It is Maverick Meerkat which is the code name for 10.10. The mongoose part
is throwing people off. Tip: Usually it is described by just the descriptor,
Maverick in this case. Calling it just Meerkat would mark you as a newbie.

You can also type lshw in a terminal to list your hardware. It will tell you
how Ubuntu has detected it and what driver it is now using. Scroll back to
the *-display section, the card name should be listed and the line
configuration: driver= will tell you how Ubuntu has it set up.

Places to look:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI

Laptops can be difficult because OEMs use lots of proprietary hardware and
try to keep secrets from competitors, but I agree thinking it is Nvidia
seems abnormal.