Does Unity require proprietary graphics card drivers?

I understood that the Unity desktop in Natty uses Compiz and therefore requires a graphics card driver that support composition effects. Does this mean if I have an ATI or NVIDIA card I'm forced to install a proprietory driver because the open source drivers for those cards do not support Compiz?

Solution 1:

I believe Unity requires 3D graphics. So if there is an open driver that can do that, you don't require proprietary drivers.

Looking a the status of the FLOSS nouveau drivers, currently you probably would need the proprietary drivers for NVIDIA, however, they are working on the necessary features.

Solution 2:

For people who use older hardware or have driver problems the Unity 2D interface will be available in 11.04 (and in a PPA for 10.10)

• How do I install and switch to the Unity 2D desktop?

Solution 3:

I have an ATI card, and Unity/Compiz works fine for me with the open drivers in natty, although I'm sure that depends on the state of the drivers for your particular card. If your card supports compiz with the open drivers than it should also support unity.

There is a (impressively long) list of ATI cards with open-source 3D acceleration at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

Solution 4:

On Maverick I can use Nouveau for my Nvidia graphic card and I have 3D graphics; so I believe that on Natty you could use drivers open source if you want..