no, ndiswrapper isn't unavoidable, but you can look up how well is a chip is supported under linux. This list helped me many a time to find a native driver in linux.
Example :
Quote:
Chipset: RaLink RT2500 (rev 01)
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A quick search on google, and I found out that the rt2x00 project provides a driver for it.
Quote:
Chipset: Atmel at76c503-rfmd
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google again, found that support is integrated into the kernel...
just find a card that uses a supported chip, and that you like. That was my idea.
Serafean