[dfc]

Switchable graphics works flawlessly on my lenovo w500. I've never had a problem in the four years I've had the laptop. I don't know what ironhide/bumblebee is. Is it an ubuntu thing or some proprietary driver?

Its 2012, what are you doing buying hw that needs ndiswrapper?

[mark_h]

I think switchable is something different; ironhide/bumblebee are for the newish "optimus" setups, which currently only work properly for windows AFAIK. It's quite neat: rather than switching between cards, the discrete card is used only for the windows/apps that need it, while the integrated card handles the rest of the desktop.

The ironhide/bumblebee solutions work by running another X display, and using virtualgl to draw the window from the discrete card on the main desktop -- but you have to explicitly invoke the applications that you want to run in this fashion.

[unhappyhippie]

bumblebee[1] etc are open source efforts to get the proprietary optimus systems working on linux. The wireless adapter I bought is an Asus Usb N10 from a popular computer store last week.

[1] https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/History-...