Alternatives to Popsicle

A Linux utility from System76 that writes a disk image to several USB drives at once. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as Popsicle.

  • balenaEtcher

    Writes an OS image to a USB stick or SD card, verifies every byte, and refuses to target your hard drive.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    balenaEtcher writes and verifies one image per run on Windows, macOS and Linux, hiding system drives, but lacks parallel flashing of several sticks.

  • ImageUSB

    A free PassMark utility that writes an image to many USB flash drives at the same time.

    FreeProprietaryWindows

    ImageUSB also writes one image to many USB drives at once, but it runs on Windows and is closed source.

  • GNOME Disks

    A graphical disk utility for GNOME that partitions, formats, benchmarks and images drives on Linux.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    GNOME Disks can write a USB image as part of a wider Linux disk utility with partitioning and SMART data, one drive at a time.

  • Impression

    A simple GNOME app for writing disk images to USB drives to make them bootable.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Impression is a minimal GNOME app for writing one disk image to a USB drive on Linux, with fewer options and no parallel writing.

  • USBImager

    A minimal cross-platform app that writes compressed disk images to USB drives.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    USBImager writes compressed images to a single USB drive without unpacking first, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux with a minimal interface.

  • Fedora Media Writer

    A tool that downloads Fedora images and writes them to USB flash drives.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Fedora Media Writer downloads Fedora images for you and can restore the stick afterwards, but it is built around Fedora and writes one drive at a time.

  • Raspberry Pi Imager

    The official tool for writing Raspberry Pi OS and other images to SD cards and USB drives.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Raspberry Pi Imager writes images to SD cards and USB drives across Windows, macOS and Linux, but it is built mainly around Raspberry Pi use.

Also worth comparing

These listings name Popsicle as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • UNetbootin

    Writes Linux distribution ISOs to a USB drive on Windows, macOS and Linux.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Popsicle writes the same image to several USB drives in parallel on Linux, offering a GTK interface and a command-line version.

  • Win32 Disk Imager

    A Windows tool for writing raw disk images to USB drives and SD cards, or backing them up.

    FreeOpen sourceWindows

    Popsicle runs only on Linux and flashes several USB drives in parallel, with GTK and command-line interfaces.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.