Re: MS is in decline, but Linux will never replace it
Somewhere between the AC's the truth is buried.
https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/FeatureMatrix/
A glance down the WIP and TODO should be sufficient to see whether you'll get a great "out-of-the-box" experience on your hardware. Note that NV130 isn't on that chart, so when you drop in your new 1080GTX assume all boxes are red.
I appreciate the hard work the Nouveau guys are doing a lot, especially in the face of the help Nvidia is giving them (none), but it's always going to be a long game of catch-up.
Those binary blobs are still a necessity for many users.
There will always be tweaking and driver issues to consider, especially on newer hardware and obscure devices, but that goes in Windowsland too.
It's just as wrong to say "Everything works perfectly out of the box" as it is to say "Built by developers for developers".
Most hardware works well and you don't need much IT experience above knowing how to google for instructions. So give Linux a try and see how you like it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
