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Comment on Do Linux distros and BSDs recommend using the command line to set up bootable USBs because most machines should be able to do it without additional software?

Ephera@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

I feel like the main problem with balenaEtcher is that it requires downloading 150 MB, for a software that many people will use only once before a reinstall.
If you’re in a rich country, you might hardly notice, but for poorer countries, this is an insane ask, especially if it just improves convenience mildly.

But yeah, ultimately any such tool is going to face the problem that no matter how easy it is to use, you need to first install it, which needs to be explained.
The usage of dd also needs explaining, but you don’t need to install it.

Well, and another factor is that dd has been around since the dawn of time. Software like balenaEtcher tends to go unmaintained after a few years, at which point any documentation referencing it, will need to be rewritten. And it’s usually rewritten to reference dd instead, before a new convenient software emerges…

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CorrodedCranium@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Thanks for explaining. I didn’t know it went unmaintained for a while. I thought programs like balenaEtcher and Rufus might have other issues I was unaware of like certain OSs not flashing correctly

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- Ephera@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Oh, I didn’t mean to say that balenaEtcher actually had gone unmaintained before. I just meant that it’s likely to do so in the future, like pretty much all software.
  
  dd is kind of in a unique position, in that it’s so simple, that it’ll hardly need maintenance, and it’s useful enough that it presumably gets this maintenance.
  
  With balenaEtcher, it’s developed by a company. If that company folds or changes strategy, then they’ll stop maintaining balenaEtcher.
  It’s also implemented with Electron, i.e. browser technologies. If it goes unmaintained for a few months, you’ll quickly have security vulnerabilities in there.
  You might also not find anyone willing to maintain such a comparatively thick tech stack…
  
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Blemgo@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I agree that once learning how to use dd programs like BalenaEtcher sort of become more clutter than anything else.

Still, something I would always prefer over dd is Ventoy, simply because not only allows me to easily make an ISO bootable, but allow multiple ISOs to be easily bootable on the same USB stick. I hope it never becomes abandonware.

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