This sounds great. I do have one very minor concern. But the fix could be very simple too:

As it now stands, I can just fit the list of forums ( http://www.knoppix.net/forum/ ) on my 1024x768 screen if I scroll it down to where the top news line is at the very top of my browser (firefox) and the last english group (Tips & Tricks) is on the bottom of the screen, just enough to see if it has new articles. With more groups I'll have to scroll the screen just to check if there are new items in the forums to be read.

I don't think I would want to take any information away from the main forum list (the discriptions are quite useful to a new user), but could you give us a link to a short form or forums2 page that packed in the key information (links to the forums and indicator of new articles in each forum) more densely, so that those of use who wish to just look and see if there are new articles can quickly reload 1 page and glance at it without having to scroll through it?