The latest proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers, released a few days ago, include initial Optimus support for Linux, but there's still a long way to go until Linux will get full Optimus support. Until then, Linux users have Bumblebee, which is still required for proper gaming on Nvidia Optimus-based laptops.

The Intel Linux Graphics Installer only supports Ubuntu 13.10 and 13.04 (and Fedora), and even though the drivers should work on other Ubuntu-based Linux distributions like Linux Mint, the installer doesn't work and the Intel repository isn't added automatically.

But you can still upgrade the drivers to the latest version available in the Intel repository that comes with the Intel Linux Graphics Installer, even if you use an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution such as Linux Mint, by manually adding the repository. Read on!

Nvidia Optimus is a technology used to increase battery life by switching the dedicated GPU (Nvidia) off when it's not needed; when the dedicated GPU is off, the integrated graphics chip (Intel) is used. Until now, Linux users could take advantage of this technology through an unofficial project called Bumblebee.

About a month ago, Intel released a tool that allows Linux users to easily upgrade to the latest Intel graphics drivers. The tool comes with a repository used for the driver updates and it's available for Ubuntu (12.10 and 12.04) and Fedora (17 and 18). The repository had some multi-arch issues on Ubuntu 64bit, but they seem to have been fixed, at least according to my test.