Staying anonymous depends on many things. It does not matter whether you use laptop or desktop, but it matters on which software (OS, applications, etc.) you do use.
For example, if you're trying to get into website trough the http protocol, you should note that your browser automatically sends the so called User Agent containing (not much) information about the user, the web server (usually) logs your requests, your IP address, etc. So using laptop wouldn't help you if you just hit it with your home IP and expect to be undetected.. Well, I'm not going to write whole article about anonymity, or which software you should use to stay anonymous. You should got my point by now.
Aircrack has a list of supported cards. Just google it, or check their site.. I'm sure I've saw
it somewhere.
If you have the compatible driver installed, (and I presume you use GNOME by default) run nm-applet.. It'll create an icon on your task bar, and the connecting process should be similar to the one on Windows.