You know,
I agree somewhat with this. I really like Knoppix and am still very new to it, so I'm not sure the solution doesn't already exist. In my opinion, Knoppix strives to be a "full featured" distro for a reason. All the software is good to have on the disk if you are demoing Linux, or testing hardware compatability before installing Linux. That's exactly what you want, and I would not suggest that it change.

But, once you get to the point that you want to run it all the time from the HDD, I would personally like to see a "base" or "core" cd that gives you a only bare bones system with KDE for example. *No* extra apps. Then you can add all your software easily with apt-get. Even script the install so anyone can cook up a custom system over and over just by scripting the packages they want. A simple, but very customizable and powerful solution.

If software installs weren't so easy with apt-get, I'd probably not feel this way. But when I can use it and get my software so quick and easily, I really don't see the need for all the extra software when you install to disk. It seems like it would be less fuss also since you wouldn't have to keep releasing new revisions when apps are upgraded. The kernel and system internals would be the only changes to worry about.

I do find mysqlf removing a lot of the stuff just because I never need it. It would be nice if we had the option of a bare bones knoppix install as well as the full blown one. If for no other reason than it's the easiest Debian install I've ever seen -