That and verifying the checksum are the big reasons I can think of. I feel like for the most part though using something like balenaEtcher is so much easier.

  • CorrodedOP
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    21 month 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

    • Ephera
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      41 month 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…