"With any operating system, hardware drivers play a key role in ensuring that the hardware can talk to the software and vice versa. Although often riddled with specific information about how a device works, many of these drivers are very similar in their design and code. For example, many USB digital cameras use the same method of storing pictures; although the devices are different, the drivers are similar.
"The increasing popularity and number of contributors to the Linux kernel have created a culture in which the kernel itself includes the driver source code. When compiling the kernel, you can select the drivers you want to use..."
