On this site I see hundreds if not a thousand questions being asked about issues with a Wireless LAN adapter not being detected/recognized by Ubuntu. Some mainstream adapters appear to be utterly broken in Linux support, while others just require some simple steps to get it to work.
The options to get it to work appear to be infinitely huge and I have no clue where to get started!
What is considered 'best practice'? What order of things to try is most efficient in terms of time, effort and imposes minimal risk to my Ubuntu installation? Please help me save time and guide me what to do, step by step.