On my 2-3yr old laptop w/ a 8600GT, I agree that for 2D only X11 apps, Nouveau drivers seem to have less issues with tearing and drawing than the proprietary drivers. But once you want to need power management to run on battery, play games, or watch HD videos, the Nouveau are buggy, glitchy, and useless.
I have an extensive Steam library and while most of the Linux games work fine with proprietary, they are unplayable with Nouveau. I really hope Valve's commitment to Linux motivates Nvidia to put some resources into their open source drivers like AMD and Intel have done. If Nouveau was my only option under Linux, I'd switch to Windows.
Even for non-gammers, how can you seriously recommend laptop drivers that don't offer critical features like power management and video out?
I have an extensive Steam library and while most of the Linux games work fine with proprietary, they are unplayable with Nouveau. I really hope Valve's commitment to Linux motivates Nvidia to put some resources into their open source drivers like AMD and Intel have done. If Nouveau was my only option under Linux, I'd switch to Windows.
Even for non-gammers, how can you seriously recommend laptop drivers that don't offer critical features like power management and video out?