[TriLUG] BlueTooth dongle purchase

[R Radford]

I know very little about Bluetooth as a technology, but how is the $39
different from this one:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/mini-usb-bluetooth-v3-0-adapter-dongle-121165?item=10aside
from having the ability to have a high gain antenna?

You hit one of the reasons - external antenna - which can be used for
longer distance communication to devices in another room, or
possibly... ummm... hacking bluetooth of those around you?

But the most obvious difference is the ability to work under Linux.
The deal-extreme devices have a habit of changing rapidly what the
underlying hardware is found in the device in order to keep their very
low prices.  This is fine if the device works (as it probably will
under Windows), but more an issue under unsupported OSes.