Some things are I guess, but you're being rhetorical.

Nouveau has long been playing catchup with nVidia (I'm on Pascal architecture and this entire series has caused trouble for the devs). Every time they crack it, nVidia pulls out a new line and they have to start over.

When I got this beastie it was the only solution for my 3D rendering (best I could afford) but it's been a major PITA where Linux was concerned for the best part of a year. I only noticed that recent versions of the Boot Repair Disk (I used that for when Windows breaks my bootloader) can boot without needing the "nomodeset" instruction.

This is honestly one of the reasons I prefer FreeBSD over GNU+Linux because it's more predictable and no one worships LT as if he were some sort of god. O/T really, but I often wonder if (or when) HURD had manages to make a workable, reliable system, we can drop the Linux blob for good. It's honestly getting far too big and far too BLOBby for me. RMS may have personal hygiene issues and he's as brusque as LT but he was right about GNU in the 1980s and what he said then is even more relevant today.

Which is, of course, why I'm trying Devuan...