Myself, I'm using Knoppix as my main Linux version, and there are of course quite a few drawbacks to the "development model". They are not new but rather well known, and I don't think anyone following this forum should be disappointed when things don't turn out as they want and expect. And I think it is a misconception to view Knoppix 6+ as an entirely separate distro - it is rather a Debian derivative staying quite close to standard Debian in many important ways, but also with quite a few diverging choices. Most of which I have found to be well thought out, so I tend to think of Knoppix as the "right" (i.e. acceptably good) way to build a shrink-wrapped version of Debian.

Whatever reasons Klaus K has for not notifying users about upcoming versions/road maps, I just have to accept his decision. In the open source world, things may happen in a much less predictable way than elsewhere, and I think it is way too easy to suggest that sharing details of progress/problems is uniformly better than the way Klaus K does it now. It is quite likely that Klaus K had himself expected to release the next version 1-2 months after the magazine version, and if he had announced this, people could really get upset and have their plans overturned when it didn't materialize. It is way better that people turn to other Linux alternatives if they can't live with the situation, than criticizing Klaus.

Another alternative might be to create kind of "shadow version" of Knoppix: Many of us are doing extensive modifications of Knoppix, and there is nothing to stop us from carrying out this to produce an updated version, kind of "next Knoppix without Klaus' novelties". This could be done in a much more predictable way than "the real deal", and right now, 7.0 could be the starting point for such a version. I guess one main obstacle is the differences in ways of working. Kind of bimonthly or quaterly update with latest good kernel, updated packages, updated drivers etc could be quite useful. With each release firmly based on the latest official Knoppix version, we could also avoid any unneccessary kind of forking.