Knoppix came out in 2000, a lot of time had passed since it was "actually quite a bit of work to get get linux configured and running correctly on your at home desktop." If you were mot using a thinkpad or ibook a laptop could still cause some trouble.
I started using linux around 2004 and it still required quite a lot of technical knowledge to get working. Drivers were a big issue around sound, graphics, and network.
