I finally got round to being bothered to install the graphics drivers on my Ubuntu install.
Speed
Good god, it makes a big difference, doesn't it?
For the longest time, I used nvidia's binaries, but for the most part, since I don't play games on my linux boxes, I stick with nouveau.
Oh gosh, so happy I did it. I didn't realise the install failed a few months back. I just thought the binaries were terrible for the longest time!
I think what I don't like about the nvidia binaries is that they have to compile on your machine, and keeping them up to date is a chore.
Even worse, because Debian Squeeze (as of last year, anyway) used an old version of gcc, you had to manually set a different CC environment variable, or else the binary would quit immediately.
In any case, it was still easier for me to live without compiz... 
Updating it to 13.04 today. Wish me luck!
Good luck!
I prefer a system partition format myself 
/home is on a separate partition for me, so all my settings are saved, and the base system is upgraded.
Well, it broke during the update. I was going through an EULA for a TTF renderer included in 13.04 and hit a key accidentally.
Full reinstall time.
Got it reinstalled and working. Now drivers and software. Grrr..
