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Tails no longer recommending balenaEtcher (tails.net)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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I am shocked by this - the quote in below is very concerning:

"However, in 2024, the situation changed: 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."

Can't see myself using this software anymore...

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[–] 30 points 2 years ago (4 children)

i still don't understand why anyone would use etcher. it's an electron wrapper over dd. it's 80MB where rufus is 1.5. when it appeared there were already other programs that did its job better.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Rufus seems to be just for Windows and dd does not have a gui

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    that's correct. on windows, rufus is a better tool, and on linux or mac it's just a built-in command with a manual packed in.

    also, ubuntu ships with startup image creator, and gnome disks ships as a flatpak, if those are more your speed.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Thanks for the info, I'm on linux mint and after checking these out it isn't immediately apparent from their websites whether or how I could install them. Still think etcher occupies a niche that alternatives don't fill, its website directs you straight to installing it, it's cross platform, and using it is very easy, so it's something that could reasonably be linked to in various install tutorials.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    I like clicking buttons that have a text on them saying what they do instead of trying to memorize a gajillion terminal commands and flags where I have to enter more commands and flags to see what they do.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago

    plus it's some some sanity checks like not showing you your system drives. Or warning you when the drive you are about to nuke is suspiciously large and maybe not the usb drive you actually want to use.

    This is basically the main feature. Stopping you from fatfingering the wrong drive

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I used it because that's what the instructions on the Linux Mint website for creating a bootable USB stick from Windows say to do.

    I have no clue what "electron wrapper", "dd", or "rufus" are. I'm trying to learn more, but can't learn it all in one day.

    https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/burn.html#in-windows-mac-os-or-other-linux-distributions

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago*

    weird that the installation guide is hosted on a separate website that hasn't been updated in eight years. that's irresponsible of them. anyway rufus is a better version of etcher that you can download for windows.

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