Linux has come a long way! I have been dreading to go wireless on my desktop for a while. A while ago, the process was like this - grab drivers from manufacters website, custom compile kernels, read documentation on how to connect to a password encrypted network. If something does not work, search google, ask on mailing lists/IRC/friends or read source code to find a hacky solution.
Today I simply plugged in the USB adapter, clicked a button on the KDE panel to select a wireless network, entered the password! Boom! Many many thanks to all the developers who made this possible. During early 2000s people did similar hacky stuff to get graphics cards working. After a while, they started working seemlessly. Now the time has come for wireless? Any experiences to share? raju -- Kamaraju S Kusumanchi | http://raju.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Blog