The cards I have I guess are mid grade (9800GT/GTS450/GTX550). I don't really do gaming other than emulators for the old 8/16bit games. Since I've switched to nvidia, everything just works. I upgrade packages, let dkms do it's thing, and still working.

With fglrx, I feared upgrades. Always either a compatibility with my xorg.conf, or xorg itself. When it did work, there were graphics glitches and somethings that couldn't be rendered (composite + video = blue box). At the time, I don't think the FOSS drivers worked with the HD3XXX/HD4XXX series. They do work well with my Xpress 200M though.

With Steam supporting Linux, high end cards may actually be useful for gaming in the future.

We can hope. It would be nice if Steam worked perfectly. Then bazillions of people would stop littering the internet with pleas for help to get Steam working on Linux systems.

"Bazillions?"

Hi stratotak,

I can sympathise with you - although I reckon I am a good bit older . Why not just run Debian stable ? Is new and shiny always better ?

If you feel you really must have testing then go with a Debian based semi-rolling distro e.g SolydXK and let someone else do the "fixing" for you.

Steam runs fine on Linux. Some "windows-only" games require different versions of wine with differing settings and that all but requires PlayOnLinux. I have DX-11 games working with those on Linux and the low-latency is unmatchable in Windows. With IBM spending yet another billion dollars on Linux and Steam offering incentives, etc etc, it's only a matter of time before even the die hards will have to admit that Linux is just better, if you have even a little motivation to tweak and configure.

The only remaining area that is probably still a few years away in parity is multi-media recording/editing.

i think once you got it figured out, most systems are pretty stable.
it's when you start tweaking or install something NEW that needs some extra 4d accel, when things start getting messy and frustrating.

i have come to accept my setup, what i can and cannot do with it, and although it's arolling distro, i find it stable enough. i definitely spend the biggest amount of time on my computer on entertainment and projects.
but that doesn't mean i want to go back to windows.
hell, no.
i'm almost completely in control of my computer and for the world i wouldn't want to give that up.

sometimes i feel like setting up a new system, just for the heck of it, but then i ask myself: why? wouldn't you rather... i don't know ... create that piece of ambient music you always wanted to, or design a web page, or help others...

if something's not new any more, it doesn't mean you're getting old.

Besides.... getting old is an important cert!

I'm a bit old too, but I haven't forgotten why I started using linux. Yes linux is a bit tedious, but in linux you start bare bones and add what you use. In windows you start with everything and spend a lifetime trying to uninstall 99% of it. Only to have windows reinstall it. I like knowing what my system is doing. Even if twenty plus years later, I'm still configuring audio from the command line.

That sort of thing doesn't happen here -- especially not with Debian Stable.

Around 2002, my 20s had been long gone for quite awhile already. Most of my hair, too.

Oh, I see.

+1

The OP is the reason I switched to Linux. I grew tired of fixing Windows and trying to chase down updates for everything.
Though I would have to admit if Linux broke I probably wouldn't know how to fix it since I've never gotten any practice at it.

Install Linux in a VM and experiment.

I actually have several VM's but those are usually because I want to learn something else, I'll create one and install a new app I want to experiment wit. I learn a lot installing new stuff and getting it working.
My main point was that I've never really had to fix anything as it never breaks (unlike Windows)

I'm 46 years old and I've been using linux for years and I have written several shell scripts for common tasks on my system. It's not an age thing, it's a determination thing and a willingness to learn as much as possible.

♫♫♫ "I don't want to grow up, I'm a linux R' us kid" ♫♫♫

sounds like a crome problem to me
honestly dude your blaming a the faults of a beta program on linux
dump crome problem solved

Just turned 69, and still interested in learning. And still able to do so (or is that wishful thinking? ).