You can now reduce the wait for the latest graphic card driver in Ubuntu, which will only be available in a few months. There is an Ubuntu repository periodically updated with the latest open source drivers included in the xorg project.
These drivers may also solve some problems regarding desktop effects, especially on Intel card, in individual cases where these drivers are placed in the Compiz

For ages people have complained about how there's no drivers for certain products in Linux (or insufficient drivers), despite Linux having the largest driver database in the entire world, easily twice as large as Microsoft's largest collection. However, the problem doesn't lie in what's supported, but rather when it's supported.

It's been nearly seven months since I wrote my first article about ATI drivers and how they literally crippled my computer and my daily life (An Outcry For Improved ATI Linux Drivers). Last month, ATI had finally released their latest drivers which contains the new OpenGL component and AIGLX support (AMD 8.42 Linux Display Driver).

In time for the X.Org 7.5 release (whenever that may come), David Airlie has put out new driver releases for nineteen of the X.Org video drivers. These aren't updates to the mainline ATI/AMD, Intel, or even NVIDIA drivers, but some of the drivers for less common graphics hardware.

Currently, GNU/Linux users with Nvidia graphics cards have two choices: Either use the proprietary drivers and violate their free software principles, or use the free nv driver and do without 3-D acceleration. The Nouveau project is working to overcome this dilemma by producing its own set of fully functional free Nvidia drivers.

Linux overcame most of its former driver woes years ago except for one noticeable exception: Wi-Fi drivers. While many Wi-Fi cards and chipsets were Linux friendly, two major Wi-Fi chipset vendors, Atheros and Broadcom, kept their drivers proprietary. Now, things are changing. Atheros has released a true open-source driver for its latest 802.11n chipsets.

Last year when Ubuntu 8.10 was released it had shipped with an unpublished ATI Catalyst driver since the proprietary ATI drivers available to the public were not compatible with X Server 1.5. Now with Ubuntu 9.04 we have run into a similar situation.

Adam Williamson has made available a repository containing a full set of packages to install the driver for Intel Poulsbo (GMA500) graphics chipsets (found in the Dell Mini 12, Sony Vaio P and other systems) on Fedora 11 (i586 only, not working for x86_64).

Enhancements to the ALSA code for HD audio codecs, a V4L/DVB driver for the Mantis TV chip, drivers for MSI laptops and drivers for newer AMD CPUs are just some of the improvements to Linux hardware support.