Reddit reviews Panda Wireless PAU09 N600 Dual Band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wireless N USB Adapter W/Dual 5dBi Antennas - Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Mint, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, Centos, Kali Linux and Raspbian

I personally use this one:
Panda Wireless PAU09 N600 Dual Band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wireless N USB Adapter W/Dual 5dBi Antennas - Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Mint, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, Centos, Kali Linux and Raspbian https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY35HGO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_erJIDb3HX8D3C

https://www.amazon.com/Panda-Wireless-PAU09-Adapter-Antennas/dp/B01LY35HGO/ref=pd_bxgy_147_img_3/134-5320732-4808133?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01LY35HGO&pd_rd_r=923f9444-3b47-4f6c-a55d-1d2b27d48a97&pd_rd_w=EB8Xz&pd_rd_wg=qx078&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=2J8REPR3AWAB76CF6QT0&psc=1&refRID=2J8REPR3AWAB76CF6QT0

I purchased this Panda wifi adapter several months ago. It works great with my Fedora 30 system (Dell Optiplex 3010).

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY35HGO

> That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I believe you ;)

> One thing I just came to realize, and I have no idea why I didn't see it before, but this PiDrive thing doesn't have an opening for the network cable, meaning I'd have to get a wireless dongle thing.

That's something I said as well in this reply:

>> On the other hand, the enclosure makes it a lot more difficult to connect other USB devices or an ethernet cable to the Pi.

The downside of the PiDrive enclosure, at least of the 6x6 inch one you've chosen, is that it doesn't expose any of the USB or ethernet ports directly to the outside. You have to insert the cable into the enclosure first and there's only one narrow opening for the power cable. You can see that in the official product overview video you linked to earlier (if you click on this link, it'll start at the relevant passage). I'm sure you can use that for a second cable, but after that it might be too narrow for more.

> I'd consider perhaps buying something as simple as a TP-Link TL-WN725N

I think the last point has already made this superfluous but I'll reply anyway.

Don't buy a nano adapter like that unless you put a device, if not directly next to the router, then at least in the same room. The wifi quality will probably be better than Raspberry Pi's own, but in many cases you can get extra stability and transfer bandwidth if you use a more substantial adapter. Yeah that may not look as impressive but I take better network performance over better optics any day.

I can suggest this page to you, it has a list of wifi products and how well they work with Linux in general. The link is filtered on USB only, but it has other lists too. Also, just in case you find this misleading, a "green" value means the adapter works well on Linux, not that it works out-of-the-box. Another important resource for this case is the Raspberry Pi list of verified peripherals USB wifi subpage.

Anyway, I did already mention some good chipsets for wifi adapters in the past (I mentioned that Ralink 3070, Atheros AR9271 and Realtek 8187 were the most common that worked well), but generally speaking you should buy hardware the other way around. Decide on a nice item, then research if it works on Linux and/or how complex it is to set up. If the results are good, great; if not, look for another product. Rinse and repeat until you've found one.

The biggest thing you'll have to learn if/when you become a Linux user yourself is that you've been incredibly spoiled in terms of driver support on Windows. On Linux that's a lot slower to come for your average consumer device/component and this often means you won't be able to buy the newest product. There's a high chance it won't work out-of-the-box and may even require some extra work of you.

If I had to choose myself, I'd either take the Panda PAU05 which is a bit bigger than its nano adapter version but still reasonably compact, or the Panda PAU09 if a stronger network quality is desired. The latter can either be directly attached to the USB port of the target device or the antenna placement can be freely chosen if the stand is used.

I've always had a good experience with Panda..
Panda Wireless PAU09 N600 Dual Band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wireless N USB Adapter W/ Dual 5dBi Antennas - Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Mint, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, CentOS, Kali Linux and Raspbian https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY35HGO/

Or (if you want it more portable but not as strong)...

Panda Wireless PAU06 300Mbps N USB Adapter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JDVRCI0/

If you find that you can't fix the problem and up to 300MBS is fine. I believe that these cards are limited by the USB channel.

This network adaptor is plug and play in Ubuntu and only $15.00

https://www.amazon.com/Panda-Wireless-PAU06-300Mbps-Adapter/dp/B00JDVRCI0/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1537193137&sr=8-5&keywords=panda+wireless+pau09+n600+dual+band

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Or if you need the 5ghz

https://www.amazon.com/Panda-Wireless-PAU09-Adapter-Antennas/dp/B01LY35HGO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1537193137&sr=8-3&keywords=panda+wireless+pau09+n600+dual+band

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Wi-Fi isn't built in usually. It should say in the title something like "Motherboard + Wi-FI DUal ac 802.whatsit"

But if you need Wi-Fi, adapters are cheap. This is the one I use, but there are cheaper ones out there.

I haven't used it myself, but maybe this would be a better option for you: https://smile.amazon.com/Panda-Wireless-PAU09-Adapter-Antennas/dp/B01LY35HGO

External antennas improve the range, and it appears to be well supported under Linux.