Yes. In modern operating systems, GPU drivers usually consist in kernel component that is loaded inside of the kernel or in a privileged context, and a userspace component that talks with it and implements the GPU-specific part of the APIs that the windowing system and applications use. In the case of NVIDIA, they have decided to drop their proprietary kernel module in favour of an open one. Unfortunately, it's out of tree.

In Linux and BSD, you usually get all of your drivers with the system; you don't have to install anything, it's all mostly plug and play. For instance, this has been the case for AMD and Intel GPUs, which have a 100% open source stack. NVIDIA is particularly annoying due to the need to install the drivers separately and the fact they've got different implementations of things compared to anyone else, so NVIDIA users are often left behind by FOSS projects due to GeForce cards being more annoying to work with.