--- title: It’s time to retire the ISO file | daily.dev description: Jay from Learn Linux TV argues it's time to retire the ISO format in favor of raw disk images (img files). The ISO 9660 file system was built for optical... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/it-s-time-to-retire-the-iso-file-mgnspi3jk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: It’s time to retire the ISO file | daily.dev og:description: Jay from Learn Linux TV argues it's time to retire the ISO format in favor of raw disk images (img files). The ISO 9660 file system was built for optical... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/it-s-time-to-retire-the-iso-file-mgnspi3jk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/mGNspI3jk.png og:image:alt: It’s time to retire the ISO file og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # It’s time to retire the ISO file **[All Things Open](https://daily.dev/sources/allthingsopen)** · 3 min read · 1 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary Jay from Learn Linux TV argues it's time to retire the ISO format in favor of raw disk images (img files). The ISO 9660 file system was built for optical media, so writing an ISO to a USB drive tricks it into behaving like a CD. Img files already include a partition table and writable file systems, support persistence by default, can skip the install step entirely, and offer one consistent format across PCs, Raspberry Pi boards, VMs and cloud instances. Raspberry Pi already solves the file-system-expansion challenge with an automatic first-boot resize process. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why is the ISO file format considered outdated for installing Linux from a USB drive? The ISO format uses the ISO 9660 file system, which was built specifically for optical media like CDs and DVDs. Writing an ISO to a flash drive forces that drive to behave like a CD rather than using its native capabilities, even though most people no longer use optical drives at all. _Weighing ISO versus img for your next Linux install? daily.dev surfaces open source deep dives like this one._ ### What advantages do raw disk image (img) files have over ISO files for distributing an operating system? Img files include a full partition table and writable file systems already built in, unlike ISOs which emulate optical media. This lets them support persistence by default, skip the traditional install step since the OS can be fully set up inside the image, and offer one consistent format across PCs, Raspberry Pi boards, virtual machines, and cloud instances. _Developers rethinking OS deployment formats can keep up with ideas like this through daily.dev._ ### How does Raspberry Pi solve the problem of a disk image's file system not matching the size of the storage device it's written to? Raspberry Pi uses an automatic first-boot resize process that expands the image's file system to fill whatever storage device, such as an SD card, it has been written to. This solves the core challenge of distributing a single image file across storage devices of varying sizes. _Tracking how Raspberry Pi's imaging tricks might reshape Linux deployment? daily.dev keeps that conversation visible._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@akkitto** · 0 upvotes > Man, good old times. I still remember putting Crunchbang on an 800MB CD. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [curl >](https://daily.dev/posts/curl--2dhe8frhg) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [macOS with cat \(Rufus on Windows\) — Nick Janetakis](https://daily.dev/posts/macos-with-cat-rufus-on-windows-nick-janetakis-chzm33pht) · Nick Janetakis · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [My new favorite way to run Linux has nothing to do virtualization](https://daily.dev/posts/my-new-favorite-way-to-run-linux-has-nothing-to-do-virtualization-ne187jkqr) · XDA Developers · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#raspberry-pi](https://daily.dev/tags/raspberry-pi), [#filesystems](https://daily.dev/tags/filesystems) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/it-s-time-to-retire-the-iso-file-mgnspi3jk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"It’s time to retire the ISO file","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/it-s-time-to-retire-the-iso-file-mgnspi3jk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/it-s-time-to-retire-the-iso-file-mgnspi3jk"},"datePublished":"2026-10-30T07:20:55.468Z","dateModified":"2026-10-30T07:21:42.700Z","description":"Jay from Learn Linux TV argues it's time to retire the ISO format in favor of raw disk images (img files). 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