Linux has the world's best coders in the community, so why can't they reverse engineer proprietary drivers?

I don't care about software patents, I just want my hardware to work. I think the strategy of appeasement has failed. Linux doesn't need an RMS, it needs an Osama Bin Laden.

part of the problem is that linux only commands 2-4% of the market share so there is no REAL need for this...

To reverse engineer software you need to dis-assemble it.If you study Computer Science you will learn that it is difficult to tell the difference in control statements when you dis-assemble the code.It is possible but very hard.

They don't reverse engineer proprietary drivers because the Linux community couldn't afford a legitimate lawsuit against it.

They do.b43 (broadcom) and nouveau (nvidia) are two I can think of from the top of my head. Probably most of the other wireless drivers are reverse-engineered. Compile a kernel and you'll see many more.

why do they need to ?take graphics cards - there are free and proprietry drivers, both workthe free ones are open source, one driver does a full range,proprietry ones are released by the company that produces the card, still one fits a range, but with a few more options,whats the actual point of reverse engineering a driver, you need the latest version for the latest range of cards,proprietry drivers are supplied with my mandriva linux and all work perfectly, but they are not supplied with ubuntu, it depends on the version of linux you are using,do you research on distro's first, find out which support proprietry drivers and which don't,don't just go with the normal 'ubuntu/mint are the easiest' because thats not actually the case