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dd vs Fedora Media Writer

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When comparing dd vs Fedora Media Writer, the Slant community recommends dd for most people. In the question“What is the best software for creating Live USB (from ISO files)?” dd is ranked 7th while Fedora Media Writer is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose dd is:

It can do anything.

Specs

LicenseGNU GPLv3+

Supported platformsmacOS, Linux, *BSD, Unix

LicenseGNU GPLv2

Supported platformsWindows, macOS, Linux

Packaging formatsFlatpak, deb, rpm

Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking

Common Questions

What is the best software for creating Live USB (from ISO files)?

What are the best programs to make a bootable Linux drive?

Pros

Pro
Many features

It can do anything.

Pro
Ported to almost any OS

There exist ports for Windows, Mac and even Android.

Pro
Helps discover Fedora Spins and Fedora Labs images

Makes it easy to obtain niche software packages, such as Sugar On A Stick (SOAS), and Fedora Design Suite.

Pro
Supports ARM v7 and AArch64 images of Fedora

Makes it easy for using Fedora Workstation or Fedora Server with Raspberry Pi or other hobby SOC boards.

Pro
Uses dd, prevents nuking system disks.

While it uses dd as a backend, it only shows SD cards and USB devices. This helps prevent accidentally nuking system disks.

Pro
Open Source

Licensed under the GNU General Public License v2

Pro
Cross Platform

Binaries for Windows, macOS, and Flatpak are available. A traditional RPM package is also available in the Fedora repositories.

Pro
Not limited to Fedora - Any ISO can be writen to a usb.

If you have an IMG or ISO, it can be writen to a disk. You are not forced to use any of the Fedora options.

Pro
Automatic Live Disk Detection

Can automatically detect disks which already are formatted with live system images, and prompts you to see if you would like to restore it to factory default settings.

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Cons

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.

Con
Heavily Fedora-centric

Aside from you providing and using a custom image, the only other options present are for Fedora distributions. You won't find RedHat Enterprise Linux, or CentOS, or even Fedora Silverblue. Nor will you find any outside of the RedHat family, like Arch, Debian, or Ubuntu.