Gzip was originally developed for the UNIXoid platform GNU, but is now used across practically all platforms as long as the GPL license selected for the project is considered. For example, on Linux systems, the compression tool is usually installed automatically, or alternatively contained in the package management and ready to be installed. In addition to various versions of older operating systems, there are also versions for macOS and Windows on the official website. Added to this is the fact that web server applications, such as Apache, have been mastering gzip compression for years – even if the function isn’t always used – as well as the ability of modern browsers to interpret the compressed files and unpack them during web page rendering.
In web development, gzip fully shows off its strengths: when the process is activated, the web server automatically initiates the compression of website elements that have been uploaded in the webspace as well as those that have been dynamically created. In this way, the loading time of the website can be significantly reduced for visitors. Since users only have to load the compressed data packets, the pages also load considerably faster. The browser takes over the decompression in the background without requiring additional bandwidth. Users of mobile devices, in particular, benefit from this performance boost, which indirectly has a positive impact on search engine ranking.