Currently, you absolutely have to start X11 and load the driver before the GPU fan will slow down. How about moving fan control out of the X11 driver and into the kernel?

That way you can opt for CLI-only use without the noise.

Edit: Also, noobies might be afraid that their computer is gonna explode when they log out (which restarts X and thus spins up the fans for a short time).

This has happened to me many times, and just today it came to bite a friend of mine who was earnestly giving a try to Ubuntu...and renounced after losing his graphical interface except for bulletx. The problem is simple: sometimes kernel updates are released hours or even days before the restricted drivers packages are updated too (read: recompiled and packaged for new kernel). As a result, obviously, when the system is restarted the graphical driver does not function anymore.
And I am sure that it can happen also with other drivers.

The solution? One of two; either:

the kernel packages are completely held back until ANY AND ALL restricted drivers packages are updated (which is already done in Hardy, to be honest, considering that so far I have done three or four kernel updates and alwyas I saw in contemporary a new, repckaged nvidia-glx-new), or:

the update-manager program should check if any restricted drivers are installed, check if they are up-to-date with the kernel update, and in case they are not, blacklist the kernel updates until such a time when updating is secure.

I think this feature is quite a must; most users in the future are not even going to check what they are going to update at all; and it is sure to turn many people off Ubuntu if they suddenly find their boxes without graphical, or network (potentially even worse considering we have bulletproof X!) support.