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Proprietary drivers apparently generally outperform open-source Nouveau drivers. The stable packages offered by default repositories seem to be too behind the latest stable ones available from the website (which need time to be tested/packaged specifically for Ubuntu).

My question is, are these drivers reliable/safe to use? If proprietary drivers are better than Nouveau drivers, are the latest stable drivers for Linux from the website better than one the ones packaged specifically for Ubuntu which are behind by a few versions but which are tested for the OS?

If I am to use xorg-edgers PPA, I read that I need to disable the PPA right after installing the driver because it will continue pulling driver updates that could mess up with your trackpad, etc. Why does it do this (since a PPA is just a third-party repository--why does it do something a default repository wouldn't do)?

If I were to update the driver next time, I would just re-enable the PPA, install the driver, and disable the PPA?

Lastly, can someone explain this (under "Importance Notice" to me: https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa? It warns that users shouldn't install individual packages from it but isn't that what people are doing via the process I described above? Also, what does this "Please use ppa-purge to remove this PPA. It is particularly recommended to do this before upgrading to a new ubuntu release!" warning mean/entail?

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  • "since a PPA is just a third-party repository--why does it do something a default repository wouldn't do" Because it's a Third Party repository, not a default/official one. – xangua Mar 15 '15 at 03:00
  • I learned nothing from that comment. – Iteration Mar 15 '15 at 04:36

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Now, before you go ahead, please note that one of the few vectors for getting malware onto your computer is a PPA, so never install a PPA because someone tells you so (including me). Always use your own personal judgement and do some research before installing a PPA! Having said that, a PPA with 1000s of users mentioned in numerous articles is always better then installing ppa:maffia.it/BotNet with a few 100 users! ;-)

Having said that, I've been running with the xorg-edgers ppa for more then a year now and I get automatic updates from them, so I don't worry about installing and removing the PPA (don't know where you got that notion from).

If for some or other reason you would like to hold packages, just do so.

What the warning is all about is that you should not download individual .deb files from the xorg-edgers repository as they are not designed to be used that way as the .deb files have dependencies among them and have not been tested outside of the PPA.

Installing individual .deb files is a bad idea anyway if you have other means of installing software …

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