Back before AMD Radeon Open Source drivers became good, the best options were widely considered to be Intel for Open Source that worked, or Nvidia for performance with proprietary drivers. AMD was basically considered the worst option you could choose.

Personally I have always used AMD anyway since 2005 on Linux, but that's because I'm a somewhat extreme political user, and I don't like Nvidia for multiple reasons. My wife however uses Nvidia, because she was less stubborn, and AMD worked poorly when she tried it.

IMO AMD is the way superior choice on Linux today.