Well, how about Intel Wi-Fi-cards? I suppose they are quite good… And many quite many laptops have them installed by default.
I have pretty old one 4965AG, which is ‘semi-N’ (quite strange, beacause it works in 2.4 GHz N Wi-Fi - I definitely have N-speeds, but not in 5 GHz). It works pretty well in most cases. Another ‘sub-version’ is one that should work in 5 GHz N networks too: 4965AG**N **(note N in the end), though I did not test it.
There are many more of them:
Intel Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300 and Intel WiFi Link 5100 Products
Wireless Networking
Also, notice this page:
Intel® WiFi Link 5300 Intel® Drivers for Linux*
Kernel modules (drivers) for these devices, as far as I know, are pretty mature now.
But be accurate, when choosing one, so you get features, that you want (for example, I think, 5 GHz is a must). As you see with my card name, absence of one letter makes difference. Compare:
(amusingly, if you judge by the name N shouldn’t work at all, and it doesn’t - in Windows Vista, but does work in Linux)
- 4965AGN
- 2.4 GHz N + 5 GHz N
(this should be good one with 5 GHz, though did not test it myself)
Forgot to add that I use Linksys WRT-320N with my 4965AG - pretty stable, though I can’t say that I use my network very heavily - just ordinary day-to-day work and from time to time dowloading something big or rsync to my desktop computer.