dear willfly,
doing a better job would depend on making a chain of 'correct' decisions, it's debatable if any one pilot among us would have made all the correct ones.
land asap is obviously best. post swissair the industry has looked deep into the matter and the current smoke related checklists are a result of this effort and they all try to acheive the same thing (transgressing aircraft types and manufacturers).
it's worth noting the following points, which have been learned via this tragedy (let's use that 20/20 hindsight henceforth):
1. smoke situations are such that there IS no correct method.
2. the checklists now try and address this best they can so it's a good idea to be intimate with what these checklists are trying to do.
3. first they call for protection (O2,goggles).
4. priority is to land asap.
5. we are now confronted with c/l for 'smoke' and if the situation is deteriorating - 'smoke removal'
6. if smoke removal is a priority, the worst case aims at acheiving four things - (i)get to the lowest safe alt/10000, (ii)depressurize the airplane, (iii)reduce to the appropriate speed, (iv)open doors/windows/vents
7. acheiving the above from cruise neccessarily requires a time period probably in excess of 4 minutes.
8. the 'smoke' c/l can be tackled in the interim if conditions permit and at the earliest opportunity otherwise, this tries to isolate the source, typically by removing elec power from busses or pulling cb's or shutting packs and could mean a serious loss of equipment - something to keep in mind in a smoke filled cockpit while carrying out an emergency descent.
all very calmly and simplistically put - sitting at my pc - and a lot of it very obvious once you deconstruct it.
we can't get away from the fact of 2 crew cockpits, prep is probably the best we can do.