[static_motion]

> Intel's networking is mediocre to bad depending on the product

That's an interesting statement, as their Wi-Fi cards are some of the best on the market and common laptop-purchasing wisdom says to buy anything with an Intel Wi-Fi adapter and avoid everything else.

[kev009]

I was talking more about wireline networking there, which are all rife with silicon errata and fairly shoddy drivers (which is sadly the norm in the industry). Most of the damage is mitigated in i.e. upstream Linux but it's not pretty and if you are doing datacenter networking you are much better off with Mellanox(nvidia) or Chelsio (a small but mighty player with interesting capabilities) who have good chips and good drivers.

On the 802.11 wireless front, intel maintains a marked advantage in having inbox drivers in Linux by the time you need them. I would take an ath11k/ath12k over equivalent Intel parts but Qualcomm's driver upstreaming process takes way too long while Intel tends to integrate before the products are generally available.