In a CD/DVD-oriented distro like Knoppix, the CW says it makes no sense to password protect users (root or otherwise). In the case of a HD/flash-installed implementation with persistent store, it makes more sense to protect the KNOPPIX-DATA file. That way, anyone (e.g. the kids) can boot to the base system without a password, but all the goodies in the changeable system are protected from changes/prying. Knoppix is set up to make it easy to poke around and (potentially) mess things up, but not permanently. So, the sudo command gives virtually anyone unlimited power over everything not encrypted, until the next boot.

Cheers!
Krishna
p.s. I split this off from the prior thread from 2004/2005, as it seemed confusing to have them both together despite major changes in the distro (e.g. persistent store.)