said by Gem:Exactly how do we locate the central depository for any give distro and exactly how do we - for lack of better terminology at this early stage - install drivers so my usb wireless Cisco AE2500 adapter will work with a given distro?
It varies across the distributions. I am not familiar with your PCLinux but it looks like it is using Synaptic. Look for it in the menus. It can be in System, Tools, Configuration or something similar.
I agree with JohnInSJ
, you may be better off with a new adapter. But if you are willing to learn, using ndiswrapper is not too complicated. Google "howto ndiswrapper" and read a couple of them. It may not work on the first try though.