Here are a couple of links about it:

http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/

http://freshmeat.net/projects/driverloader/

Cuddles, I understand where you're coming from, but all of that was said when Wine first came out too. Has its use harmed the development of new software for Linux? I don't think so, not really. More applications for Linux are coming out all the time.

Wine is still in development and it takes a lot of tweaking to get Wine to run Windows apps. I expect we'll see the same with this driverloader when, or if, it's ported to other hardware, or something like it is made for other hardware. Some of it will work, a lot of it probably won't. Considering that, I bet what we'll see is driverloader's (or the equivalent program's) use being concentrated on hardware that there's been little success in getting a Linux driver to work with, such as the winmodems driverloader already works with. But here's the kicker: driverloader isn't GPL, at least I don't think so. So all of the Linux coders who get interested in this are naturally going to want to produce a GPL program that does all that.

Remember, a development such as that will be a big boon to the poor, because as I mentioned in the first post of this thread, they (and I) can't afford to replace hardware, so if it doesn't work with Linux, or you can't find a driver for it, you're just screwed. Never foget the importance of Linux in many poor countries, and even here to the poor in the US.