I have had both Intel and Broadcom cards in the machine while booting
Trisquel/GNOME. Both are slower than slow. Neither card worked with the
Trisquel operating system anyway. I had to opt for the external wi-fi, the
USB dongle, in order to network w/ Trisquel. I got the TP-LINK TLWN722N and
bypassed the internal card. This model dongle is the same chip set as the
Penguin model recommended by fsf.org at much less than even half the cost.
Plus, I could locate this model inside Thailand and have it shipped to me
without being stolen during international shipping, which is what often
happens to things of this kind (corruption is a way of life here in
Thailand). I could not find a Penguin model in this country.
The problem with the Broadcom stuff is that it almost never works with every
new open source distro I try, and I try a lot of them. But the Intel goods
are more likely to be written into the kernel and almost always work. That's
why I switched. Far less hassle with Intel and open source.
I do not know however if the Intel card inside still creates the hangup even
though it is not being used for networking when I boot Trisquel with the
dongle. All I know is I switched out the GNOME for the LXDE and everything
is smooth as silk and running at normal speed. No complaints.
