Hi,

I gotta set up a server (dhcp, nat, firewall, httpd, vlan) and i'm looking for
the best suitable distribution.

I want to make a decision between debian and slackware. I need a stable
and robust distribution, which can be upgraded with minimum effort.

I tend to slackware, but i didn't find anything about the package management
facilities. All i got was it is very complicated with tgz and wget and such things.
Could anybody please explain what this is all about?

For debian i know, the apt-get works very well and easy, but the kernel seems
to be a little outdated and i was told, it is a week's work to have the newest
possible system up.

Thanks for your ideas, comments and tips.

Slackware has a similar system to apt-get, its called swaret, and in my experience, it worked very well.
Swaret
Also, if you choose to not use swaret, pkgtool is very easy for installing/upgrading packages, you just have to download the packages yourself. Packages can be easily found on
www.linuxpackages.net
Contrary to the name, its mainly slackware packages.
You should also check out Gentoo for really-up-to date package management while retaining the ease of use of apt-get and swaret, except done better, though its a little harder than slack or debian, as far as the installation,etc goes.