In praise of hub gears

I’ve had a couple of bikes with derailleurs which I’ve used for commuting and all worked well if you kept them clean and adjusted (which I never did).
Allowing dirt to collect can cause the chain to jump or even come off. In a worst case scenario (yes this happened to me) the chain can jam in one of the stays and break, which pretty much puts an end to your ride. (not too many of us carry a chain breaker or a spare master link on a commute).
After that incident I bought myself a bike with an internal 8 speed hub, the Shimano Nexus, and I’ve never regretted it.
Apart from adjusting the chain tension every now and again the gears have been maintenance free for about 4 years.
Here’s some pros and cons;

Pros

• Fast changes.
• Smooth changes when stopped. (great for stop start commuting)
• Way less maintenance
• Works well even when the chain is filthy and in the rain.
• No risk of the chain jumping off or jamming.

Cons

• Heavier than a derailleur set-up. (mine is about 1550g, I reckon that’s about 500g more than a MTB style deraillerur set-up typically found on commuter bikes)
• A lower overall gear ratio.
• A Shimano Inter 8 hub comes with a overall gear ratio of 306%. A derailleur drivetrain comes with 550% overall gear ratio. This means with one turn in the highest gear you´ll cycle a distance which is 5.5 times longer compared to the first gear. 
• Difficult wheel removal. Getting some tyres that aren’t easily punctured is a good idea. If I’m patching the tube I leave the wheel on and just pop the tube out..

Heres a pic of the one I've got on my 5 year old bike.