GZIP (GNU zip) is a popular data compression program written by Jean-Loup
Gailly <gzip@gnu.org> for the GNU project.

This program was developed as a replacement for compress because of the UNISYS
and IBM patents covering the LZW algorithm used by compress.  These patents
made it impossible for us to use compress, and we needed a replacement.  The
superior compression ratio of GZIP is just a bonus.