You mean "Ubuntu 15.10", I guess? I'm really tired of having to add dozens of PPAs in order to have a sane up-to-date Ubuntu environment. I can understand core packages, which are mostly on the server side to be conservative, but packages like 7zip and others should be updated more frequently.
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On the one hand I feel Arch is trying to redefine some kind of OS X-inspired "chic 1337" and is throwing UNIX history out the window to do so, and on the other hand the feedback cycle with Gentoo is slow enough I fear I'll constantly vacillate between "gah, just let it rebuild overnight" and "GAH THIS TIME MY FINGERS DON'T LEAVE ^C".
What else is there that's sanely up-to-date out-of-the-box, doesn't have bizarre redistribution issues (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10613518), and would appeal to someone who uses Slackware but wouldn't mind dependency resolution?
I was already recommended FreeBSD and that's on the todo list.
Have you tried NixOS?
I run the unstable channel, which is updated quite often.
Don't be scared of the name "unstable", because it's really quite stable since the channel only updates when all tests pass. Also, it's trivial to go back to a previous configuration if the current one is broken (which is something that has practically never happened to me).
I've observed NixOS from a distance with a modicum of curiosity and promptly filed it away as an awesome server OS (due to the networking infrastructure, coming with a remote management system OOB, the perfect reproducibility, etc), but it looks like I'll need to take a proper look at it as a desktop OS too.
The biggest hurdle I've had with NixOS in practice, on real iron, on a real machine (not just in a VM) is that there's just no way to "cheat".
NixOS is different, everything is based on the Nix language, and if you discover that something you need isn't in the package-store, the only way to get it onto your system is by leveraging Nix to build the package for you.
Basically the only way to get software to work on NixOS is by learning the Nix language and becoming a NixOS packager.
That is: With NixOS you cannot just wget a tarball, ./configure and make if something you need is missing.
This is probably a very intended "viral" design to boost the package-store, but it's also a hindrance for those who cannot put in the time and investment required to fully learn Nix.
For me, it meant getting my laptop on NixOS was something I wouldn't be able to accomplish over a full weekend, and because of that it became a non-option.
If those constraints don't apply to you, more power to you :)
Actually, that is not true at all, I don't know why you're saying that.
It's quite easy to set up a development environment with the build tools / dependencies you need: https://nixos.org/wiki/Development_Environments
Then you can run ./configure; make; etc; at will.
Or if you prefer, you can install build tools / dependencies in your profile with "nix-env", like in any normal distribution (but I don't think this is recommended).
Why not use Debian Stretch (the current 'testing' release)?
Very good point; there's always Debian, and it's existed forever... ;P