Linux is really important, but it&#x27;s the best-funded FOSS project already. No other project gets a comparable amount of time by comparably skilled developers.<p>An open source driver for any particular piece of hardware is only useful for that exact piece of hardware, and maybe a few generations after it. But it&#x27;s usefulness dies with the usage of the hardware. Contrast with basic research, which stays around forever and can be meaningfully built on for much longer.<p>Research is more about underlying concepts than about actually building concrete implementations (be they software or whatnot) (though that may be part of the research process - but only as the means to an end).