What we need is to know which manufacturers are Linux friendly, so that when buying a webcam or any hardware otherwise we can avoid the reverse engineering scenario.

I'd argue also this is the way forward with the scenario described in this article:

Why not break free? - Sunday Times - Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2103-2025223,00.html

Post originally based on feedback to the following article:

Community: War Installing GNU/Linux or The Any Box: Do We Share The Hardware or Raise a Bridge?
http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2006020702526OPHW

are you expecting an exhaustive list of manufacturers for all IT hardware? that would a huge list, and frequently irrelevant to the manufacturer, as hardware is often supported at chipset level, not model level.

I find googling for the hardware under consideration + the word "Linux" tells you pretty much everything you need to know about compatibility...

How about a 'this product uses open technology' marker of some sort on the product packaging? This would surely be of value to manufacturers nowerdays.

A quick edit, surely, in the light of the current changing times as illustrated by the Sunday Times article (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2103-2025223,00.html) this is the obvious and needed way forward. The first thing the couple in this article are going to find themselves up against is finding e.g. a webcam that works with their Linux.

Google has a linux-specific search page. Just put "/linux" after the URL, e.g. for the UK you'd put http://www.google.co.uk/linux