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Open-source OS downloaders and bootable USB tools

10 OS downloaders and bootable USB tools whose code is public under an OSI-approved license, rated for privacy with evidence. Picks first, then by score.

  1. CrystalFetch Grade B

    A macOS app from the makers of UTM that builds Windows 11 installer ISO images from Microsoft's update files, using UUP dump APIs and converter scripts.

    Apache-2.0. Source code

  2. Impression Grade B

    A GNOME app for writing disk images to USB drives, which can also download popular Linux distribution images directly.

    GPL-3.0. Source code

  3. Mist Grade B

    A macOS utility that lists and downloads macOS installers and Apple silicon firmware files from Apple's servers, and can build app bundles, disk images, bootable ISOs and installer packages.

    MIT. Source code

  4. Quickemu Grade B

    Command-line tools that download Windows, macOS and Linux images (quickget) and create and run QEMU virtual machines with preset configurations (quickemu).

    MIT. Source code

  5. WoeUSB Grade B

    A Linux command-line tool that creates bootable Windows installation USB drives from an ISO file or DVD, with legacy BIOS and UEFI support.

    GPL-3.0-or-later. Source code

  6. Fedora Media Writer Grade C

    The Fedora Project's tool for downloading Fedora images and writing them, or other ISO files, to USB drives, with a restore option to reformat the drive afterwards.

    GPL-2.0, with some parts under LGPL-2.0. Source code

  7. Raspberry Pi Imager Grade C

    Raspberry Pi's official tool for downloading operating system images and writing them to SD cards and USB drives, with options to preconfigure hostname, Wi-Fi, users and SSH.

    Apache-2.0. Source code

  8. balenaEtcher Grade D

    A cross-platform app from balena that writes OS images to SD cards and USB drives and validates the written data.

    Apache-2.0. Source code

  9. Rufus Grade F

    A Windows utility that formats USB drives and writes bootable USB media from ISO and disk images, and can download Windows ISOs.

    GPL-3.0. Source code

  10. Ventoy Grade F

    A tool that prepares a USB drive so ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD and EFI files copied onto it can be booted from a menu, without reformatting the drive for each image.

    GPL-3.0. Prebuilt binaries in the repository are listed with their build instructions or upstream sources. Source code

Compare all 12 OS downloaders and bootable USB tools, open source or not.