nobelharvardsI have an A10-7850K.
(Yes, I use integrated, stop laughing, yes it is the top of the line APU, which means it ruins the whole point of an APU; cost effectiveness).
From my research, AMD drivers on Linux are less than impressive. I was wondering if this was still the case at this point in time? Are the beta drivers any better? I read about some nasty stories from other people about getting less than 30% of the performance using AMD drivers on Windows compared to Linux.
AMD drivers are a bit of a pain in the ass. I'm not too sure about this anymore, but way back when I used the proprietary AMD drivers, fglrx, I had to downgrade my X server because the drivers need one specific version and it cant be newer than whatever they want. This might as well not be true anymore because I've tried to avoid using AMD graphics cards when using linux, or I've just stuck to the radeon driver. Also performance might be a bit lower if you compare to windows. AMD's drivers have just been known to suck pretty bad compared to the Nvidia one. For best performance I recommend you get a discrete Nvidia GPU if you don't care about your "freedoms".
The open source drivers are incredibly easy to set up, usually just require you to install xf86-video-ati and whatever mesa package + some other stuff. These drivers automatically detect your resolution and you don't have to do any config editing. Resolution changes are made with xrandr or some graphical front-end to xrandr. The downside to these drivers are they, relative to the proprietary AMD and Nvidia drivers, have bad 3d performance. I can't say how well it'll perform in tf2 since I haven't tried playing tf2 with my A8-6600K, but I think it's reasonable to expect about 120 FPS, maybe a bit higher. Can't say for sure with your APU though.
nobelharvardsNo mouse acceleration, 1:1, stuff.
Judging by this article, it seems fairly straightforward. The writer seems to use a Logitech mouse, which would have drivers. I use a Zowie FK1, would there be any deviation from this procedure?
I just open a terminal and type in "xset m 0 0" or simply just add it to my .xinitrc. Makes, at least to me, make all pointer enhancement type stuff go away.
nobelharvardsWork.
Apparently OpenOffice does not exist anymore. What is the "normal" equivalent of Microsoft Office on Linux now?
LibreOffice.
nobelharvardsIs there something I am overlooking that is critical to the function of Linux as an "everyday" OS?
PlayOnLinux is a good frontend to WINE which sets up different "installations" of windows depending on what kind of application you want to run. For example, if you want to run Path of Exile it might need a patch to WINE that World of Warcraft doesn't need. PlayOnLinux makes this easy for you and keeps the two different versions of WINE separate.
nobelharvardsApologies in advance for being so naïve. Please try to ensure any explanations in your answers are dumbed down to the point where an unborn foetus can understand it.
Everyone has to start somewhere.