All this sounds like a lack of organisation on the side of the
community to me. Greg saying that he and others are twiddling their
thumbs because they don't know what hardware needs drivers says that
too. Where is the list of hardware-without-drivers? Until recently
there hasn't even been a list of hardware-with-binary-only-drivers
[1]. So anyone who has the necessary skills and thinks gee, I might
have a go at writing a linux kernel driver, has no idea where to go or
what to do. I wonder how many vendors have a policy of just ignoring
emails from hackers asking for specifications because they have
already given the specifications to Redhat or someone else, but
hackers just keep asking them again and again.