The approach isn't without merit. Promoting open source is important. If there was a stable binary driver interface we would have far fewer open source drivers.

The approach isn't without merit. Promoting open source is important. If there was a stable binary driver interface we would have far fewer open source drivers. With open source drivers we have added security and the ability to fix bugs. Not to mention the ability to maintain them ourselves if the need arises. I've heard it argued that it's for this reason that Linux is more successful than other more liberally licensed open source kernels like the BSDs. Regarding your Radeon card. I Hold Linux support very highly in my requirements for buying new hardware. For this reason I've always bought Nvidia cards over ATI. You can't just buy anything and expect it to work flawlessly. Saving $30 on the purchase of a graphics card has hidden costs. ATI can't even make a decent windows driver let alone a Linux one. http://lwn.net/Articles/159313/ http://lwn.net/Articles/159313/