'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe

*linux hat on*

Hardware generally just works under Windows because the relevant companies have comprehensive (and expensive) agreements with Microsoft that allow them to access the internal API. Back-engineering the external API (software in user- and kernel-space) is hard enough: imagine the complexity involved in doing it to the internal API (kernel-space and cold-iron) without any documentation. All things considered, it's surprising that quite so much hardware DOES play ball with the Linux OS.

Of course, this all assumes the hardware manufacturer actually gives a fuck about Linux in the first place: if not it's down to the community. And they ain't fast...

This probably doesn't help much, but I figured I'd pitch in and make a nuisance of myself anyway :)