pyssla

Literally never heard of it. Its Discord server has attracted over a thousand members. So I suppose it's save to assume that it has had a user base.

Nevertheless, from a quick glance at least, it doesn't seem as if it was doing anything necessarily unique; just bundling a bunch of software on install. So, while I pity for its users, I'm sure they will be served well elsewhere.

I don't think I'm an expert on the matter 😅, but I will try my best at an educated guess:

• Most Linux users had to create their first Linux install drive from a Windows machine. As such, they were most likely inclined to use something else instead. Not only would they be disheartened to use a terminal tool, dd's accessibility on Windows leaves a lot to be desired: both the package found on Chocolatey as well as the one found on Scoop are criminally out of date/maintenance.

  Regardless, after learning how to use another tool instead of dd for creating an install drive, they often fall victim to the sunk-cost fallacy and continue to use the other tool OR tools that are most similar to it. Letting dd slide for the foreseeable time...

• dd, while absolutely functional, is relatively bare-bones:

  • it does not download ISOs for you
  • nor does it checksum them to see if you got the right one
  • nor does it give you the functionality to put multiple bootable ISOs to the same drive
  • it comes with no guardrails; as such, destroying your own system isn't out of the ordinary. I can totally understand why some people would be hesitant to use something as such
  • it only offers a TUI while the vast majority seems to favor a GUI instead

  If someone would like to use a tool that does any of the above in addition to making an install drive, then dd simply falls short and is simply ignored/dismissed in favor of any of the viable alternatives.

recommend me a distro that runs well on an Asus laptop with an Integrated and Discreet GPU.

FWIW, Bazzite offers dedicated images for a bunch of different hardware including ASUS laptops.

Note, however, that Bazzite works a bit differently than your average distro. Though you should be more than fine as long as the means to address your needs are contained within its pretty good documentation. For all else, first try if the conventional method used on traditional distros works. If for whatever reason that doesn't yield, then consider reaching out to one of their community channels.

What is it you use your laptop for?

2. UNetbootin

I find it hard to recommend a project that hasn't received any development in over two years.

3. Balena Etcher

Unfortunately, balenaEtcher has allegedly become spyware. (Or there are at least concerns surrounding it.)

4. Ventoy

This used to be my favorite tool for this. However, even after 16 months have gone by and two different issues have been opened to address the same problem, it hasn't resulted in replacing the (binary) BLOBs by reproducible ones. Hence, security-conscious projects like secureblue have started to recommend against the use of Ventoy for installing their images.

5. Universal USB Installer

6. Yumi

Still going strong over all these years. Though it's AFAIK the only piece of software that doesn't host the code on GitHub (or similar platforms), but instead seems to rely on its Contact page for bug and issue reports. FWIW, they do employ Ventoy's bootloader. Unsure how this relates to the aforementioned concern related to (binary) BLOBs.

7. PowerISO

This ain't even open source. You can order your copy from here.

9. MultiBootUSB

Hasn't received any development in over 5 years.

10. ImageUSB Writer

Is this even open source?

This leaves us with:

1. Rufus

Great to leave M$ for Linux. Unfortunately, it's only distributed as .exe's. Nor is its maintainer interested to support Linux.

8. GNOME Multiwriter

9. Fedora Media Writer

Ah..., finally, we get to the "by and for Linux". Though, there are about a dozen or so that the article doesn't mention.

during the process I discovered that their kernel parameters were being reset with every kernel update

That's pretty horrid. They ought to have fixed that since. Right?

Makes sense. Thanks for enlightening your stance. FWIW, it has definitely been better since. But of course; however good it may have become right now, it does not take away your experience. Thankfully, you found your refuge in Arch 😜.

Alright, but you seem to be a (relatively) early adapter then. Do you still use it? Or have you pivoted since?

Thanks for clarifying!

One of the breakages was caused by an expired signature or something from Universal Blue, which hit all users. I'm surprised that one doesn't get talked about more.

Yeah, this was a big one. Though, I have to give them credit for how they handled the situation. I believe a lot of other projects got a lot to learn from them in that aspect.

One of them was caused by Bazzite changing how Steam itself is handled and not transitioning my system over properly.

Was this the transition from the (so-called) bazzite-arch distrobox to layering Steam into the image?

Was this caused by layering?

Because, and I quote:

"Warning: AUR packages are user-produced content. These PKGBUILDs are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly vetted. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk."

Thankfully, there's a mailing list that covers issues like these. Heck, OP's PSA was probably originally propagated from there.