Add to Chrome
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Add to SafariWhen comparing Etcher vs dd, the Slant community recommends Etcher for most people. In the question“What is the best software for creating Live USB (from ISO files)?” Etcher is ranked 2nd while dd is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Etcher is:
Supports Linux, Windows and Mac.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Cross platform
Supports Linux, Windows and Mac.
Pro Polished GUI
The gui looks great and is easy to use.
Pro Open source
Free to use and modify. Apache license. Repository link.
Pro Relatively fast
Flashes/burns images relatively fast.
Pro Extremely user friendly
By far, the most user friendly and straight-forward UI I've ever seen in an application like this
Pro Many features
It can do anything.
Pro Ported to almost any OS
There exist ports for Windows, Mac and even Android.
Cons
Con Lacking in settings
Compared to its competitors, while trying to keep the software as user-friendly and clean as possible, it also lacks the ability to perform more advanced tweaking, available in something like Rufus.
Con Sends data to balena by default
It is enabled by default, hidden in the settings and you have to turn it manually off.
Con Large file size
Much larger file size in comparison to something like Rufus.
Con Easy to completely nuke an unrelated hard disk by accident
It is a cli app and there are no safety features to prevent a complete data loss if the user adds a wrong syntax.
