Well just for reference sake I currently have a D-Link Airplus Xtreme G DWL-G132 Wireless USB adapter (rev A) that I will probably use interchangably between this computer and the server temporarily; naturally when I go out and get a new network card I'll shop for something that will specifically work well, and after this year I'll hopefully shift back to the wired network and it won't be a huge issue.
In addition, I've initially configured the network through windows with a 128 bit encryption. I'm just assuming that won't matter and all Linux will want is the encryption password and it will work, but I'm not positive and I'm fairly sure it wants the network configured during the installation
I just stuck in a Ubuntu 5.10 CD I had lying around and see it gives the option for a serverside install or a complete install. I'm assuming the complete will install with GIMP and openoffice and such since I recall Ubuntu coming loaded with that stuff, but if can explain any other differences there are that would be cool
And I'm just looking now and only see drivers for NT based kernels