It may even be grouped into officially supported by the distribution creators and unsupported.
The auto-update function of Linux also does a great job at keeping your installed software up-to-date.
From my personal (albeit somewhat limited, compared to Windows) Linux experience Ubuntu really does a great job at supporting a plethora of HW (even closed-source GFX drivers).
Sabayon Linux is also one that catched my eye.
Unless you really have to stick to a specific distribution, I would recommend testing several Live CDs/DVDs to make sure the HW of a specific machine is supported and install the distro that offers the widest support.
Of course, youz could always compile your own kernel and add drivers as you please but that is kind of far from being an out-of-the-box experience... 