I am running Freespire 1.0.13 on a Dell Latitude C610 with a Belkin F5D7010 Wireless card, and my link quality with freespire is only between 50 - 57 percent most of the time. When i was running Windows XP it was up into the 88 - 94 range, and the same thing with Ubuntu 6.10.

when i type in "iwconfig ath0" in console i get this:
ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"linksys"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:16:B6:9E:33:A0
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power=17 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
Retry: Off RTS thr: Off Fragment thr: Off
Encryption key:6961-AABB-A7C2-F9CF-B9CB-A483-E0 Security mode: Open
Power Management: Off
Link Quality=52/94 Signal level=-45 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:17218 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Some driver report a wrong quality. Some even don't show it.
Are the performance bad? Or do you get better coverage with xp when you move from the AP?
That's the only thing important after all.

actually, my internet goes just as fast, there are no performance changes, it just says the link quality is in the 50 range, and my network information jumps around saying it is 24mbps or 36 or 48 or 54, and it goes back and forth beetween the different readings.

but performance wise i see no change.