utu, I agree that a 32 bit basic Knoppix without IceWeasel, LibreOffice and Gimp would be a very useful base for customizing, and hopefully it won't cost Klaus Knopper much extra work. We must keep his build proces in mind, it's not divided into stages as I suggested.

Regarding adding software on the fly, have you experimented with the update feature as described in knoppix-cheatcodes.txt ? "If you place an update*.zip or update*tar.gz file on the medium holding the KNOPPIX data, it will be unpacked onto the overlayed filesystem before starting "init", thus allowing quick reconfiguration of the system."