What would you recommend for a USB stick distro? (For those of us not ready to take the final leap)
Hmm. Good question. My first reaction would be to say try out Ventoy:
Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files.This would give you the opportunity to try out pretty much anything you want without the cumbersome process of installing the distro onto the USB stick. Ventoy will just use the existing ISO/image that you download.
With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk over and over, you just need to copy the ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files to the USB drive and boot them directly.
You can copy many files at a time and ventoy will give you a boot menu to select them (screenshot).
You can also browse ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files in local disks and boot them.
x86 Legacy BIOS, IA32 UEFI, x86_64 UEFI, ARM64 UEFI and MIPS64EL UEFI are supported in the same way.
Most types of OS supported (Windows/WinPE/Linux/ChromeOS/Unix/VMware/Xen...)
920+ image files are tested (list), 90%+ distros in distrowatch.com supported (details)
If not Ventoy, try out Linux Mint or PCLinuxOS
Some form of a load of Linux that is a persistent setup so one can put data on the USB stick and then use it in a different computer where the Linux IDs the hardware on the different machine and then loads up your regular desktop.
Here’s one set of instructions: https://www.fosslinux.com/60398/create-a-linux-mint-usb-drive-with-persistence.htm