[CentOS] Linux vs Windows Drivers

Wed Dec 26 17:06:00 UTC 2007
Bit <bit2300 at gmail.com>

What is so fundamentally different about drivers in Linux and Windows?

Specifically, video card drivers have always frustrated my understanding 
of what's going on under the hood.  Say I have a nice video card from 
ATI.  I need to install some cool drivers from ATI in order to make the 
card work at its best and in order to do any cool things like dual 
monitors.  I download these drivers from the company's website, install 
them on my machine, and I'm off and running.  Assuming all goes 
according to plan.

That's all fine.  Now, this is what confuses me.  In Windows, I'm done 
forever at this point.  I've never had a problem, nor heard of a 
problem, where I had to mysteriously reinstall the drivers for my video 
card after an Automatic Update.  Not so in Linux.  Every kernel update 
has me wondering if I'll have to reinstall the drivers for my video 
card.  It seems like sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.  I just 
reboot and pray that my video card is still working afterwards.

Not knowing a great deal about how drivers really work in Linux or 
Windows, I can only really conclude that either Microsoft never updates 
the Windows kernel (at least not in a way that screws with driver 
interfaces), or there is something very different about how the two 
operating systems handle drivers.  Can anyone shed some light on the 
subject for me?

Thanks,
bit