And you know that lack of standardization is the problem in your case?

You still don't tell us which Knoppix you tried. If it is 6.X, I could almost bet there is something wrong with downloading or burning if you get the same booting/setup error on several different laptops. Think I have run it on 15+ different models, with none of the problems you describe. Knoppix has been very consistent for me, contrary to Mandriva where - in my experience - you may get 11 different results in 9 different installs (i.e. sometimes not reproducible even on the same machine..)

If it is an older version, it may simply have to do with insufficient hardware support.

As for myself, I'm a bit troubled about graphics hardware detection/adaptation seemingly being worse in 6.2 than 6.0.1, but I don't know if that's a standardization issue. I would rather vouch for more eyeballs on the autodetection/configuration code than more standardization.

I also would never recommend the CD download/USB stick install as a preferred method for newbie users coming from Windows with little skills and limited interest. Far better for them to buy Knoppix pre-installed, and then the vendor could have the work with sorting out eventual problems. Already, too many are crowding fora like this with repeated questions, making them technically uninteresting.