boot.iso vs netinst.iso vs efiboot.img

[John Reiser]

> Yeah OK but the first media recommended is still DVD/CD which also doesn't allow for persistent user data. The modern equivalent is to dd to a USB stick. In fact I think this idea of burning actual media is immensely wasteful and archaic and shouldn't be the first recommended media anymore. Increasingly laptops aren't coming with optical drives at all.

It's a matter of cost, which varies.  My out-of-pocket expense
of burning "4x" DVD+RW (@ $0.24) has been about the same as using USB stick (@ $12.)
I've had USB sticks wear out (bit errors, and not from too many writes)
after some years, just as I have had DVD+RW fail after fewer than 100 rewrites.
Sometimes wall-clock latency matters a lot to me; then top-quality "16x" DVD+R
(@ $0.25) is best.

> 
>>
>> I have not had problems using livecd-iso-to-disk with full install .iso files.
> 
> I'm not having problem either, except that if you follow the documentation, you don't get UEFI or UEFI Secure Boot capable USB media.

I have no problems producing USB sticks that are UEFI bootable [and they do work],
because I read the documentation, which includes "man livecd-iso-to-disk",
where the "--efi" parameter is explained.

>  You don't get persistent user data. 

I do get persistent user data when I use the appropriate incantation.

> You don't get a reformat if you've used the USB stick for something else, and you end up with obscure problems you didn't know a reformat would fix. So…

I get a re-format when I ask for it via --format.

>> The only hassles are when I switch between i386 and x86_64, or between
>> UEFI and non-UEFI systems, both of which work better for me with a re-format.

<<snip>>
> So I'm still left wondering why dd is last.

It's a wiki.  Put your $0.02 there, too.

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