I'm still working on sorting out my PC after installing the MX400. I've now established that it's only my account that's broken, so I may just move all my files and build it again from scratch. At least on Linux it's relatively easy to recover the settings for each application as they are all stored as files rather than in a registry database.

I'm even having second thoughts about whether to keep the card in that PC. I need to run more tests, but it doesn't seem much quicker and it adds to the system noise due to it's fan. I gain up to 32MB of system memory, but that's offset by the new DIMM anyway. Maybe I should try to find a slightly more moderm card that gives real benefits, preferably one with passive cooling.

On the subject of nvidia I was listening to LugRadio on the train today. They were speaking to someone from the Nouveau project that is trying to build open source drivers. That's a tricky task due to the lack of public technical data. It will be even trickier if they want to support all the generations of cards. Perhaps I should go for open hardware.

Of course I could build a whole new PC with much better parts for not much money, but I'm trying to resist the temptation. To encourage my greener lifestyle I was given a subscription to Ethical Consumer magazine. Most of the companies I would generally buy from do not get rated well, but then the reviewers have very strict criteria. In a lot of cases I will have to go for the least evil affordable option.