My wife has a new computer. She wanted her tax files transferred from
old XP box to new W7 box or to work on the tax files on the old
computer in another room. I elected the latter because I do not know
the tax programme or file type. Seemed the easier option. :(

So I booted the computer which has not been fired up in four months.
Oops it has no internet in that room, so she cannot file. Aaah, I
think I have a D-Link usb adapter kicking around. I go to my Ubuntu
computer and download the driver because I cannot find the driver CD
for Windows. (Easier of the two evils.) I find it and transfer the
driver to Windows XP via usb key. I install the driver via the
setup.exe file from D-Link. No problem. It detects the usb network
adapter, but says I must re-boot (to use the D-Link utility I
suspect).

I do so. It detects the usb adapter but says I need to install a
driver. I thought I just did but play along. I look in device manager
and sure enough it needs a driver. I click on update driver. It says,
do I want to search the internet? No. I have the driver on the
desktop. I choose that location. It cannot find the driver. It is
there so I manually find it, but rather than do back to update driver
I manually go to add hardware and select network adapter. I choose
install from location and browse to the desktop and it finds the
driver with no problem and installs it. Then the taskbar shows found
new 802.11g adapter. Great, I think. But then it asks again for the
disk once again. I think this is ridiculous but play along and choose
locate driver and it once again cannot find the driver. BTW, the
driver was installed from the setup disk and re-booted half an hour
ago and it is detected by XP in the notification area. I am caught in
a vicious circle and give up.

I go to my computer and search Quick tax and find what the file type
is and where it is located (which I apparently should have done in the
first place). I copy them to the same usb key and I walk upstairs and
copy the files to my wife's computer. Then I install Quick Tax from CD
and add the files. She gets to work and is happy. I go back to the
Windows XP box and pull out the offending usb adapter and wonder if it
is broken. I stick it in Ubuntu and it is detected and the adapter
lights up within 3 seconds and I go to networking and add hidden
wireless network. I add my Network Name and WPA2 Personal password and
I am using wireless with a few seconds. Total time spent in Windows,
about half an hour and it still did not work. Total time in Ubuntu
about thirty seconds.

Moral of the story, if using Windows it is going to take time and
there is no guarantee that it will work in the end. Second moral, it
is easier to transfer files (even if you need to look up the file type
and location) than install hardware on Windows. And my wife wonders
why I hate other OS. :)

This is not meant to launch a debate about which is better. It just
seems funny when so many people here post problems installed network
adapters in Linux and never complain about the insistence of some that
their hardware just works in Windows.