ATI graphics support?

[Mihamina Rakotomandimby (R12y)]

Vincent Trouilliez wrote:
>> I heard some time ago that ATI would free their drivers.
>> How is it going on?
>> How is the current ATI support in Xorg?
>> Is it now better to choose an ATI device over an nVidia one if running 
>> ubuntu 8.04 and the future releases?
> The development of the ATI driver is going very slowly, work on 3D, 2D
> and video acceleration only started a few weeks ago.
> http://www.x.org/wiki/radeonhd
> So the short answer: the ATI might be ready/mature in a year if they
> keep working hard and steadily, but right now Nvidia is still the only
> practical/realistic choice for "gaming" add-on 3D cards.

What about stability? My first goal would be to have a stable enough 
system with those drivers. I dont currently care about the "desktop 
effects".
One of the problems with nvidia is when wanting to use a Wen kernel: not 
possible without hack.
My brother, the gamer, will still switch to Windows to play his games. I 
just want a cool system. Why insisting on ATI? Because of the freedom of 
the specs.