How and why to work with the Linux kernel community
Linux driver development model


A community-driven process creates in-kernel driver API's
Drivers are written against those APIs
Drivers are submitted to the kernel developes for inclusion into the OS source tree
Because all (good) drivers are inside one singe source tree, OS developers can (and will) refine the APIs whenever apropriate
There are no stable in-kernel API's, and especially no stable in-kernel ABI's
Linux development community releases kernel source code
Hardware vendor sells hardware only.  The Windows driver CD is unused.