That's not what I was saying at all. The problems with the other piece of
hardware. If your USB ports don't have power to them you can't blame the
device your sticking in.
Second there have been other issues with the USB controller drivers
containing bugs. There was a long standing issue recently resolved that has
been repeatedly (for many years) blamed on cheap USB devices (not
specifically wifi). The problem was in the driver for the USB code (not
specific to a controller I don't believe) and because it was not implemented
to spec many devices wouldn't resume properly after suspend. This is another
good example. People just don't understand where the costs are, where the
problems really lie, etc.
And these adapters are NOT the supposed $1 adapters. The cheap "$1" adapters
might be true in massive quantities. They would have a realtek chipset in
them. By the time any distributor got these "$1" adapters they would be
substantially more due to shipping, importing, and retailing costs. Actual
manufacture of parts is extremely cheap compared to all the other costs
involved. 2nd most manufacturers are not involved in the design process to
any significant degree. That adds additional costs particularly if your
dealing in small scale (ie supporting GNU/Linux).
Anyway. These adapters certainly don't retail for $1. They aren't even
manufactured at $1 in massive quantities. I know the chipsets and the
adapters on the market fairly well. The adapters that are manufactured for $1
are running about $3. They DO NOT work with 100% free software.
