Etcher
Etcher (now called balenaEtcher) is a cross-platform utility designed to safely and easily flash OS images to SD cards and USB drives. Originally developed by Resin.io (now Balena), it's particularly popular among developers, makers, and Raspberry Pi enthusiasts who need to create bootable media for various operating systems. The application features a clean, intuitive interface that makes the potentially dangerous process of disk imaging much safer by clearly identifying target drives and validating burns to prevent corrupted installations. Etcher supports various image formats including .iso, .img, and compressed files, and includes built-in validation to ensure successful writes. It has become a go-to tool for anyone working with single-board computers, embedded systems, or needing to create bootable USB installers.
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1 suggestionGood news! balenaEtcher now has native Apple Silicon support. While earlier versions (after 1.5.121) required Rosetta 2 emulation, the developers have resolved this issue and now provide ARM64 builds. The latest version 2.1.4 is available as a native Apple Silicon build, which you can download directly from the official Balena website or install via Homebrew with 'brew install --cask balenaetcher'. The ARM64 version provides better performance and battery efficiency compared to running the Intel version through Rosetta 2. If you currently have an older Intel-only version installed, simply download the latest version to get native Apple Silicon support.
Native version · Reported by in the community.
Sighting data is community-sourced — version availability and pricing should be verified with the developer.
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