So now that I have a laptop, it occurs to me that I have no excuse not to delve into the magical world of linux. Especially since I'd like to try out wardriving and *cough* secure my home network. Too bad the integrated card is an Atheros, and linux doesn't play nice with Atheros unless you get madwifi. But that's too many steps, especially if I want to stick my toe in with a LiveCD. So after poking around, it seems that Prism chipsets are the best for linux and what I hope to do with them.
According to a
list I found online, quite a few of the Prism sets (that I'd be able to find in a store) are in USB adapters. So, how do USB adapters stack up? Do they work as well as PCMCIA, will they drain my battery in five minutes?