Go for it. Windows is a great OS to get some work done.
From your description of your needs, you are trying to use the wrong OS.
Basically, you have 3 choices:
(1) Use MS Windows ™. As far as hardware support goes, most stuff works great. Why? Because it is the dominant operating system of the planet Earth and a hardware vendor would be a fool to make and sell a product for the average user and not write a driver for it. You shouldn't be thanking Bill Gates. Instead, thank Linksys for their great Windows hardware support. Microsoft doesn't write the drivers, Linksys programmers do. Linksys leaves the Linux driver writing to VOLUNTEER programmers who reverse-engineer the driver by playing with the hardware because the vendors don't even publish the hardware / software specifications for their products. If you think that this is a Linux-only problem, you are mistaken. Try to get Windows (nt) or Windows 95 drivers for the latest hardware and you will reach the same dead end, only without the hoards of volunteers trying to bridge the gap for you.
(2) Use a Macintosh ™. While it doesn't have the breadth of hardware and software that MSWindows has, the stuff that is made for the Mac JUST WORKS. And as a bonus the operating system doesn't crash or get infected with viri or worms every 6 months or so.
(3) Use Linux, but do some HOMEWORK first and find out if that snazzy new wireless card plays nice with Linux or not. It's not hard. Red Hat and a bunch of other vendors have compatibility lists that are easily accessable. Or you could always use http://www.google.com to search for information. It takes about 5 minutes of advanced scouting before you go out and buy that card. In fact, there is a "Wireless Cards supported by DSL" thread in this very forum if you bothered to look before you started whining about how nobody answered your post after a few hours.
In case you were wondering, nobody cares if you use Windows instead of Linux. I know I don't. I am using Windows right now myself, so why should I care if you are too lazy to help yourself or don't want to learn new things while you gain a greater understanding about how your computer works.
Use the right tool for the job. In your case, that tool is Win2000/WinXPOh yeah, I almost forgot:
All of those neat Windows programs that are sold in those nice shiny shrink-wrapped boxes also have buglists a mile long. The only difference is that the open source projects let you read the buglists.
This is also true for Windows, assuming that you use Windows Update to keep yourself current. Just for giggles, start Windows Explorer and look at your C:\windows or C:\winnt directory. How many directories that begin with "$NtUninstall" do you see? Each one of them represents a collection of bugfixes that were downloaded into your computer. For my XP SP1 install, I count 46 of them, and this doesn't include any of the fixes that were already covered by my SP1 update.
But look on the bright side. There are people at Microsoft working very hard to fix all of the problems that are discovered in Win XP. Enjoy this while it lasts because Microsoft may follow their product support cycle and stop doing this for XP at the end of next year because the OS is no longer supported. Of course you could always pony up the dough for Longhorn or stop using your current computer and replace it with a new one that has Longhorn preinstalled on it. Even if your current computer is still quite usable.Having been interested in computers since the days of the Commodore Vic-20 and C64, I have been out of the loop on much more than the PC and Microsofts products for some time due to the kind of work I do.
I never expected Linux to do all of the things I can do on my Windows box or with a Mac, I don't need it to. I just want to mess with it a bit and get a feel for what it can do.
I bought my WPC11 a while back before I ever messed with Linux on this box, and it works fine for what I want it to do with this box. I wanted to try out Linux but can't because as usual Linux doesn't play well with a lot of different hardware. I don't think I want to shell out any money for a new wifi card just to mess with Linux, particularly when Linux is so often free for the downloading. This situation is frustrating to many of us who are wanting to try Linux but come from a Windows and DOS world.
Sure, there is going to be a learning curve to getting into Linux, that's why forums exist. I shouldn't have to come here and be afraid to ask a question, however dull-headed, just because I'm new to Linux. I admit I don't know much about Linux, but I want to learn. It is very frustrating, however, to try and learn when I can't have something as simple as my wifi card working.
Now, is there anyone who can explain to me how to get this card working? Should I ditch the wifi and just use my 3Com and some cat-5 to connect to my network instead? Or should I just ditch the idea of even trying Linux and go on paying for Mr. Gates' new yacht?There are many people using the WPC v2 and v3 cards..
The latest, v4, requires a bit of trickery, but nothing you couldn't walk-thru one time...
If you did purchase your card "a ways back" , chances are very good you have the v2 or v3 version, which is not "plug n pray" , but is very easy to setup ..