Drip uses less water so less waste watering the empty spaces. Also less evaporation. ;) And it keeps water off the foliage which can lead to disease problems.

Dave

with drip, you can also irrigate on windy days.

With drip in Texas, mulch a lot, and put the driplines under the mulch.

And with drip you can water even if there are serious water restrictions. Usually.

I think we're in for another dry year in Texas.

I live in the TX Hill Country and I use drip irrigation and it works really well. It takes a good while to water with drip lines but the easy part is you just turn the water on and forget it till it's done. I had a couple of old hoses that were not dripping the way they should any more so I took a pick and punctured each one at the perfect spot to water a bunch of tomato plants...

Another vote for drip. A suggestion: when possible set the emitters 4 inches to each side of the base of large plants. The roots will grow out to the moisture and make for a more healthy plant. In intensively planted salad beds, I set my soaker hose quadrants under a very light compost mulch.

Here is a link that might be useful: HarvestToTable.com