I'm trying to "convert" my cousin with Slackware somehow. Her laptop is an Acer Timeline 3810T. But i'm having some problem with the hotkey fn+f5. F5 works, but fn+f5 (should have been XF86Display) doesn't. It doesn't generate any acpi nor x event as i checked (on slackware at least). BIOS upgraded but wouldn't fix, searched but couldn't find any talk about this.
I wonder if anyone had experienced the same problem. Hope i could fix this else i probably must install XP (if this was mine, i probably would be fine with xrandr though :P)

With Slackware-current running AlienBob's KDE 4.4.2, when I plug an external monitor to my Acer eMachine 250, the external display is automatically recognised (after a short delay of 1-5 seconds) and a popup box appears that allows you to configure the display. The display settings can also be accessed via the KDE System Settings -> Display.
There is no need for Fn-F5.
Of course, your hardware is different, so YMMV.

That's really cool! But the problem is i don't want to use kde on this laptop, since it's not a powerful laptop. Beside kde 4.4.2 on current would just be too unstable to a newbie.

The specifications for that laptop are more high powered than what I am running quite successfully.
I have seen nothing to give me any concerns about instability. All is running sweetly! I thoroughly recommend it.