balenaEtcher
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A free, open-source tool for burning images to USB and SD cards. Compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux. Features validated burning, avoiding accidental wipes, offers a sleek interface, is lightweight and portable, making it ideal for users at any skill level.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source (Apache-2.0)
Application type
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
Features
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Recent activities
ForgeLabsSoft added balenaEtcher as alternative to DriveForge- hotfixer669 liked balenaEtcher
- Hakmansun liked balenaEtcher
- LinuxGuy added balenaEtcher as alternative to AnyDistro-Disk-Imager
- vv0wdr003f liked balenaEtcher
Paul added balenaEtcher as alternative to IWantLinux- Jose-David-Vite-Bautista liked balenaEtcher
Gowtham-1763 added balenaEtcher as alternative to Flint (Windows)
TheEarlyDeveloper added balenaEtcher as alternative to HyperBoot Beta- shaysio liked balenaEtcher
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Free tools (Software that can help you mostly in any field)
This is going to be a list of the free tools/software that can be used mostly in any field. it's based on websites recommendations, personal experience and YouTube videos. If there's any software that you like to be added here pls inform me so we can do it together. They won't be in the alphabetical order. Together we can do it. If you find any software in the list that's not free let me know
My Windows Setup
These are all the software I use on my windows machine. I am privacy freak. So, I mostly use open source software. Checkout "My Firefox setup" list for firefox extensions.
Easiest to use apps that do something very useful
When I look for new apps, my priorities are (in order):
do they do something useful?
do they aim to do it in a way that protects my privacy?
are they trustworthy?
Fewer apps than I would like do all three of these things. Fewer still could I recommend to other, less technical users. But some are out there that do all of this and I think people should know about them. So here they are.
Comment below if you want me to recommend an app that does something I haven't mentioned yet. I'll do my best.
What is balenaEtcher?
balenaEtcher information
Developed by
balena.io Licensing
Open Source (Apache-2.0) and Free product.Written in
Rating
Average rating of 3.4Alternatives
64 alternatives listedBadge
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AlternativeTo Categories
OS & Utilities, CD/DVD ToolsGitHub repository
- 34,468 Stars
- 2,429 Forks
- 696 Open Issues
- Updated
Comments and Reviews
Etcher is really one of the best tools for writting iso images on usb stick ! It detect everything and writte a lot of files. It format all the usb stick and take all the space, not only a partition. No more error!
etcher uses electron (for no justifiable reason), which is known to use a lot of RAM. Hence it's not efficient.
Exactly, an electron app for this is not efficient. And the telemetry/tracking balena is doing is bad. That's why I vibe coded
dd-Etcher . A simple dd GUI
balenaEtcher started sharing the file name of the image and the model of the USB stick with the Balena company and possibly with third parties
I used Claude Code to create
dd-Etcher which is a simple interface for dd, the best mac alternative to balenaEtcher
Some issues about tracking and crash reports analytics, unfortunately. Might want to consider Rufus instead
I tried burning a flash drive with Ubuntu with no luck, and after that got an error when trying to process the (perfectly fine, newly downloaded) ISO image. Then tried with Rufus instead instead, which worked. Besides, what other users write about data harvesting doesn't sound good.
Years ago BalenaEtcher started collecting/sharing private information despite that users had opted out, they claimed it was a bug: https://forums.balena.io/t/serious-privacy-concerns-with-etcher-1-4-4/4103/17
Apparently it never was just a bug, leading Tails to no longer recommending BalenaEtcher for installation due to serious privacy concerns: https://tails.net/news/rufus/index.en.html
Its saddening to see such a great and helpful piece of software go rogue.
Dislike it because it's based on Electron, that's why it's absurdly bloated beyond reason compared to other alternatives. Oh, and its code is written in JavaScript (TypeScript) with some HTML and so... you're basically downloading an entire browser just to use a glorified web page masquerading as a standalone application
It doesn't allow you to choose a partition from the usb, just the full usb.