So it's not only me that thinks elanthis is just stupid troll who does FUD.
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What users? Just those who're dumb and this list is written by a moron and it's flawed. The list of regressions in the Linux kernel is very low and only idiots counts every architecture Linux supports and Windows can only dream about. To make a proper list someone should take a SINGLE Linux distribution. When a single Linux distribution is an example then nearly all of the biased list problems simply go away.
The last binary ETHERNET driver i remember was nvnet. forcedeth replaced it later. The other well known binary driver was broadcom-wl. It took ages (i would say around linux 3.2) till the standard kernel drivers could replace it completely. I would not say it was hard to install - i wrote for example a script with dkms support for wl and ubuntu autodeteced wl as well via jockey. It really depends on the background you have got to decide what is really hard and what not. Today most (w)lan chips are supported directly by the kernel only some rare ones (like fritz usb b sticks) are not supported at all. Well if there is a regression in the kernel it can hurt much as well. I don't know whats up with ipw2200 that network-manager did not allow wpa with it. But i dont have that chip to test on my own. In general i would say lan (ethernet) is very good supported, wlan maybe 90% or more.
Wouldnt it be simpler to use spdif? Then the cheapest card is enough.
If you're referring to the comment above about maudio-delta ~ that is a multi in/out proaudio card (low-end) - a little more useful than the SPDIF on your MOBO. Plus, if you are using spdif - you're probably going to need a proper stereo to do the decoding - which i would expect lots of people have, but for example - my system is hooked up to 'studio monitors' - which obviously render SDPIF useless, but provide more accurate (true), pristine sound.