I posted about a week back in the LFS forum considering switching distros. I've been using Linux for about 5 years now and I'm looming to get deeper into it. I'm using Arch now, but I don't feel that I don't have enough control or real hands on access to things. I would be using the computer for everything; gaming in wine, programming(basic stuff), and learning the ins and outs of the Linux system. I've heard great things about both slack and gentoo. I especially like the purity of Slack and the rolling cycle and repositories of Gentoo. Thought? Suggestions?

When it comes down to learning the in and outs of Linux I personally think that Slackware, Arch, Gentoo and of course LFS are the best distros to do that. So I think that, since you are already running Arch, LFS would be the best way to learn something. If you feel uncomforatble with Arch I would recommend Slackware, but only because I really like it, it depends on you and the easiest way to decide which distro is for you is to give them a try and see yourself.

Slack does sound good. If I used the current or testing repo and built some stuff from source it does sound like what I want. It is more "pure" than Gentoo, right? How is its multimedia support? How is wine?

Due to some license issues multimedia support out of the box lacks the feature to encode mp3 (may be some others), but you can get packages with that support from AlienBob, he also provides packages for Wine, but you can also get Wine packages for Slackware directly from their website.

Alright so it's similar to any other district that doesn'tsupport non-free packages. That's no problem really, as long as I can get it working. Alright, sounds like I'll be installing Slack today. Thank you.

Slackwares package manager does not handle automated package handling, (eg apt-get, yum, pacman) It's closer to rpm or dpkg. You mention Slackwares purity, but Slackware's purity is achieved by using vanilla software, (minimal patches and edits). You mention you're using Arch Linux. Arch is exactly the same in the area of 'purity'. I've quoted you because what you have said that you 'especially like' describes Arch perfectly; why don't you continue using it.

Debian Controls The Larger Part Of Distrobutions (Dramatic Way Of Sying Alot Are Based On It) So You Learn More Abou Alot Of Distros by Using It, LFS Is As Customized As Your Gona Get.
If You Truly Want To Learn About The Inner Workings Of An OS, MINIX has configuration and personality galore! All the sources are include so you can edit them and then a convenient make world is included! MINIX is however in a ready-to-fall-apart stage but is manageable. (Cannot Be Installed On A Linux Compatible Filesystem Or Extended Partion)
You could go to distrowatch and look at a few with funky names!

And as for the previous poster; he wants to use a new one for the same reason I want something other than Debian; where sick of it, we know every turn, all the how-do-I-do-thiss, all of the package management, we want something new! (Sorry If Incorrect)

I would recommend Slackware for learning. However, you should try them both and see which one you like.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I seriously thought this thread was dead. I tried Slack, and though I like the distro itself, the package management drove me nuts. Thinking in a similar vein to Slack, I decided to install Debian, but go for testing in order to get more up to date packages. I'm happy with it. I have control over my system, but still have support and common sense things work with little tinkering. Thank you guys for all of your input.