Just a few first observations on 5.3.1. I've been playing with it for a little over an hour now:

I'm glad to have a new release after quite a long wait (although there was a Jan '07 release of 5.1.1, this is really the first major update in about two years). But I didn't see a lot of big changes. There is no list of changes, closest there would be is a list of packages on the DVD.

The DVD boots fine on a new HP DV6000 laptop. Unfortunately, it doesn't boot on my Compaq Presario 1700 notebook, and the problem is not apparent. It doesn't seem to be a cheat code issue, as the boot gets into the GUI just fine and even lets me open SDA1 if I want; but the boot just never finishes and I never get the menu items in the bottom toolbar (as a result I can't run much of anything and have to power off rater than do a normal shutdown). I'll need to do more experimenting on other systems and perhaps with another burn of the DVD. No good understanding of this yet, but I'm mentioning this now in case others are seeing it also.

VirtualBOX is iincluded. I'm looking forward to trying out an alternative virtual machine system to VMware, although I'm quite happy with VMware. No virtual machines were included, so users will have to start from scratch and create their own.

I was really shocked that GIMP does NOT seem to be included, at least it wasn't in the Graphics menu. Of course, any Live DVD has to choose which programs to include and which to omit and there's no pleasing everyone, but this is one of the most well known major open source applications. I'm hard pressed to understand why it isn't there.

5.0x and 5.1x were a major disappointment for me in the wireless area, interfaces that I have that worked in 4.02 stopped working, and interfaces that other Linux Live CD recognize have never been recognized at all by Knoppix. I was hoping that 5.3.1 would improve the wireless situation, but at least for me this does not seem to be the case. I'm still having problems recognizing hardware and connecting o a system that could connect in 4.02. And WPA still seems to be missing (WEP has been so badly broken in the last year that it's foolish to use it at all now, not that it was ever safe.) This is unfortunate because with all of the problems wifi faces, I would prefer to use a Live DVD if I ever surf the web from a public access point rather than expose my installed system to attacks. But Knoppix 5.3.1 sure doesn't play well with my hardware. Others with different hardware and not needing WPA (it's not used by many public access spots, after all) may fare better. I do expect the posts by newbees in these forums who expect and want wireless support with continue and increase though.

Just a very minor issue: The menu system doesn't seem very well thought out or polished. Why, for example, have a sub-menu on a Live DVD with only one item in it, as is the case in multimedia/video ? The application could just as well be moved to the next level up and the sub-menu eliminated.

Overall, I'm glad to see a new version of Knoppix has come out. I do expect and hope that there are a lot of improvements that are not immidately apparent. I'll certainly be keeping a copy of this in my case of discs that I take with me troubleshooting. But I'm not likely to hand out copies of this version like I did with the 3.x and 4.02 versions. I want to fnd something more polished and with better wifi support to introduce new users to Linux.