Satish Alwani wrote: And if so which would be a more "debian"
/apt way to go. And also have a nice clear interface to deal with out of the box, not to mention the support and ease of use.
So which distro would you guys suggest and between those 2 and if you have a specific reason why, would be nice so i can tell him.
Asking 'Ubuntu Vs Knoppix' from the end user perspective is like asking 'Veg. Biriyani vs Veg. (Fried) Rice'. The answer is 'Taste both of them and let you decide which you like it'.
If you ask a Debian guy, think he will say Knoppix is more Debianic than Ubuntu (may be the otherwise too). But of you interested on your friend to really feel that Linux desktops are much better than what he had been using, especially when your friend has some latest or weird configuration of hardware, then first try Ubuntu and then Knoppix. But, try *both*. Then, its upto him to decide which one he likes *more*.