LINUX Fedora Core 6
(Fedora core 4 and 5 seems to be working as well but kernel should be at least 2.6.15)
For webcam I am using uvcvideo and gspca drivers and luvcview camera utility
(Note: I think gspca is low level driver and uvcvideo is a module ???? 
I am not sure but probably you don't need uvcvideo for every camera ????? Probably you need something else ?????)
1. select camera from the list, longest list that I found available on http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca5xx.html
- select camera with driver spca5xx or gspcav1 or linux-UVC
(gspcav1 supersede spca5xx and probably linux-UVC???? or linux-UVC also required a uvcvideo module????, anyway I have used cameras with all of the above and they seems to be working)
'NOTE' don't trust camera names, most of them are incorrect, run lsusb with camera connected and use device ID. If we are looking for camera to buy, we can find all device id for our prefered brand, then google them to find actual camera model, for example Logitech Quickcam Family webcam has id 046d:092f, and it is on the list, so it is OK to use this camera even if name is different.
2. check are those drivers already installed and running on your machine: lsmod | grep videodev
If they are not shown, look are they exixst: find /lib/modules/your_current_kernel_version -name gspca\* or uvcvideo\*
If they exist, load them using modprobe -v gspca or uvcvideo
To load them at the boot time insert in /etc/modprobe.conf lines like alias uvcdrv uvcvideo or gspca
3. Downloading or building gspacv driver. If not (likely) download driver from http://atrpms.net/dist/fc6/gspca/
It should have exactly the same version as your kernel, so if uname -r telling:2.6.20-1.2952.fc6 we should use driver gspcav1-kmdl-2.6.20-1.2952.fc6-1.00.18-4.fc6.i686.rpm
4. install driver: rpm -i gspcav1-kmdl-2.6.20-1.2952.fc6-1.00.18-4.fc6.i686.rpm
5. If your can't find driver with exact kernel version you will need to build one. Download it from http://mxhaard.free.fr/download.html or use one from sam:/u2/programs/webcam (link to gspcav on top of the page and uvcvideo and lucvview utility almost at the bottom.
NOTE - always build a driver on the same machine where it will be running or on exact clone with exactly the same kernel version
NOTE always build a driver using a user without our Control setting, I am using postgres
6. run yum install SDL and yum install SDL-devel (SDL-devel needed only if you are going to build your own luvcview ???)
7. build uvcvideo module iv not installed
6. install video4linux-kmdl and video4linux and video4linux-devel from http://atrpms.net/dist/fc6/video4linux/ ????? not sure, probably don't need it????
SDL-devel