which video card

Of these two cards, which one would you pick?

nVidia Quadro NVS 280
ATI Fire GL V3100

I know this is a pretty broad question, so here are a few details:
- these boxes will be for developers, not gaming (ie: 3D is not required)
- dual displays would be "nice"
- only two "options" from Dell
- both cards show they have drivers for specific versions of specific distros

At this point I'm ready to flip a coin, heads=ati and tails=nvidia, unless you all could provide further insite.

I like ATI cards, but nVidia seems to be the technically superior card. Both seem to be supporting their cards with a proprietary driver in Linux. Which means you want to use their driver since the XFree86/Xorg stuff is probably not going to do 3D or take further advantage of the card, if it will run it at all.

It looks like XFree86 has drivers which will run the ati card in 2D mode only; didn't check the Xorg website.

Don't know about the nVidia card support in XFree86/Xorg.

No question at all Nvidia. Not becuse it is better or worse or cheaper. I use nvidia becuse is just works in linux (with thier drivers). The net is littered with crys of help from users trying to get the ati card to work. Just my two cents.

either should work just fine if you NEVER do anything other than 2D. both have open source X drivers that are okay. however, if for any reason at all you find yourself needing to install the proprietary drivers, I suggest you go nvidia. ATi's drivers are... well I was about to say "better than nothing", but I'm not sure that's true. I've wasted far too many hours trying to get them installed/configured in the past. on the other hand, nvidia's drivers JUST WORK.

nvidia's drivers JUST WORK.