The AMD and NVIDIA drivers are not freedom friendly. They both are dependent
on proprietary pieces. AMD released some code/specifications to win over the
community. Unfortunately the move was a public relations stunt. The ATI
chipsets are not at all compatible with any free software system without a
proprietary component.
If you are looking at the desktop there is some support for the older NVIDIA
graphics chipsets through a reverse engineered driver. NVIDIA has been
uncooperative toward the free software community. It is best to avoid
NVIDIA/AMD graphics chipsets altogether.
If you still want to get a desktop graphics card the 9500GT is the best
supported by the free Nouvau driver.
We stock one such card that has good support for the Nouvau driver:
http://libre.thinkpenguin.com/
Intel's latest graphics chipsets are comparable and in some ways better than
the lower end NVIDIA graphics chipsets. On a newer system you are likely
better off just sticking with an Intel CPU/graphics chipset. Particularly if
you have no intention of playing 3D intensive games. Even if you are chances
are the NVIDIA chipsets which are supported won't play the latest and
greatest games anyway. They will though still enable you to play quite a few
older games and some newer enhanced games which have had the code released.
