Recently downloaded and installed Slackware 14 on my Desktop Dell i7 computer. Probably one of the easiest installs I've had with Slackware. Either I'm getting better at the command line or Slackware is getting easier. Probably both, however Slackware has one new added tool called "slackpkg". This makes it super easy to keep the distribution updated with security patches. Simply type at the command line as root: slackpkg update [return] slackpkg upgrade-all.
The other tool that has been in Slackware for a long time is called "pkgtool" When you run that as root, you can install new packages, change installation settings, and remove previously installed packages.
Another great tool for Slackware called "sbopkg" isn't part of the distribution but allows you to easily install software from a repository called SlackBuilds.org. It can be downloaded here: http://www.sbopkg.org/ Slackbuilds has most commonly used software programs that are actually tested for each slackware version. I like how I can browse the SlackBuilds web site or search directly from sbopkg.
I find that by using the above command line tools that Slackware is no harder to update or install new software than other common distributions like Debian or Fedora. The video driver installation programs from Nvidia and AMD also work well with Slackware. The beauty about Slackware is that they don't change things just to change things like most distributions. They update packages with each release, but the distribution tools and installation is almost the same as when I first installed it in the late '90s. Stability and Consistency is something rare these days in the world of beta software.
