EVevanjrowley·Oct 30, 2025
Unlike Balena Etcher, Ventoy is not a bloated Electron app that sends telemetry from your computer: https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/3784
In Ventoy: Create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Filesbalena-io
etcher
TypeScript2016–2025
balena-io / etcher
etcher
Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily.
14Distinct people
15Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
34.7KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year15 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2016-10-03 15:02:01 UTC to 2025-10-30 15:26:29 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
15 sourcesIt depends from which point of view you are talking about.
A lot of people are familiar with web technologies, therefore using something like Electron is way easier for them. That makes a lot of sense.
However, from an end user point of view, Electron (while potentially easier to developer with for a large pool of developers) doesn't feel native. You can tell you are running a web app inside that doesn't obey the OS conventions, the standardised OS shortcuts, looks different than the rest, etc. It's like it doesn't quite match and all the muscle memory you have for working with other native apps (mainly for keyword-heavy users like myself) just doesn't work, making it a frustrating experience. Plus many (not all!) Electron apps are super heavy weight and feel slow when you contrast them with other truly native apps.
Overall, I think you w
Read the rest
ill see a lot of people that don't really mind Electron, but many do. I think it largely comes down to whether you want to develop a desktop app faster yourself, or deliver a desktop app that would satisfy almost every user out there (which might be harder to build).
And BTW, this is coming from somebody that worked a LOT with Electron, as the original author of Etcher (https://github.com/balena-io/etcher), plus I led the Desktop Team at Postman (https://www.postman.com, which is arguable one of the worst Electron apps out there, mostly due to really bad early architecture/business decisions) for a while. I tried everything but I gave up on it. It can never even be a good enough approximation to a native experience that many users expect.
In any case, great job with GitQuill. It does look pretty cool and I wish it was a native app!
> >4GB is only really meaningful for web browsers, compilers & interpreters, games and creative apps such as anything doing 3D, audio or large data processing.
Yes, but...
> web browsers
...includes Electron, Cordova/PhoneGap, WebView-based UIs, et cetera.
So yes, so long as software-houses uncritically jump on Electron as their platform-of-choice then all those apps will also ultimately be "web browsers" in disguise
...even a simple utility to flash an SD card[1] is a 150MB behemoth... I'm dying inside at this point.
[1]: https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/tag/v1.19.21
In The costs of the i386 to x86-64 upgradeBalena Etcher is spyware.
https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/2977
In Balena Etcher Pro – Fast write to multiple cards or USB disks at onceOps on the Discord Linux channel suggest linux newbies to use the "questionable" software Balena Etcher (https://balena.io) for burning iso installs to CDs/USBs disk labelling it as easier when the OS in use by the user (Ubuntu) already ships with more situable alternative like gnome-disks or dd.
https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/2977
I find disgusting how the FOSS and Linux comunity is getting sold to companies and tech players to the disadvantage of the comunity and newcomers. Is not the first time users are being forced to do something they don't want to or don't need to just because someone is "pushing them" into the right direction.
In the end the suggested software didn't work for the in case scenario.
https://postimg.cc/qhJyL3tR
https://postimg.cc/BjFTQs9q
https://postimg.cc/zL1nyM8T
https://postimg.cc/5Hq8L32T
https://pos
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Great device, and great content marketing.
Remember well that Balena are the people who built spyware into a SD card flashing tool: essentially a GUI for running dd.
https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/2497
In Show HN: I built a desktop radiation monitor with Raspberry Pi, brass and woodAs others have indicated, this is just an auto-update check.
https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/lib/gui/etch...
This makes me very curious as to the motivation behind such an inflammatory issue report. Does this individual work for a competitor, or have some other issue with balena?
In Etcher tracks user data without consentEtcher tracks user data without consent
15 points · Open discussionApparently it uses some native code to get the necessary permissions on Windows: https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/blob/master/src/os/win32...
In Disable new Slack WYSIWYG editor with this bookmarkletThis performance-related bug report looks pretty damning: https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/2740
In Doing work locally minimizes problems with Electron appsThe dev's justification:
https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/2365#issuecomment...
In Doing work locally minimizes problems with Electron appsEtcher 1.4.4 Ignores Privacy Setting
2 points · Open discussionI really the technical explanation about how to write to a device on different platforms inside an electron app.
Described here https://github.com/resin-io/etcher/tree/master/lib/src/child...
In Etcher: burn images to SD cards and USB drives, safe and easyEtcher.io | REMOTE | node.js & frontend javascript engineers
Etcher [1][2] is an open-source project by resin.io, the only cross-platform, open-source flash drive writer. Etcher is developed with Electron, node.js, and Angular.js. We're growing Etcher to solve more IoT device problems and looking to bring on board experienced javascript engineers who love to create incredible user experiences and solve hard, cross-platform problems for hundreds of thousands of users, all while working in the open.
If the above sounds exciting, drop us an email at join@resin.io
[1]: https://etcher.io [2]: https://github.com/resin-io/etcher
In Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2016)Etcher.io | node.js & frontend javascript engineers
Etcher [1][2] is an open-source project by resin.io, the only cross-platform, open-source flash drive writer. Etcher is developed with Electron, node.js, and Angular.js. We're growing Etcher to solve more IoT device problems and looking to bring on board experienced javascript engineers who love to create incredible user experiences and solve hard, cross-platform problems for hundreds of thousands of users, all while working in the open.
[1]: https://etcher.io, [2]: https://github.com/resin-io/etcher
In Ask HN: Who needs contributors? (October 2016)