I've never had an issue with any drivers on Linux, everything I use just works. Even some old obscure drawing tablet from 2005 that said it required you to install its driver worked instantly.
This is true today. Had you tried that back in 2005, you'd very likely be fiddling with drivers. I specifically remember making a disk that contained all the drivers I'd need if I had to reinstall for any reason. Without it and without a network, you'd have to have another computer available to grab drivers from the internet.
You had to do this with windows in 2005 too... In fact I've had to use a different computer to download drivers as recently as 2017 for a Windows 10 computer...
Well, yes. I wasn't really intending to make a comparison. I was just explaining the meme. There was a time when getting your wifi/network card going in Linux was somewhat of a hassle for many.