# unetbootin/unetbootin

UNetbootin installs Linux/BSD distributions to a partition or USB drive

Repository: https://github.com/unetbootin/unetbootin
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/unetbootin
Homepage: http://unetbootin.github.io/
Language: C++
License Family: other
Last push: 2024-08-07T18:01:55+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 6274, "days_push": 756, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2458, forks 323 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:53.310096+00:00)

## What it is
UNetbootin is a cross-platform GUI application that creates bootable Live USB drives for Linux and BSD distributions. It can automatically download a supported distribution's ISO or use a user-supplied ISO file, and can also install to a hard disk partition.

## Use cases
- create a bootable ubuntu usb drive
- write a linux iso to a usb stick without burning a cd
- install a linux distribution from windows
- make a bootable rescue disk usb
- try linux from a live usb without installing
- boot a bsd installer from usb on a mac

## When to choose
- you need a simple GUI to write a Linux/BSD ISO to a USB drive
- you want the tool to auto-download a supported distribution for you
- you need cross-platform support on Windows, macOS, or Linux
- you want to install system rescue utilities like SystemRescueCD or NTPasswd

## When to avoid
- you need to write Windows ISOs, which it does not support
- you want an actively developed tool with frequent updates
- you need modern features like persistent storage setup or UEFI-focused workflows better served by tools like Rufus or Ventoy
- you require a command-line-only workflow

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: maintenance
- function: developer-tools, file-system
- domain: developer-tools, operating-systems, cross-platform
- platform: windows, cpp
- tags: bootable-usb, live-usb, iso-writing, system-utilities, linux-distributions, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- unetbootin/unetbootin (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:53.310096+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:30:01.004015+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/unetbootin/unetbootin (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:53.310096+00:00, sha 95fa5be6156e)
  - homepage: http://unetbootin.github.io/ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:11:08.467699+00:00, sha b95aa249fc73)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.