HI, New device drivers come out with new kernel releases.

As well as pre-release patches for the kernel.

Pre-release (non-stable, alpha, beta, rc (release candidate)) all come with a degree of difficulty.

To play here is not folly, but time consuming and for the enthusiast.

You may find a patch for your kernel for your new hardware, or perhaps there is a firmware update you could use.

The easiest way for a new admin is to use a full kernel, it contains most driver modules.

If however in the future you require a more specifically tailored kernel, you may roll your own. (make yeslocalconfig)

Most Distros release with a stable kernel, but you may hack your system to the newest kernel.

It may not work, but you may.

This has been my dilemma since beginning with GNU/Linux in 2005, new hardware is not so quickly adopted, but it does come.

You can help by submitting your new hardware details, (type lspci, for instance) to the pciid project...

http://pciids.sourceforge.net/

sometimes you can find relief here, and find it (your hardware device) is recognised, but not with your current kernel and pciid database.

anyway, I hope this gives you some input to your question.

Cheers, Glenn