The paper cited is published by the Linux Foundation, which manages overall development of the Linux kernel, and employs the two lead devs, Linus Torvalds and Greg Kroah-Hartman, directly.
Greg's responsible for much of the device support himself.
I also noted that the claim isn't specifically referenced, but I'm generally inclined to believe it's factual.
Confirmation bias would be seeking out specific information to confirm a belief.
The claim dates back to at least 2008, where Greg KH states it was independently verified by Microsoft:
http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2008/10/how-linux-supports-more...
I've seen quotes from you and I've even heard from you in person that you believe Linux, the kernel, supports more devices than any other operating system ever.
I can back it up by that's true, and it's been independently verified by somebody from Microsoft.
Greg's a developer, not a marketing type given to inflated statistics.
That said, I've asked if anyone's got sources.
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