cheap ubuntu laptop with wireless that works right "out of the box".

[Default User]

On Fri, 2008-02-01 at 08:57 -0400, Derek Broughton wrote:
> NoOp wrote:
> 
> > On 01/31/2008 01:29 PM, Default User wrote:
> > 
> >> 
> >> The Netgear WG511T pcmcia card mentioned worked fine with Ubuntu on the
> >> 2004 laptop, but the new laptop does not have a pcmcia slot, just
> >> something new, an "express card" slot.  (Can you say "planned
> >> obsolescence"?) It seems that many (most? all?) new laptops don't have
> >> pcmcia slots anymore. 
> 
> Laptops haven't actually had pcmcia slots for years.  They switched from
> pcmcia to cardbus - though cardbus slots always accepted pcmcia cards iirc.
> 
> I was just shocked to discover, though that pcmcia cards _don't_ fit in
> express card slots.  I could have sworn my new HP had promised that the
> multi-function express card slot took pcmcia.  Now I have to see if I can
> find a cardbus card around here...
> -- 
> derek
> 
> 

I just discovered, to my embarrassment, that I gave incorrect
information.  The Netgear WG511T pcmcia card mentioned is not pcmcia,
but actually "Cardbus PC Card Type II". (It looked the same as a pcmcia
card to me.)  

That got me thinking: does a Cardbus card fit it an express card slot,
and would or at least might it actually function there?  Can anyone
answer that?  If so, I might be able to use the Netgear WG511T card with
a newer computer, rather that just throw it away.