This is nearly true. But definitely a million times better than Windows.
I've got hardware (maybe just one item) that needs drivers downloading (and annoyingly recompiling on kernel upgrade (so I don't kernel upgrade often on that system)). But the great thing is, the manufacturer has made drivers which work ok but some members of the community don't like them so they've made better drivers themselves!
The benefit of the Linux driver system (or the proof that Windows is shit for this) showed itself a few weeks ago when I found an old Video to USB adapter in a box of stuff. It wasn't mine, no idea how it got here but I wanted to use it. Plugged it into a Windows 7 system, couldn't find any drivers automatically. Searched all over the place based on USB ids, generic equivalents etc and came to the conclusion that support stopped at XP.
Plugged it into a Linux system and there it was /dev/video0
The great thing generally is, even if the driver was made mainline many many years ago, it'll still be there. As far as I'm aware "support" (actually being able to use the hardware) doesn't generally stop. There's going to be some exceptions but I know I'm much more confident these days of plugging something into a Linux system and it working right away. If it doesn't then dmesg usually gives you enough information to figure something out.
You can't go saying "immeasurably" and then go and measure it, man. That's just not on.