After reinstalling ubuntu 7.04 for 5th or 6th time due to driver problems with my gfx card, I decided to seek some help.

I have an Ati Radeon X1300 Pro and I want to be able to get drivers that allow me to run Beryl (or even desktop effects) but I don't know whether to go with Ati's drivers (I heard they suck) or the open source ones.

So if anyone has any opinions or suggestions, I'd really appreciate it, thanks.

Well open source ones (meaning "radeon" for non-3dfx-enabled, or MESA for possible 3d opengl) won't be as good as fglrx proprietary drivers from ATI, if you manage to install them. Ubuntu provides a package for fglrx and that's the way to go with Ubuntu; installing the drivers directly off ATI's site is more difficult, and because Ubuntu package is aimed specifically at Ubuntu and the drivers off ATI site are not, you'll get better results with Ubuntu's package if it works. If it doesn't, it's probably still easier to configure after installing the Ubuntu package (and upgrading your kernel, or ATI drivers, or both is a lot easier if you just use the Ubuntu package).

If you want Beryl and opengl desktop effects with decent speed, you probably won't get away with "radeon" (2d) driver. MESA OpenGL is something, but if you want to take the route of installing 3dfx-capable drivers, I suggest you take time and install fglrx. And after that..don't go upgrading your kernel too soon, because you'll need to reinstall fglrx after that.

Okay, so basically, you recommend the fglrx drivers, although they are harder to install?