deluxe, both of which include Mac OS 9 compatibility. The company has released an update for Stuffit Deluxe 5.1, and an entirely new 5.5 version. According to Aladdin Systems:

Aladdin Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Aladdin Systems Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ BB: ALHIE) today released free Mac OS(R) 9 compatible updates for registered StuffIt(R) 5.0- 5.1 customers. The Mac OS 9 compatibility is also available in the latest StuffIt 5.5 upgrade, also released today.

StuffIt Deluxe 5.1.5 has been tested extensively under Mac OS(R) 9.0 (and earlier) operating systems. The 5.1.5 update for StuffIt Deluxe simply provides support for Mac OS 9.0 and includes the most current version of StuffIt Expander, version 5.5. Aladdin's latest upgrade, StuffIt Deluxe 5.5, offers many new features as well as, Mac OS 9 compatibility. The following features apply to StuffIt Deluxe 5.5 and are NOT available in the StuffIt Deluxe 5.1.5 Update.

New StuffIt Deluxe 5.5 Benefits and Features:

• Faster compression and expansion (an average speed improvement of 20%)
• Mac OS 9 compatibility
• Make self-extracting archives for Windows (.exe) from your Mac
• Archive CM(tm) provides easier access to the contents of a StuffIt archive via the Macintosh Contextual Menu, allowing more ways to retrieve specific items within a compressed archive
• Create StuffIt or Zip files to send to Windows users - now there's a choice if users want to create a Zip archive or use the superior StuffIt compression
• Magic Tools(tm) - Four new tools were added to Magic Menu(tm): 'Get More Info' on files, 'Copy or Move' files to any location with a single command, 'Make Aliases' of files in any location, or 'Gather' a group of selected files into one folder
• DropConverter updates old StuffIt archives to the 5.x format
• Now create .uu and .zip files (popular Windows formats) with Archive Via Rename(tm), exclusive to StuffIt Deluxe. By simply adding or removing the UUencode (.uu) or Zip (.zip) suffix, those files will encode, compress or expand
• Symantec DiskDoubler (R) (.dd) translation now supported by the StuffIt Engine(tm)
• Create and expand Bzip (.bzip) files (common to the Unix platform)
• Secure Delete allows users to permanently and completely remove sensitive information by securely deleting it from their disk(s)
• StuffIt Icons were updated with a new look- version 5.5 files are accessible by any version of StuffIt Expander 5.X
• Aladdin DropStuff 5.5 compresses faster, includes Bzip and DiskDoubler expansion support with the StuffIt Engine, and is Mac OS 9 compatible

System Requirements

Recommended System configuration for StuffIt Deluxe 5.1.5 is a Macintosh with System 7.5.3 or greater and 15 MB of free hard disk space. StuffIt Deluxe 5.1.5 is fully compatible with Mac OS 9.0. StuffIt Expander 5. 5 and DropStuff 5.5 require System 7.1.1 or greater, and are also fully compatible with Mac OS 9.0.

The 5.1.5 updater is free to registered owners of version 5.x. You can find more information and download links for the update at the company's web site. The company has priced version 5.5 at US$79.95. Upgrade pricing is complex:

If customers purchased StuffIt Deluxe 5.0.x or 5.1 on October 16, 1999 or later and have a proof of purchase, they are entitled to a free StuffIt Deluxe 5.5 upgrade (which includes Mac OS 9 compatibility).

Upgrade pricing for the new version, StuffIt Deluxe 5.5, is as follows: Registered users of StuffIt Deluxe, StuffIt Lite, and DropStuff can upgrade to StuffIt Deluxe 5.5 directly from Aladdin for $19.95 plus S&H, and applicable tax. A $60 mail-in upgrade rebate is also available when purchasing from retailers. Aladdin is offering a $30 mail-in rebate to new users in the US and Canada. All StuffIt mail-in rebates are valid in the US and Canada and expire March 31, 2000 (see rebate terms and conditions).

You can find more information on upgrading at the company's web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:Kudos to Aladdin Systems for not taking the low path of only offering Mac OS 9 compatibility through the new 5.5 version.