I've had systems with hardware conflicts that just couldn't be resolved.

As a matter of fact, I have one server I installed about about a year ago that I had to turn off all USB support in the bios because it conflicted with ACPI functions that I could not turn off. This was a then current motherboard from AOpen. I attribute the problem to a buggy bios and/or firmware from a low end manufacturer and will not use their products any more.

To expect that all hardware will comply 100% with all standards is preposterous. The pressure on a manufacturer to keep up with the Jones' as it were will invariably result in some non-working implementations.

The only thing that open source coders can do is try to comply with known existing standards and implementations and note necessary workarounds and problems. The number of and closed source nature of most BIOSs and firmware will prevent some problems from being solved.

Additionally, older hardware is not targeted for new support precisely because of the need to move forward. Another similar issue: I recently fought to install debian to an old delledge server. The rebranded percraid card installed in the system required the use of an old driver in order to function. Research showed that the original manufacturer was no longer in business and the new owner had dropped support. This is not the end of the story however, as these servers are now being replaced with newer machines in corporate centers and they are being given second lives, the new owner of the technology has recently begun to support the older harware on GNU/Linux platforms, albeit with a properly named driver, megaraid_legacy.