Replace Etcher in installation guide

[danirabbit]

What Happened?

Etcher is doing shady privacy invading stuff

Steps to Reproduce

https://tails.net/news/rufus/index.en.html

Expected Behavior

Move to something else

OS Version

8.x (Circe)

Session Type

Classic Session (X11, This is the default)

Software Version

Latest release (I have run all updates)

Log Output

Hardware Info

No response

[1enify]

The only all-platforms FOSS alternative I found was USBImager. I thought it wasn't user-friendly at first, but the interface looks alright. If that issue gains more traction, we at least have an alternative.

[o-alquimista]

https://tails.net/news/rufus/index.en.html

That page is now 404.

Is it about the "analytics" problem? I found this from their blog and this in their bug tracker. They said they removed it in version 2.1.2.

[LuminousHustler]

I'll take a stab at writing a PR for this. Etcher doesn't do a great job anyways, and has left me with USB sticks that aren't bootable. The MacOS instructions may stay as Etcher because, I have no idea what to use as an alternative. Perhaps the installation instructions should be updated to use:

• Windows - Rufus (with screenshots from Windows 11 so it's nice)
• Linux - Popsicle https://github.com/pop-os/popsicle

I'm a fan of popsicle, it's been fast, reliable, an it's available as an appimage so it runs on all distros

[LuminousHustler]

@danirabbit I converted this into a discussion, because I wanted the regular website maintainers to weigh in before I commit time to working updating/changing the recommended installation method. #3945 (comment)

I'm looking for some input to these questions:

1. If we change the installation instructions to move away from Etcher, should we unlink the video tutorial on the installation page? - There is some inertia around using Etcher right now, including an installation video/tutorial that I'm talking about is [here](https://
   elementary.io/docs/installation#recommended-system-specifications.)
2. How do people feel about Rufus being the recommended USB creation tool on Windows?
3. Would we recommend UEFI over BIOS? - I'd be happy to put a note saying that the user should decide based on their system, but if UEFI is supported, then we recommend it...or similar.
4. How does the community feel about Popsicle? - I'd include a flathub link, and a link to the Releases page on Github so folks that don't have flatpak installed can still use the universal image.

Thanks!

[LuminousHustler]

This would address #3135 and #2863