I'm sorry you have had disappointment with a wireless card but there are
only certain cards that work with linux - these are listed. I choose not
to bother and switch to Powerline which i find excellent... some view it
as a cheaper solution... others a trouble free solution!

Regarding wine - it only works with certain applications. Before you
ditch the idea of linux how about looking at the VM route. Try a few
distros... for your particular application you may find that
Debian/Suse/or xxxxx offers something that ubuntu doesn't. I like ubuntu
but one app 'vym' i want to run ver 1.10.0 is not available in feisty or
gutsy but will be in the new LTS version some 6 months away.