[skonrad]

I've run SuSe and FC without *many* problems. FC had more problems than SuSe. The problems I've run into with both were driver related - kind of blocker level bugs for me (graphics card incompatibilities with current drivers / kernels, an external hard drive not being recognized, documentation missing from archives to solve said problems, shitty implementation of linux versions of apps that I'm reliant on), but I'd expect the same issues in most distros.

Once you get used to occasionally logging into the terminal it gets pretty easy. I'm not sure if there is one, but searching out a good graphical task manager (if such a thing exists -- I just missed it a lot) will probably ease the transition if you're used to certain Windows monitoring functions (I'm weird though - I obsessively watch thread counts / memory use).

The next time I install Linux I'll probably try Gentoo.

[skonrad]

I understand nVIDIA's reluctance - I base my decision to buy nVIDIA cards on the fact that they have things like PBO support in their drivers, and that their drivers handle large textures in Open GL more gracefully. I'm sure there's also some custom driver code for the Gelato project that they'd be less than thrilled about making open at this point. I think calling it pure greed is kind of silly.

Linux is only going to be more efficient if your core applications are actually developed in Linux centric environments, or as multi-platform applications with good linux implementations. I'm using a Windows developed application with a shoddy Linux implementation relying on shoddy Linux graphics drivers - so I'm unlikely to switch over completely any time soon. If I was primarily doing word processing and web browsing, or if I felt like coding something that wasn't Windows centric, then I'd use Linux. But yeah - it's just the reality right now that it's not going to work for me.