I do think I have the wrong image of slackware!
Any Arch people out there? Most of the replys are from slackers and I hate one sided arguments

What arguments? I think all the slackers are saying try them both! Both can get you where you want to go, but the paths will be very different. Think of Slack as a block of marble you can chisel down and Arch as clay you can build up.

I think the reason so many slackers have weighed in is LQ is the closest thing to an official slack forum. Go over to bbs.archlinux.org and you'll find a lot more Arch users (Archers? Archies?) to bounce your ideas off of.

Good luck,
Jim

I have run both at the same time along with most of the other distros looking for an option to windows. Slack and arch are the best I think. With arch you only run/install what you think you need and it updates regularly, nice to play with, had it for about a year. Slackware has everything you need, feels very finished/professional and updates rarely because most packages it has are complete and stable. Updates are mostly security. If you want to try a newer package you can but don't need to because the one it has works. Running slackware for 3? years now and I dont try the other distros anymore.I vote for slackware, it was easier to learn than most other distros. You wont be disappointed.

Decision Made: Debian kFreeBSD! And Slackware!
Arch I will end up trying. This was too mission critical to have to manually edit config files. Debian will be second, I need something familiar to fall back on (using kFreeBSD will still give me a little adventure).
Now Arch is great, but I'm the command-line person at my school, not configuration file person (and I don't feel like going to a person who wears fake Afros of assorted colors to help me!), thank you.

Depending on what you want to achieve it may be possible that you have to edit config files in Slackware also.