alright, my first distro was slack 9.1, loved it. then i used mandrake, freebsd, suse, fedora core 3, debian briefly, and always came crying back to slackware. however, i was finally able to install linux on the family computer (on a second hard drive). first thing i did was install slackware 10.0, but i couldn't get the sound to work, and i kept messing up when i tried to upgrade my kernel. so i wimped out and got Vector linux 5, (chose it because it was at least slack-based) and i've been happy with it, everything works fine, but i feel dirty, like im taking the easy way out. what i'd like to know is if there's a way to copy some of the configuration stuff from vector that works the way i like (sound, kernel config, etc) to an install of slack 10.0/10.1/current/whatever. is this possible?

Sure! Just copy what you need and everything is in the same places, so its easier. If you do not know what you need, just copy the entire /etc recursively somewhere and all of your .* files and folders optionally. Then restore certain files very carefully. Vector is okay just to use IMO, although there is more power using stock Slackware. The configuration save and restore is good way to make Slackware configuration easier.

I don't know Vector, but if your sound card is supported by Vector, it should be supported by Slackware Linux. Search the ALSA web site for instructions on how to properly configure your sound card.

I had messed with Vector a bit in the past, and never really saw any features it had that would make it useful to me.

The biggest change I noticed was the installer, and only because it pissed me off. I don't need their installer holding my hand and telling me what partitions are.

But to each his own I suppose.

Yes, you ran away!

Sound is a problem in Slackware, if you don't know how to configure it. I recommend compiling alsa source packages and researching in the Alsa Sound Matrix about how to properly get your card running.