KDE descktop recommendations

[towjamb]

I'd make the explorer better, I find it annoying.

Not sure how to make Konquorer better -- it rocks already. I think you mean 'make it like Explorer', for Windows converts. Then you would alienate all the Konquorer loyalists for the sake on a few who resist change or are afraid to learn (been there.) Seriously, Konqueror is quite configurable and you could almost make it act like Explorer but without all the bugs.

Get rid of Mozilla and use mozilla firebird and providel the advert + pop up filters by default.
Get rid of the lousy kde mail readers, use mozilla thunderbird

Fair enough. I'm sure the space would be more useful. However, GTK apps just don't look as good.

Have some kind of general firewalling application there,

Guarddog and Firestarter are GUI apps for firewalling. I'll second that.

Reduce the klutter on the "start menu"

The 'Klutter' is really a KDE issue. Personally, I think it's way more logical than, say, WinXP's multi-tier labyrinth of hell, but that's my opinion. 3.2 should be cleaner.

Make the panel icons better.

Not sure what you mean by better. Crystal SVG is pretty much the standard in the KDE world.

Have a kind of "Knoppix Update" on the "start menu" that runs apt-get

Kpackage is in the system menu, but. I suppose, not as obvious as a 'Knoppix update' button.
I'm not sure what you expect from this distro, but I think it's more of a demo/system rescue disk so lacks some polish in exchange for functionality. Perhaps your wife may better be served with LindowsLive or MandrakeMove. Have you tried Mepis, PCLinuxOS, Morphix ... it's all about choice.
For me, Knoppix was a quick and easy way to get a Debian install that was easy and worked right out of the box. I also use it as a rescue disk and to show-off to friends. I think it's just great the way it is.