The learning curve being "steep" maybe an inaccurate statement. A more accurate way of saying it is that Slackware is not a "Warm and fuzzy and we'll take care of it for you" distro. From the text based install to starting you off in a console instead a glitzy GUI, Slackware means business. It doesn't do alot of autoconfiguring. You must learn to use it, from setting up your network to getting that dang video acceleration working in X, you need to apply some research to getting everything up and going.

I prefer it that way. If I wanted a OS that does everything for me, without knowing the how and why, I would've stuck with Windows. Some things ARE more difficult in Slacware than in other distros. But that is a minor deal, since alot of things you can do in Slackware isn't as easy, or very fustrating, to do in other distros.

Example: Compiling your own kernel. In Slackware, you download either from kernel.org, or from slackware.com. Compile it, change it as you see fit. I have heard horror stories of other distros where the kernel is so "modified" for the particular distro that it barely resembles Linus' vision.

Well, enough from me.