Linux kernel 5.9 supports 99% of popular PCI hardware on the market

Completed Evaluation of hardware support by Linux kernel 5.9. The average support for PCI devices across all categories (Ethernet, WiFi, graphics cards, sound, etc.) was 99.3%. A repository was created specifically for the study. DevicePopulation, which presents the population of PCI devices on users' computers. The status of device support in the latest Linux kernel can be obtained through the project LKDDb.

To assess hardware support in the operating system, one might think to simply calculate the ratio of supported devices to the total number of devices in the market. However, firstly, neither value is even approximately known, and secondly, not all devices are equally popular. There are widely used devices whose support is essential, and there are rare devices with very few users. Accounting for the population of PCI devices on users' computers has allowed us to understand which devices' support is more significant and which is less.

To obtain the final statistics , all instances of supported devices were summed up and divided by the total number of supported and unsupported devices. To assist in organizing the search for Linux-compatible configurations, users are offered to add the opportunity to submit their computers to the database.

Source: opennet.ru