I have been using Nvidia cards SPECIFICALLY because of their linux support. LITERALLY all i have to do, is click twice or double click to install drivers. I would like to note, that i use Lubuntu. Lubuntu is light and simple and has all the perks of Ubuntu.
http://lubuntu.net/
Lubuntu has windows-ish style UI that is useable, even if your used to windows.
Also I'd like to note that AMD support on linux beyond horrid, have a look at my other post here,
AMD has far greater support for Linux and all of its distros. On their main drivers page it has its own section for the catalyst control center and the omega drivers. Nvidia, not so much and I had a horrific experience a while back ago trying to get Intel integrated graphics to work reliably.
did you read the comments in reddit links on overclock.net link? are you aware open source drivers perform considerably worse in games/3D compared to proprietary drivers? were are talking at times 15fps lower sometimes depending on the model of the care far far more than that.
Nvidia driver install is _very_ distro specific, sometimes it will just work and on others its a pain to install.
AMD support maybe be up and down justnow but you have to consider, AMD are the only ones out or the two activly making progress in the driver area for Linux. Nvidia have no decent open driver and it doesnt look like they ever will for the moment.
Besides the PPA mentioned above check to make sure you have the generic kernel headers installed this seems to be a problem with all Ubuntu based distributions not installing them by default.
The recent amd drivers have gotten better across the board, and the open source perform about 80% as well as the proprietary ones and the omega drivers seem to be doing fine. Nvidia can depend on the distro for how well it work. In the end both get the job done and only a fanboy would say otherwise.
well hopefully they keep improving it seems the majority of user over at /r/linux_gaming do not like AMD right now, the thread on the mods/tweaks needed to get GDM Working as prime example.
I have to say i agree AMD is up and down, i've experience both the ups and down. i'm somewhat poor so i have their older cards which are no legacy, even some time after legacy support was decent but, even on windows now the latest legacy drives has Open CL completely broken and also KBDsync error. (hd4850 and HD2600XT on windows 7 64 bit)
my best experiences with AMD is windows when the cards were NOT considered legacy. i've never had good experience with their older cards on linux and of course based on that veered away from their newer cards on linux based the majority of folks/comments like the reddit ones i linked.
in the end i've had a bit of better experience on the software side with nvidia, weather it be legacy or newer, windows or linux. I'll never not use AMD but, it's usually for windows only builds. i'll try give one of their newer cards a go in linux but, i won't hold my breath (can't get let down if your hopes aren't high)
but, under *buntu, i've had an EASY experience with Nvidia prop
I always have issues installing the Nvidia drivers that's ubuntu based and the install never works. I tried to install it with my Dell Inspiron 17R on Kali Linux and always I get the black screen where I get a broken GUI. Intel ones seemed ok. Not the best but a "get's the job done" driver. Never tried AMD since I never tried to run Linux on an AMD/ATI video card. What I still don't get is why so many Linux distros are still using Xorg. Move on to Wayland. Its far superior to Xorg and it provides backwards compatibility with Xorg.
Also, Catalyst from about a week ago is really, really rocking performance improvements. We're getting better framerates with Bioshock on Linux/SteamOS than we are on windows 7. doing some tests w/other distros now also.
I agree amd has good performance but the scaling options in CCC suck. even intel dose a better job. plus Xorg is holding linux back alot more then any driver and it will be a long time before we see a replacement. until then all gpu drvers will have only slightly better features then a windows XP driver.
Supa and Wendell aren't the only ones claiming some AMD improvements most of what i hear is pro Nvidia. i'm gonna try and give AMD anther go but, i all i have are HD5570 and HD6570 cards to test with. to REALLY test i'd need a R series. i might also give a go on my laptop if i get an HD7970m but, still not an R series. i'm certain if an R series will be in my budget. some times i envy sites/shows like teksyndicate.
either way i'm gonna TRY and make some time and give AMD and linux another try on one my spare core 2 duo machines.
In ubuntu/mint both Nvidia and AMD have integrated applications to install with 2 clicks. AMD much better support throughout distos and generally less issues when installing. NVIDIA installation can drive you crazy with an unfortunate combination of hardware and software. NVIDIA especially with older cards the support is none existent.
AMD also supports open drivers that do not provide 3D acceleration but are stable as hell.
What the propitiatory NVDIA has better is performance and stability over the propitiatory AMD drivers. Although I have not tried the OMEGA drivers on Linux yet.