You could make two scripts and make them executable. One to turn off your specific port and one to turn it back on. Then make them executable and create some icons in your gui. Or put a hardware toggle or push on/off switch in line.
https://github.com/codazoda/hub-ctrl.c
This may work.
And...
This nebula desktop environment from play linux looks pretty awesome. http://play-linux.com
Here's some heavy xfce theming. http://ikipiyesih.blogspot.com/2014/10/how-to-make-xfce-look-like-chromium-os.html?m=1
I think the default should be simple but modern. Not default theme for whatever wm is used. It needs to be a custom theme. Maybe they should get a theme project going after they decide on a wm.
Apparently some like the windows 10 default theme http://linux.softpedia.com/blog/windows-10-accurate-theme-released-for-almost-all-major-linux-desktops-496831.shtml
And it can be applied to a bunch of desktop managers.
I really liked kde3. And icewm still looks good. But I think...