Impressive...
There are some other problems that were not mentioned in the article that may affect those looking to switch:
First, Gnome isn't that friendly to users learned in Windows. I must admit that I am impressed that you would stick with Gnome. Anyways, for those who want something a little closer to home, using the KDE desktop will provide a more familiar environment.
Second, ATi card users are going to be in pickles.
Radeon 8500 cards haven't been officially supported since driver version 8.29. The Ubuntu Dapper Drake fglrx driver is version 8.25, in which OpenGL support for Radeon 8500 cards is broken.
Radeon 9500 - Radeon x1900 series users will find that the Fglrx drivers do support their cards and Avivo. However, AIGLX is NOT supported by the official ATi drivers. That means that if you want to run Compiz / Beryl on an x1x00 series card, you would need a distribution using Novell/Suse XGL.
AIGLX is supported through the X.org Radeon Driver which also supports Direct Rendering / OpenGL on R100, RV200, R200, R300, and R400 cards. So you can get Beryl and Compiz on X.org. However, the performance is anywhere from 100-450% lower than the official Radeon driver... and no Avivo supporteither.
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Not that Nvidia users have it any better. Installing the Nvidia driver invariably requires dropping to RunLevel 3 and running dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg.
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Personally though, I'd recommend HardOCP readers interested in switching to Linux, or trying it, download both Ubuntu and Mepis.
Reason being is that while Ubuntu uses Gnome, Mepis uses KDE.
Between the two, Ubuntu and Mepis share about 75% of the source software, which makes it easier to keep track of the background software.
For those who do take a look to Mepis, keep in mind that there multiple support sites available:
http://www.mepislovers.org
http://www.mepisguides.com
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Main_Page
great the Mepis is what i use an recommend to my customers an almost all of them like it an have told others about it. i have not had windows on my computer in over 5 yrs. i like the feeling of being able to use my computer with out the worries of virus or the other junk that comes with using windows
an most nvitia cards set up with little to no probs an with the new Mepis you can set up the Nvidia card on the install an it works on the live cd . i use the pci express 7300 256MB card