That’s a lovely story! Knoppix was such a revelation in terms of having an entire operating system that you could just “take with you” on a CD or USB stick. I first discovered Linux through Mandrake and Red Hat, was back in the late 90’s, - I think everything was harder then in terms of configuration and support. Wi-Fi and audio, display screens, everything was just hit and miss, and for some things (looking at you XF86Config!), liable to fry your hardware.
There’s so much these days that “just works” - and I’m in awe of the fact that, since I dropped Windows fully after 8 came out, Linux for me is something I can absolutely depend upon. I understand how it works and what I need to do to fix things when they do go south. That sense of control and ownership, it’s priceless.