what about GRML?! (Score 2, Informative)

GRML is debian based and tailored towards sysadmins. It is console/text centric, and provides a number of security "features". For those still(?) afraid of runlevel 2, there is fluxbox. It is Reaping the benefits of knoppix's hardware detection, debian's repositories/apt-getables, and gutted out KDE and others from knoppix and replaced with MANY console/text based tools. give it a whirl. For the afraid-to-leave-M$, try QEMU and run grml within your current OS. http://grml.org/