Hey all,
I've been using Knoppix and its derivatives for a little over a year, and I have come to a point in repairing other users' computers (and my own) that I would find it very VERY cool to have a special knoppix-based distro for a very specific purpose:
Installing a bare minimum linux system onto the hard disk of the computer on a secondary (small) partition, and when it boots, it runs a startup script that allows you to say yes or no to re-imaging your primary partition from a stored image, using partimage. It would also install GRUB with a 2 second delay or something so that the user could just reboot the computer and 30 minutes later be working from a brand new, fresh install without having to worry about re-activating windows, etc. I'm very enthusiastic about this because of the implications that it has for those of us who get stuck doing reinstalls on our friends' and relatives' computers on a regular basis because they keep getting viruses. Wouldn't it be great to be able to just tell them to reboot, select the second option, hit 'yes' and wait 30 minutes?
I don't have a lot of experience developing, but I have a good grasp of the Linux filesystem and how it boots. I have the feeling if someone else here has some experience with stripping all the non-essentials out of knoppix, we could have ourselves a handy computer service tool.
Anyone interested in a group effort?