Professionally I work with wireless under linux on pretty much a daily
basis(Kismet, air*-ng, karma, etc.). I have found that the Atheros chipset
cards are the most solid, followed by the Hermes. Unfortunately, these are
uncommon as built in devices and usually have to be added as PCMCIA devices;
and here I find their power....lacking. (Both of my Orinoco cards have about
half the range of my on-board Intel 3945!) The Zydas chipset (found in many
usb sticks) is coming along, but is still pretty flakey; I wouldn't trust it
for day to day use.

Whatever you do, stay away from Broadcom. They are the devil. (Rat
bastards!)

I've also had great success with the RALink usb sticks...they are cheap too,
but no 802.11a. The Engenius EUB-862 a/b/g is awesome, being based on the
Atheros chipset and pumping out about 200mw; but it is usb only and is about
the size of a pack of cigarettes. (you attach it with a USB  a-b cable)

So..I should stop rambling and summarize:


   1. If you must have pcmcia, go for Atheros, Hermes or Intel
   chipset(a/b/g is supported on ipw3945 nicely)
   2. If you want cheap and easy, an RALink usb can be had for ~$20 (
   http://www.google.com/products?q=ralink+802.11g&scoring=p -- looks
   like there's a mini-pci for less!)
   3. If you need power/range, the EUB-862 is great...but its kindof
   wonky walking around with it.

As I type this, I am connected via 802.11a using ipw3945 drivers on my Dell
M65. When I do most of my work these days I use the EUB-862...unless I have
to walk around a bunch in which case I load up with an Orinoco which I keep
in "A" mode along with my Intel card (craps out under kismet all the time)
and I'll stick a couple ralink usb sticks in the other slots....which has
the effect of making my laptop look a little weird, but its still
manageable.

Cheers.



-- 
"A man is defined by the questions that he asks; and the way he goes about
finding the answers to those questions is the way he goes through life."