Yes but I still find it kinda dumb that Nvidia is not involved in the decision making about the future of the Linux desktop, since they were the only ones which provided working drivers in the last years for Linux.
Both Intel and AMD/ATI have provided Linux drivers for quite some time now. Where Nvidis does have pioneering status is in providing solaris and freebsd drivers.
Yes, because the large market share of Desktop Linux is influential enough to get NVIDIA to bend to its will.