The KDE ISO Image Writer has been released in its first stable version after several alpha and beta versions. This graphical tool is designed to take an ISO image and write it onto a USB stick, which is helpful when installing Linux distributions or setting up a live system. The KDE developer Jonathan Esk-Riddell provides the tool in a 64-bit program for Windows, as well as the source code being compiled under FreeBSD and macOS.
Linux users can easily install the tool using a Flatpak, Snap, or AppImage package. Despite its name, the KDE ISO Image Writer can be run on any desktop environment. Based on the ROSA ImageWriter, the tool only writes an ISO image already on the hard drive bit by bit onto the desired USB stick. Compared to its competitors, such as Unetbootin, the KDE ISO Image Writer has a limited range of functions even in the fork but is more convenient to use.
This tool also checks the ISO image for errors using the associated signatures or checksums. However, the current AppImage version does not provide this check. The affected users must ignore its error message at the moment. Still, the user interface is more convenient to use than the command-line tool “dd”. The KDE ISO Image Writer uses Udisks2 to identify the connected USB sticks. If its daemon refuses a USB stick, it cannot be written to in the KDE ISO Image Writer either.
In conclusion, the KDE ISO Image Writer is a small but mighty tool that is useful for installing Linux distributions or setting up a live system. It is available for Windows, macOS, and FreeBSD, alongside its primary version for Linux. While it has a limited range of functions, it is more convenient to use than its competitors, and it checks the ISO image for errors. Currently, the AppImage version does not provide the error check, but the user interface is easy to use and convenient.
