Two USB Formatting Utilities - Mintstick and Etcher

Mintstick 
For those looking to add a USB formatting utility to their Linux desktops, Mintstick is a great option. It was originally developed for Mint, but can easily be added to other distros. Here is an article how to use it. Mintstick is a graphical tool that allows us to format USB sticks and create bootable USB flash drives. And, in our opinion, it is one of the best applications for Linux that we can find. 

At first, it was developed for Linux Mint, but can currently be installed on any Debian-based distribution. However, for the specific case of Ubuntu there is a problem with the dependencies, since Ubuntu 20.04 uses exfat-utils and in Ubuntu 22.04 was replaced by exfatprogs. And additionally requires xapp (due to a failure the "xapp-gtk3-module""xapp-gtk3-module" module).
Then a bash script that solves this problem. Detect the Ubuntu version and install the correct packages and the latest version of mintstick: Note : MintStick will replace the tool that uses your default distro. 

















You can download it here:
https://github.com/linuxmint/mintstick

To install it run in a Terminal:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mintstick

If it is not found in your distro:
sudo apt install mintstick python3-parted

or Save it as a bash and execute it with privileges:
sudo ./ mintstick - install.sh

Source: https://www.maravento.com/2022/07/mintstick.html

Etcher Utility
Etcher is a powerful OS image flasher built with web technologies to ensure flashing an SDCard or USB drive is a pleasant and safe experience. It protects you from accidentally writing to your hard-drives, ensures every byte of data was written correctly, and much more. It can also directly flash Raspberry Pi devices that support USB device boot mode.

-Create USB installation media from bootable ISOs
-Install almost any OS to almost any flash drive
-Offer an easy way for your users to flash your OS using our ‘Flash with Etcher’ feature

You can download Etcher here:

https://etcher.balena.io/#download-etcher

Besgnulinux: a light full featured distro

Besgnulinux is a lightweight, desktop Linux distribution based on Debian's "stable" branch. Using the JWM window manager, it is designed to be fast, lightweight and easy to use, suitable for older and low-specification computers. Besgnulinux comes with the Calamares system installer, the Brave web browser, and over 40 custom-built tools to control the systems settings as well as the desktop's look-and-feel. 

From ZDNET: What in the world is that name? Every time I say it, I think, "Best GNU Linux." Besgnulinux is the brainchild of a single developer who seems to be on a mission to keep old computers out of landfills, and I find that to be a very noble pursuit. The developer has taken Debian stable and created a user-friendly desktop with the help of the JWM window manager. What this does is create a very fast operating system that's also highly stable and works brilliantly on older hardware. 

I tested Besgnulinux as a virtual machine with only 2GB of RAM and a single CPU core. Guess what? The OS ran like it was on a powerful, modern desktop computer.
This distribution will appeal to anyone with an aging Windows 10 computer who doesn't care about having the most modern, eye-candy-laden UI and wants an OS they can trust will run reliably and well.
Besgnulinux uses the Calamares system installer, defaults to the Brave web browser, and includes over 40 custom-built tools to control the system's settings as well as the look and feel of the desktop.

I gave this light full featured distro a try and like all the applications and tools that come preinstalled with it. It uses the JWM window manager. Besgnulinux includes the Brave browser, LIbreOffice office suite, Synaptic package manager, Thunar file manager, Deluge BitTorrent client, Inkskape, Mousepad text editor, LXQ Terminal, firewall, screen shot tool, photo viewer, a large number of wallpapers, a Welcome screen, and a few Conky themes. This is a very nice distro for users with older hardware with 4GB of memory or less. I installed two of my favorite browsers right from Synaptic: Firefox ESR 149 and Chromium.  There is little that needs to be installed to get up and running as a full desktop suite application.  Below are my screen shots and where to get this distro. Enjoy.

You can download and try this distro here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/besgnulinux/files/

Kubuntu KDE desktop 25.10 is a good distro for Windows users

There have been many articles when Microsoft ended Windows 10 support and that the move to Linux is a great option with full Windows compatibility. Linux also works on most PC hardware with as little as 4GB of memory. So I gave Kubuntu 25.10 a try.  It has a lot of customization options and is stable built on Ubuntu with its big Software Library called Discover.  There also a large User Community and users who have solved most issues you may encounter. I had an issue with other KDE distros supporting my large 32" monitor at 2560x1440 resolution. And thankfully Kubuntu supported it without issue. I brought back a few of my favorite XFCE apps like Thunar file manager, Mousepad text editor, and Deluge BitTorrent client.  Below are my test drive screen shots and a link where to download it. Burn it to a USB drive and try it.  Enjoy.

You can download Kubuntu 25.10 here:

https://kubuntu.org/download/

Marwaita Theme for XFCE is similar to Win11

There have been a lot of Linux distros hoping to attract Windows 10 users who are unable to upgrade to Windows 11. I have tried dozens of distros over the last few months. I've found nothing is better than the XFCE desktop. XFCE offers the perfect blend of functionality, clean workflow, and pleasing appearance. I'm using Mint XFCE currently. This was determined after trying Gnome, Mate, LQXT, Deepin, Cosmic, and KDE desktops.

So today I gave the Marwaita XFCE Theme a try and it goes a long way in giving your XFCE desktop a fresh Windows 11 look. For those looking to make the switch from Windows 10 to Linux Mint XFCE, this looks very familiar. There are two versions of the the Marwaita Theme light and dark (Alt). Below are links to get it and my own screen shots. Enjoy.  Below is the Marwaita Alt darker Theme:

Below is the Marwaita regular light theme:

My other Tweaks:

XFCE Theme: Marwaita at:  https://www.xfce-look.org/s/XFCE/p/1239855
Icon Theme: Wow, at https://www.xfce-look.org
Browser: Firefox and Chromium
Music Players: Audacious and Deadbeef
Conky Theme: Drex
Wallpaper: Win11 blue swirl 

MAC OS Theme for XFCE

For those looking to theme their XFCE desktops like the famous MAC OS desktop, there are many options available. Below are my results using the Mojave-Light Theme and Mojave-CT-Eos Icon set. Wallpaper is MAC OS Sierra. The dock used is Plank with the cratos-lion theme. All of these can be found on XFCElook.org. I have posted links below. Enjoy.

MAC os Mohave Theme:
https://www.pling.com/s/XFCE/p/1275087/

MAC os Icon Theme:
https://github.com/zayronxio/Mojave-CT 
https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1305429/  (round)

MAC os Sierra Mountains Wallpaper:
https://wallpaperaccess.com/mac-4k

Plank cratos-lion theme:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/cratoslion/

More themes and icons can be found at:
https://www.xfce-look.org/browse/