On 5/31/05, Jon Nelson
Google is your friend here.
As allways :-)
The short version is that, while the cards themselves are actually pretty good, the company that owns the rights to the technology (Broadcom, formerly Altima), isn't considered exactly 'Linux friendly'. They sort-of made their driver, the bcm7500 or whatever, available but it's generally considered terrible. An Open Source effort, the tg3 ('Tigon III'), is available. It works OK but not great, with LOTS of caveats.
Certainly, but I need the cards to just work and stop locking up in the early hours of the morning, if the 5700 does that, then thats the one that goes in.
As for the tg3 on Dell equipment, like I said, Google is your friend here - nobody likes the tg3 on Dell, and most people have had problems with them, and neither Dell nor Broadcom are going to do anything about it.
Hell, personally I dont like Dell equipment, but you've got to work with what you've got. Regards, Ben