Is Slackware a good distro for somewhat new people or is there a heavy learning curve?

Heavy learning curve. You need to read its documentation carefully if you're a novice user.

And you can count on all the friendly people here in this forum

I'm a long time Linux (Slackware) user but definitely not any expert.
I try to help people but also ask questions here when I'm lost.

There is a learning curve.
If you have some command line experience and know how to edit text files that will help you. I think a new person can install Slackware if they read the Slackbook and the read me files on the Slackware DVD/CDs. Slackware does not have GUIs for system administration, installation. The Slackware installation routine is an easy-to-use ncurses installer (text-based).
If you are willing to learn and have patience you can install Slackware.
Check out the book. Have fun. We will gladly help you.

http://www.slackbook.org/html/index.html

After being with linux for the last 4 years, I installed slackware 3 months ago, and I really like it - it's transparency, simplicity - and the fact that everything just works (at least for me).

I think that as long as you read the documentation it's the best way to learn. Slackware is my favourite distro.

Slackware was my second distro (by a few months) and the one that REALLY got me into G/L, and that was when it was not as 'automatic' as it is today (2.4 vs. 2.6). So, you see, it is not the most difficult thing in the world.
However, you should be really interested if you intent to learn with it (I know I was). It is STILL a lot tougher than SUSE, Ubuntu or MEPIS. It is hoever, more Linux... whatever that means, it probably does.
And for stability and performance, you won't get much better, it beats any 'easy distro'. I am constantly trying different distros, so you can trust me on that point (sort of.) Once you get to know Slack, you are root (and they can bow to you, lol).

Its complete lack of official automatic dependency-fixer turn you into some kind of PackageWatch master in no time, so be careful, you might scare people.

That's one of the big things which makes Slackware even more awesome. Distros which pull in dependencies on their own usually pull in way more software than they need to and end up just wasting disk space and even resources if they have a daemon included.

At least with Slackware you're more in control, and to be honest I've never ever had an issue with finding dependencies myself.

Has been great for creating live distro from.

Heck Slackware was my first distro back when you installed it with a stack of floppies. Tried a lot of other flavors from buntus to gentoo and still do, but nothing pulls me away.

It's much easier now than when I first tried Linux so it is more than doable for a new user. Just make sure you use the documentation as your guide and don't be afraid of getting your hands dirty by editing a few text files instead of relying on graphical wizards. Lots of help here too if you run into problems.

Slackware is stable as a rock but it won't hold your hand. It also won't get in your way with what it thinks is right. You are in control. To some that is a beautiful thing. To you..........?

You'll never know until you give it a try.

Slackware is one of the best distros to use if you want to learn to use Linux.
As Slackware comes with very limited package manager it makes you responsible for dependencies etc. so when doo doo hits the air conditioning device you should have some idea what is wrong.
I have used several package managers and they have always done some weird stuff, installed useless packages etc. Moving away the control of the packages from me to the system.
Also, when you install software that doesn't come with Slackware it makes you learn different packaging systems (make, ant etc) so you gain valuable information while doing it.

Configuring Slackware is easy too. Theres just simple text files that you can configure for your liking.

The climb is steeper but the summit not nearly so high.

Hi,

The strength in a simple package management tool such as pkgtool allows one to control the system without fear. There are other package management tools for Slackware. 'src2pkg' is one that I hope will be included in the new release. But you can always use makepkg, explodepkg, installpkg, removepkg, upgradepkg that are installed on a Slackware system. 'man command' will get you loads of information for the before mentioned commands.

I still fall back to 'pkgtool' for simple management which is not a limited package management tool. I don't need someone to hold my hand to manage my systems with some GUI tool that will create unknowns or catastrophic issues.

The other nice thing about Slackware is if you do a full install there is more than enough software to satisfy most. If not then you could always look at 'Slackbuilds' to get that package to install your must have source.

These links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

"Intuitive" is a relative term ... it depends on what you're used to. Once you get used to slackware, you'll think suse is unintuitive.

I too recommend reading through at least the install part of the slackbook before attempting an install. It's not that it's hard, it's just different.

Well, Slackware is a good and intuitive distro for its fans and lovers.
It installs a complete desktop a lot more faster than SuSE, be sure of that. You have the complete freedom to install the packages that you want. One example, SuSE will install as a dependency pilot-link library, even if you have nothing to do with that. Suppose I want to see my package database in Slackware, ls /var/log/packages | less will show me. Where is the information about SuSE's RPMs?
As a novice, you could learn how to you use and administer a Slackware box, but take it easy, do not hurry. Using it every day for half a year, you will feel quite confident with this distribution.