ext2 filesystem compression

[minshal1@msu.edu]

Greetings GLLUGers:

I remember hearing talk about transparent ext2 filesystem
compression being added to the kernel a while back.  First
question, does anyone know if that made it into the 
kernel yet?  Second question, and if so, has anyone actually
attemped using it?  Is it easy, robust, etc?  Or a pain in 
the neck?

I need to archive a large number of primarily text (but some
binary) files that will be accessed very infrequently.  By
my estimation, transparent file system compression is the best
way to save space on this archive as it needs to be accessed 
via NFS, samba, and local shell accounts.  It also needs to be
searchable by filename and directory name via find/grep and
via windoze's "find a file on a mapped drive" thing.  Teaching 
people about gzip and tar is out of the question.

I'm open to other suggestions as well if anyone has a better
idea.  Thanks for any help!

-Ben