This isn't the same thing as the time that some company (Linksys, maybe?) was producing sets of ethernet cards that bore the same model number yet has wildly varying chipsets on them, is it?

This is one reason I will never touch a Linksys NIC. Even in windows this was a pain in the ass. I remember trying to help a friend get his NIC working in 2000. It had a slightly newer chip on it then 2000 knew about, so we had to download drivers. Problem is, Linksys didn't even have one bundle to cover all cards. After 3 failed attempts at guessing based on the part of the card we could see with the cover off, he had to power the box down and pull the damn thing out to get a look at it.

Pure evil.