I bought this recently since I do not have access to hard line my desktop, for reasons. I was wondering if and how I can get it to work with Linux when I make the switch to Linux. It is really the last thing I have to do in order to switch over.
Mailiya 1200Mbps USB WiFi Adapter, Long Range Wireless Network WiFi Dongle with 2 X 5dBi WiFi Antennas, Dual Band 2.4G/5G for PC/Desktop/Laptop/Mac Windows 10/8/8.1/7/Vista/XP/2000, Mac 10.4-10.13
It came with a driver disk, but it does not say it supports linux and my desktop does not have a cd/dvd drive. I want to use mint at this point, but would go with whatever makes the switch easy until I can hardline again.
You never know with these things...
test it! Get started with the first Linux distro you want to try, burn it to a USB to boot and run in "live mode" and then plug in the WiFi device. You need to test 2 or 3 (or more) different distros anyway before you commit to one of them. Or, instead of putting Linux on USB, you can install VirtualBox in Windows and try several Linux distros in virtual machines.
Most of the WiFi dongles have chipsets that are made by other companies... common ones are Broadcom, RealTek, and a few others. There is a chance of making yours work, but you have to examine it with Linux to really see what chipset it is using and whether there is Linux support for it. No matter about the Windows driver CD... you don't (usually) use Windows drivers in Linux anyway. It is very much a shame that more companies do not provide Linux driver support for their products, but that's the way it is. If you become a full-time Linux user, you will want to shop for Linux compatibility for printers, scanners, or other peripheral devices. FYI, the best printer support for Linux is HP, but still good to check before buying (or buy models that aren't the latest-greatest so that Linux will have a chance to have drivers already available).
One WiFi dongle that I've had excellent results with is
this one. It's not the fastest, but it's fast enough and rock solid (in fact, the faster TP-Link model that looks the same fails miserably with Linux). The advertising says it works with Linux through kernel version 3.19.3 but I will test it with a more modern kernel if you are interested in this. I'm going to be out of town for a few days though, so it would have to wait until I return. And you should first test the one you have... it may work fine too.
By "hard line" I guess you mean ethernet cable. Linux (almost) always works with ethernet networking out of the box. I've not heard it referred to as "hardline" before... but I live in a different universe (with radio electronics) where hardline is a type of coax cable for antennas.
Cheers
