Not entirely Nvidia's fault apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus#GPL_blob_buffer-... (though obviously it's their fault for using a proprietary blob)

> (though obviously it's their fault for using a proprietary blob)

I couldn't agree more. The problem with these news sites [1] is that they make the kernel developers look like stubborn zealots that refuse to do something that would ultimately benefit the users, when in fact they aren't really doing anything wrong. The news sites fail to mention the root of this problem: nVidia, a hardware manufacturer, refuses to open source their drivers. This may sound like no big deal; after all, lots of IT companies do that, right?. But it is a big deal. Refusing to open source the drivers is in fact refusing to let the users have control over the their hardware. It's not an end-user application that you can choose not to use; it's the thing that controls the hardware you own. "You can use it, but only through this restricted interface we give you, you can't look inside!". Not a nice move in my books.

[1]: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA0O...

There is unofficial support, though! Bumblebee was fairly easy for me to set up, and works quite well (again, for me): http://bumblebee-project.org

Yes, Bumblebee is really cool.

My main problem with the Optimus configuration on Linux was overheating: as the discrete card (nVidia) was always on, even if the system wasn't using it, the computer was hotter. Without workload, the normal temperature on Linux was around 53ºC, while on Windows was 42ºC. It felt warmer on the keyboard too.

I had some problems trying to get Bumblebee to work on Fedora (at least the bbswitch worked, so the discrete nVidia card could be turned off, and then the computer wouldn't overheat on Linux). On Ubuntu though, the setup was really smooth [1]: just adding a PPA and then installing a package and everything was working :D

However, while Bumblebee is really cool, it still can't do what the official nVidia and Intel drivers do on Windows. You can run programs in the discrete card with Bumblebee, but you have to use a special command for that (optirun), the cards won't be switched on-the-fly depending on how much processing power is needed, which is the case with the official drivers on Windows. There supposedly is some progress in that regard though [2], in a project called Prime (awesome pun indeed)

[1]: This answer helped a lot too: http://askubuntu.com/questions/36930/how-well-do-laptops-wit... [2]: Blueprints: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-r-hybr...

Nvidia support on Linux has been primarily focused on the commercial applications (e.g. rendering farms) and not so much on consumer uses.