Will my Slackware 64 aweome 3 distro work?
 

I am a newbie to linux. Period. But I am getting a new computer soon and want to see how well it works. Here are some details on the distro I am thinking of running.

I am thinking of using slackware 64 bit with awesome 3 wm. The thought process behind this is that I will learn a lot of how things work, which I am anxious to do. I like speed but knowing what is going on under the hood is paramount to me. I like knowing all my processes and knowing where all my files are and exactly what is on my computer but where I run into trouble is that this might just be too complex for me. I'm not too great at programing so...

Does anyone have any advice?

Slackware is a great distro. Not only for learning, but also for everyday use. But keep in mind that you will have to read a lot of documentation, it is not a "holds your hand" distribution.
To use the awesome wm you have to compile it yourself.

While Slackware is an amazing distribution (I use it myself, and love it), I don't think it's necessarily the best choice if you're new to linux, like you suggested you were... I started with Ubuntu, which is rather bloated in my opinion, but I would recommend going with something more willing to take your hand and walk with you. Perhaps Xubuntu would be a better choice, using the XFCE window manager (which is rather lightweight) which you could then replace with Awesome if you didn't like it - but you don't have so much GNOME bloat :)

That said, Slackware is a very rewarding distribution, and if you stick to it I'm sure you'll enjoy it a lot.

Either way, I wish you the best of luck :)

I couldn't agree more with the previous posts. Slackware is an outstanding distribution (and one of the original god father's of Linux) but if you are new to Linux (or Unix like operating systems) I would positively do my very best to steer you away from Slack and over to Linux Mint, Fedora, or Ubuntu. Slackware will be ready for you when you are ready for it but you may not be ready for it for quite some time after you develop your Linux skillset.

Alright. Thank you very much. If anyone else has any other opinions I would love to hear them as well.

Since you are getting a new computer, I would suggest this, if you are keeping the old one:

Put something that is more automatic, as the earlier posters have suggested, on the new box.

After you have a while to get used to Linux, put Slackware on your old box. That way, you can take your time setting up and tweaking and tinkering with your Slackware system while still having your "production" computer available to you. If you run into a sticky spot with Slackware, it won't be a crisis; it will just be another problem to be solved.

I started with Slackware and I'm glad I did, but I had the luxury of learning it on a second computer.