I was using 3.7 for a long time, and just got 5.0 (both CD version)

I find i can no longer compile my modem drivers, because they rely on the kernel source.

Also many of the dev libs are no longer available.

I have dial-up, so getting these is very painful (eg. 35Mb kernel source, and my modem only works at 9600 baud, plus then i'd still need many dev libs)

My main reasons for using knoppix were that I am a programmer, yet quite a newb at linux under the hood, so knoppix was
the perfect distro for me. But its not any more, its just the same as all the other 'easy' distros, ie you have to go through the pain of getting dev libs etc, then dealing with dependancy hell.