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plugging random old USB stuff into a computer:
linux: I guess this looks kind of like a webcam. Here you go, /dev/video0
windows: nooo! what is this?! go search for divers that dont register a hit on virustotal! see you in an hour.
Maybe back with XP. Since 7 windows recognized every single peripheral I plugged in and installed a generic driver. I did swap out a couple of those generic drivers for the specific device on my tablet and digital pen, but everything else was fine.
Random old stuff is available via Windows update. You'd be hard pressed to not have it just pop up and work.
Maybe for some old serial/parallel stuff you would have issues, but for anything USB? It's gonna be on Windows update. The days of searching the internet for random drivers mostly died with Windows XP and pretty much completely died with Windows 7.