No, this is NOT about their benchmarks and whether anyone cheated, frankly I don't really care about that.

I'm looking to buy a newer graphics card soon (probably 128mb) and I was wondering whether people would recommend the Radeon 9800 or a Geforce 4. Comments about price and performance are welcome, but this is mainly about drivers and compatibility.

I've had to fight before to get nvidia drivers working under linux, and i was wondering whether they've improved enough to choose them over ATI.

I primarily run Gentoo, but i'd, erm, *like* to get it working in slack and mandrake as well.

Thanks in advance.

Radeon is supposed to have bad support for linux nvidia is supposed to be very supportive if you pick radeon use red hat or a very popular distro.

I'd like to backup joe.

NVidia supports all their cards, where ATI only supports the latest and greatest for Linux. and then not well (from what people have said.)

Nvidia is my choice for all around 'stuff', games, etc. If your a TV watcher, you want to try the Radeon, but I'm not personally experienced with that.
The 5600/256 should do you fine for the coming 3 years for 139 bucks, dat aint bad.
http://www.pricewatch.com/

I'd agree with everyone else and say go for GeForce.

GeForce are better suited for gaming I believe and they're supported better under Linux.

I have a dual head ATI 7500 running in Redhat without a problem but I still preferred the GForce I had running in the last computer. ATI supports all of their newer vid cards in Linux but only in 2D. If I had it to do over I would probably go with the GForce.

Here is what ATI has to say about linux.

http://www.ati.com/support/faq/linux.html

And compare ATI's 'excuses' about linux with the "let's get it on" adoption policy of Nvidia, and you can see which company will come out on top.
After clicking on http://www.nvidia.com/linux and reading the Linux Advantage PDF file on the left hand side, you will get a good idea of which company is going to be left standing in the future. And this aint flame material, just basic business sense, ATI runs on 'old' business model, Nvidia has decided to grab the bull by the horns and ride'm cowboy. Who would you rather work for? Who's product would you rather use.
I would rather use something that I know is going to get 100 percent supportl. Nvidia is doing what they can, within the reasonable limits (corporate property) that they feel comfortable with. I've been happy with most of their products, unlike the 'left at the pump' feeling I got with ATI's Rage Pro Fury (dual GPUs). I absolutely give every company out there an even start, and let the results drive my purchases. I've been burned by ATI, FIC, RCA, Samsung. Do they get my money anymore, No! The only time they will is if the specifications of the product are undeniable, and at least one of my 'close' friends swears up and down that I should change my mind.
So, as far as I'm concerned, if you're using Linux/XFree86 and you're just a home-grown user needing some above average equipment for a reasonable price, Nvidia is the way to go. There are other chipsets if you have applications that need rocket speed.

I use NVidia cards for all my boxes that have run X and Linux/FreeBSD. ATI's support is a joke against NVidia.