> The one difference from the way things were in 1991 is that kernel has
> gotten much more complicated, so it is true that it's a lot harder for
> someone to get started from ground zero than I had.i

I tend to disagree partly. Sure, the the kernel core is much more
complicated these days. Still, if one likes playing with hardware, some
driver subsystems are still easy to get into, and most need help, too.
Stuff like I2C, SPI, 1wire and their slave devices, especially sensors.
Yes, it needs people with this amount of motivation to spend some time
and a few bucks.