Please elaborate... (Score 1)

I started on Slackware and am still somewhat of a newbie, but I can see where riffraff is coming from. It doesn't do anything for you and therefore forces you to learn the ins and outs of the OS.. if you have the desire. Indeed RedHat is friendlier from what I've heard, but I enjoyed being forced into the blackness of Slackware and told to find the light. I may be biased because I've only used Slackware, but it is a good learning distro.