I'll add a few more cents worth.

H.K. is right about relative cost and ease of setup of a hardware router/switch combo. I see a switch on CompUsa for $17 and a hub for $16 but most of the switches and hubs are near the price of a router, what with rebates and all. When I was looking at them, the routers were $20-$30 more than switches and they were $10 to $20 more than hubs.

I guess it depends on what the user intends to do. If the network is going to be primarily made up of Windows boxes sharing a connection for browsing etc. a hardware router is fine.

I was thinking that if Knoppix was going to be the OS on the boxes, then one of them might as well be a router/firewalll and could also run other services. And still be used as a workstation.

One thing to consider while shopping is whether the hardware router can be configured via a linux browser. Linksys for example has this on their website:

Q: Does the Wireless Access Point Router support any operating system other than Windows 95, 98, Millennium, NT, 2000 or XP?
A: The Wireless Access Point Router is operating system independent. However the web based browser utility will work with Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. Linksys does not, at this time, provide technical support for setup, configuration or troubleshooting for any non-Windows operating systems.
Anyhoo: Happy New Year