Why is Knoppix the best?

[Hunkah]

Hi, I am really new to Linux, and I am having a problem.

I have tried to install tons of different distros, all have been weird in their own ways. Only Red Hat and Mandrake installs are the ones that I can breeze through with only minor difficulty. Why isn't it this way with everyone? Is there some secret being held on to that only some are able to know?

I am asking this question here only because Knoppix is the only one that I have used that did everything on its own!!! I didn't have to do a single thing to make it work. It even knew the number to my dsl isp!!! All I gave it was a username password!!! All other distros I have tried didn't get a single thing right!

This is another thing I can't figure out. Knoppix is based on Debian. Knoppix was awesome, so I Downloaded all 7 isos of Debian and burned them. I tried to install it and it was one of the worst for installing!
Yet Knoppix is based on it!!! What the heck?!!

I don't know if this is a question or a rant or maybe something else, but can someone give me a hint on why this isn't a focus to most Linux Distributors? Only Knoppix made me want to try Linux. The rest are trying to catch up or just don't care. (BTW, I know that security is one of the main focuses, and you don't need to go on and on about it, it is just hard to emagine that ease of use isn't considered at all!!)

[MattT]

I have been using Linux for more that three years now and am no expert. But after reading your post I decided to give my view on the situation.

You are entering Linux at an exciting time. If you had tried installing Linux just a few years ago things would have looked very different. You would have found no graphical installation tool and KDE and Gnome would seem like toys. But things change very rapidly in the Linux world. This has put some of the older distros like Red Hat, Debian, Slackware, and SUSE in a position of catch up some of the time. While newer distros like Knoppix, Xandros, Libranet, Lycoris, and Lindows are all making major advances on the desktop.

Now to try to answer your question about why the more user friendly distros are Debian based when Debian itself is perceived as the least user friendly. Many Debian developers consider it a point of pride that you must learn a lot about Linux and your computer in order to install their dirstro. This does not mean that Debian is not as good as other distros. The user friendly distros love using Debian as their base because the Debian packaging system is the best Linux has. As a test try to install something with an RPM and then do the same with a .deb and you will see what I mean. The Debian developers put a huge amount of effort into testing and categorizing all of their packages into unstable, testing, and stable releases. In my opinion the great contribution to the Linux masses by Debian is not their distribution (this is by design meant for computer enthusiast only) but it is their packaging and distribution system.

Finally you ask why Knoppix is so great. I really don't know. Some how Knopper and the other great developers of Knoppix have come up with a system of auto configuration that even Windows can't beat. It will be interesting to see how long other distros take to catch up. I wonder what the most user friendly OS will be five years from now. That is what makes Linux so exciting, you never can tell!

[Hunkah]

Thanks for your input.