The difference in Ubuntu 18.04 that requires nomodeset?

My laptop which has an Nvidia GeForce 310M GPU is 9 years old and it has been OK with all Ubuntu releases until now. What is the difference between 18.04 and previous releases that causes the black (or purple) screen while loading the live installation? Is it the kernel? For instance, do kernel developers ditch the old hardware in updates? I am asking this because I want to know if I can ever use updated distros (e.g. Debian) without nomodeset and graphic problems due to it.