I am on noveau since almost two years, with three caveats:
1. sometimes new kernels make it partially unstable (some flickers around, etc.)
2. you got to carefully choose your graphic card (best results I obtained are with Quadro x000 series)
3. of course you have not to need CUDA or ultimate gaming performance (my wobbling windows are enough for me)
This considered, noveau could be a great way out of this problems.