Hi,
I've been using linux for about two years now, starting with SuSE 7.2, which was otherwise nice but it was impossible for a newbie to install new software.
I've been through a multitude of distros since then, SuSE 8.0-8.2, RedHat 8.0-9.0, Gentoo 1.2-1.4, Debian 2.2-3.0, Libranet, Knoppix, Gnoppix, Mepis, Mandrake... Been there, done that.
I'm a member of the Mandrake Club, but 9.2 was quite dissapointing so I'm running Fedora right now. So far, I've been happiest with Gentoo and Fedora.
Gentoo works like a charm, portage is incredible and the community support is the best I've encountered. But I believe it's inherently stupid to compile
everything by yourself. I'm willing to trade off that up to 10% increase in speed if I can just download a package and install it, compared to spending a day compiling, only to notice I forgot a use-flag and then I have to do it again. No, Gentoo is not for me.
I'm politically left-leaning, so Debian has some natural charm to me. I like the attitude towards the politics of software, but I just can't stand the inability to include Xfree 4.3. Apt is also incredible, it goes without saying, which brings me to why I like Fedora.
Fedora seems to give me the best of both worlds, so to say. I've never had this little difficulties to compile a program if a package is not available. The apt-rpm is also incredibly good. The only problem are the repositories, as of now, they're quite extensive, but not completely sufficient.
My main gripe is a program called xmule. Currently, I can only get 1.6.1 from apt-rpm, but I need 1.7.1. I also want a perfectly working mplayer. (what can I do? I'm a hopeless otaku) That really is not too much to ask, is it?

I enjoy switching distros. I don't like to tinker but I like trying new things. If I see some cool program, I want to try it. So far, only Gentoo has given me this, but as mentioned, that distro and I have some very basic ideological differences.
The only flavor of distros i have not tried are the buch of Slackwares out there. Now, I'm led to believe that Vector is the friendliest of the bunch, right?
So, when a tgz-package is not available for any given program I just saw on Freshmeat, I need to be able to grab the sources and compile it. I'm alright with hunting various libraries, if I'm told what I need to get.
If there's an automatic dependency-checker-downloader, that's all the better.

I have very small needs for my computing experience. Xchat, Mozilla, xMule, XMMS, Gimp, Mplayer. That's about it. If my ut2k3 works, that's just dandy, but I have a xp partition for occasional gaming.
Oh, and it would be so great not have to go through considerable pain to get my printer working and shared, as well as my sound card etc.

So, is there something very basic to remember when switching from using RedHat-like distros to a Slack-based? Some weird differences in configuration files etc.?

Give me your thoughts on this matter, and have a nice christmas.

Is Vec for you? It really depends on your needs. I run vec 3.0 on my old laptop
because it works well with older hardware, and has smaller foot print on its smallish HD compaired to other flavors of linux. My needs on the old beast are
pretty simple, some word processing, some net surfing, and looking for little green men, a la setiathome. So for me vec is just the ticket for my laptop. My desktop machine is another story ;-) . Actually if you reread your post you'll have found that you may have ansewred you own question. :-)

Well, Verctor Linux is small distro wich runs very well on old hardware,
but I found it quite buggy
I think the best solution for you would be Linux From Scratch

If he thinks compiling on Gentoo is dumb he's definitely not going to like LFS.

Vector sounds like a good choice for you but if your hardware can easily run Vector or Slack, why not choose Slack? The only reason I see for Vector is that it's easier to install on more limited hardware than trying tricks with Slack, or as something to play with in addition to Slack. Either way, they sound like they'd meet your needs. (Except that I don't know about xmule one way or the other.) Good community, binaries for major apps that are a pain to compile, easy compile for those you want to, not overly corporate, etc. However, there's almost certainly going to be some tinkering.

I am always confused about the compiling complaints regarding Gentoo, though. I 'emerge' and go about my business. It doesn't interfere with anything unless maybe I'm trying to watch a DVD at the same time or something. Worst comes to worst, 'emerge', issue yourself a 'sleep' command, wake up and there it is. But as I say, even that's not necessary. This ain't DOS and if I can multi-task, what do I care if there's an emerge process going on?

if you like portage but going crazy compiling from source all the time then try Debian and/or Arch

Too bad the XFree stuff that comes with the Debian project is unacceptable to you. Other than that, it's a really great setup. I use Libranet, Xandros, LindowsOS, Knoppix, Mepis, and Morphix, and I've also tried CD-Puppy and Feather. My day to day system was once a Libranet system, it's now mostly a pure Debian system with a mix of testing and Sid (unstable) download mirror sites.

Like yourself, my needs are fairly simple but I like to tinker
Over the course of 2003, I tried Vector and then College. Both of these taught me enough about Slackware to install 8.1, 9 and then 9.1 with no problems. I have Debian Sid and Gentoo on other partitions and I missed having a package manager in Slack. Tried Arch and ended up installing it in my Slack paritition and haven't looked back. Just as straightforward as Slack (Vector, College), but with a package manager and a growing repository of current version app binaries. You even can recompile any of the apps with all the flages with a few simple commands ala Gentoo. It even has a forum here on linuxquestions if you get stuck.

I tried Gentoo, not for me, it takes much too long to compile the programs, by the time the system is working everything needs updating. I am now testing Vector, so far it is fast, at least 3 times faster than Red Hat 9 on my system. So far so good, running IceWM with only the basic system installed. I tried several times to setup slack from the internet, and Mandrake, but my system is limited to 64 meg ram, so it doesn't work and I don't have a CDR, so I cant make CD's. So I will continue to test drive it and see.

OK. How about me? I have a p233 mmx with 90 meg of ram and have been running mandrake 9.2. It boots slow and loads firebird slow. I've already figured a few things out like dumping gnome and kde, using icewm and dillo for doc's. Had some minor skirmishes with config files and beginning to get a vague idea of what the rc.* files do, installed a couple tarballs and a rpm'd bz2 tarball.
I want better performance out of this clunker. I only want the basics, browse internet, word process, network to my other machine.
So how much trouble will it be for me to get that stuff up and running with vector? I am beginning to get a clue here and there, but am still a pretty green newbie

It shouldn't be a problem. I have p166/48mb and p200mmx/64 running vector.
It will probably take no more that 1-2 hours to set it up.
The only problem I had was it's default browser didn't work, so I had to install Mozilla Firebird.
It also comes with 'vasm' which make basic administration easier.