> It would be nice if Linux got the same vendor support as windows.

A first step would be if the kernel developers weren't changing the kernel-internal APIs all the time. Since the driver model on Windows rarely changes, hardware vendors don't have to rewrite the drivers all the time.

Additionally, it is a well-known secret that Microsoft provides quite some internal tools to hardware vendors to symbolically execute the driver binaries and check them for buffer overflows. Otherwise, the quality of the drivers on Windows would be a disaster. On the other hand, once the drivers pass certification (of which this is a part), it is rather easy for the hardware vendor to make the driver "official" - no discussing on the LKML that the architecture of the driver that the hardware vendor developed does not fit what the subsystem maintainer wants.

This all makes Windows a much more "convenient" system for hardware vendors to develop official drivers for.