That would be great. I've been eyeing OpenGL for some time, but only slightly. Wantering into the unknown isn't easy sometimes. However considering that so far the games that I have seen on the commercial side of the coin(Unreal Tournament/2003 , Quake 2&3, etc) have all ran really fast and smooth, I see not a reason to stay away if it isn't too hard. Cross platform capability doesn't suck either.

Can I mix and match 3D effects with 2D? Or is that pretty much as taboo as Direct3D with 2D?