Nouveau vs Nvidia driver on Xenial 16.04

Question

Xenial beta works well on a test laptop with an Nvidia GeForce 920M with the Nouveau driver.

Has the Nouveau driver matured enough so that one needs the NVidia driver only when you have heavy graphics work, or gaming? Or is there a technical advantage to using it for everyday normal work?

(There must have been a reason to start the project and for people to continue pouring in hard work into it)

Solution

I am using nouveau driver for years now because NVidia driver does not allow me to use NVidia together with the onboard Intel graphics.

For me the nouveau has matured enough. I have not had a crash for a long time and it works fine. I remember to have crashes in the past. However, I am not a heavy graphics user. I use the computer mostly for development/programming (editors, compiling, VirtualBox, etc.), system administration (ssh) and regular office work (email, web browsing, libre office, printing, etc).

Thanks to Mark Kirby I would like to point out that I am writing about using NVidia with another GPU where both GPU are used simultaneously. For the case where notebooks have NVidia (concept called Hybrid Graphics - wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/HybridGraphics), the comment from Mark Kirby is valid. In that case use nvidia prime.

Comments

[Mark Kirby]

The aim of Nouveau is to create an open source driver for people who want all free and open software on there system, the Nvidia driver is better for anyone who does not fall in to this very small niche. Nouveau is not bad for most day to day tasks but lacks basic features and the reconfigurability of the Nvidia driver.

[nobody]

When I will see it working I will believe it. I don't want to swap between two graphic adapters. I want two drivers to work together at the same time - two monitors connected to NVidia and one to the onboard Intel at the same time showing picture on all three. I am not the only one having these problems (askubuntu.com/questions/751888/…). If I am not mistaken the nvidia prime allows to use laptops with two graphic adapters to switch between them. That is not the same as using both at the same time to create multi monitor dekstop.

[nobody]

I might have misunderstood the question and nvidia prime is something Timothy wants. However in my case with a desktop computer with NVidia and onboard Intel GPU nvidia prime seems like no option (wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/HybridGraphics). So it is not completely false information as mark says.

[Mark Kirby]

Sorry @nobody, I seem to have misunderstood your point here, I thought you were talking about swapping the chips, yes, the issue you mention exists, so I will change my vote. You might want to do a small edit, before the next person miss reads it but thats up to you :)