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The Problem With Driver-Loaded Firmware
Kadin2048 writes "If you've gone to a big-box store and purchased a wireless card recently, you might have had some trouble getting it to work under Linux, or any non-Windows OS for that matter. One reason for this is that more and more manufacturers are producing hardware that are useless without proprietary firmware. While these new designs allow for lower parts counts and thus lower cost, it presents a serious problem for F/OSS software because it can sometimes guarantee no out-of-the-box compatibility. Jem Matzan has produced a detailed article, "The battle for wireless network drivers," on the subject, including interviews with manufacturers' representatives and OS developers, including Theo de Raadt. The bottom line? In general, Asian hardware manufacturers were far more responsive and liberal about firmware than U.S. manufacturers (Intel included). Look for more firmware issues in the future, as not only wireless hardware, but regular wired Ethernet cards, take the driver-loaded firmware approach."
Well, this is a probably a NO-NO, but Ruckus Wireless makes an external Ethernet wireless client, model 2501, that was designed to provide wireless HDTV for up to four television sets simultaneously in a noisy environment. It uses an six element 360 degree phased antenna array with the ability to automatically switch among 63 zones. I believe they licensed their patent to Netgear, but their own model is higher quality.
It can only be purchased, to my knowledge, from phone companies offering IPTV. However, one independent phone company that also owns a computer store sells them for $99 each. A newer model is coming out that is sightly more powerful and more expensive, $129 each. Anyway, because it is external and connects via an ethernet port, it will work with any OS including all versions of Linux.
Here is the NO-NO part. If you can't find one on your own, send an email to tony@turbonet.com. He isn't in sales, he's their network admin, but he can help you get in touch with the right people.
Virtual machines are becoming more and more common. One approach is to think of Windows as part of your machine's firmware, and run your real operating system in a VM.