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I'm going to be installing Ubuntu 15.10 soon after a break from Linux for a while. I would like to know if nomodeset is still required on newer Ubuntu releases and newer nVidia GPUs. I have a GTX970.

Also, would be better to install the proprietary driver from nVidia, or choose the driver from "Additional Drivers", or use the edgers PPA and grab the latest one from there?

You should use the parameter nouveau.modeset=0 instead of nomodeset.

Install the Ubuntu system and the proprietary NVIDIA drivers in this way :

Boot from the Ubuntu DVD/USB installation media you had created before.

Highlight the option 'Try Ubuntu without installing' and press the E key.

Add nouveau.modeset=0 to the end of the linux line - press F10 to boot.

Install the Ubuntu operating system - when finished reboot the computer.

Highlight the Ubuntu entry in the GRUB boot menu and press the E key.

Add nouveau.modeset=0 to the end of the linux line - press F10 to boot.

On the login screen press Ctrl+Alt+F1

Enter user name and password - execute :

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nvidia-352

sudo reboot  

Generally it is recommended to use the NVIDIA drivers from the official Ubuntu repositories.

But as you have very new graphics hardware, you can install the latest official NVIDIA drivers.

The xorg-edgers PPA does not provide the drivers anymore and was replaced by GPU Drivers.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nvidia-361

sudo reboot  

After the installation adding the parameter nouveau.modeset=0 is not necessary anymore.

I had the same problem with my Xubuntu 18.04 version that runs on Nvidia GPU.
I tried to installed the latest Nvidia-390 and nvidia-prime drivers and updated my driver installs as these solutions show [1] [2], and I added nouveau to the block list, but none of these worked.
So what I did is that I added the parameternouveau.modeset=0 to grub.cfg file in bootgrub directory.
I added the line after every "linux..." line, for instance:

menuentry 'FAILSAFE' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {

    recordfail

    set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode

    insmod part_msdos

    insmod ext2

    set root='(hd0,msdos8)'

    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 36286167-4eba-4a1e-a202-155c6baafa01

    linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37-12-generic root=UUID=36286167-4eba-4a1e-a202-155c6baafa01 ro vt.handoff=7 quiet splash nouveau.modeset=0

    initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.37-12-generic

    } 

So, I believe you have to add this parameter in all the script. I tried this solution and Nvidia GPU driver stopped crashing.

Another approach as described here

Execute sudo nano /etc/default/grub and add the parameter nvidia-drm.modeset=1 to the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. Save the change you've made and run sudo update-grub.

Restart the Ubuntu operating system, and now, everything should work properly - right as expected.

Just an observation: our machines with NVIDIA GTX 10xx GPUs and Ryzen CPUs often got stuck with "soft lockup" and needed hard restart. Other machines with nomodeset and also the said machines after this setting did not get stuck. So there seems to be causality beyond boot.

See also: NMI Watchdog: BUG: soft lockup