Vista support could be as backward compatible, and the RTL8812BU Software is for 32bit/64bit Windows7, Windows8.1, Windows10 from 2017 and as it works well with the latter OS than it should be supported by Linux in the interest of relevancy. See a highly rated Realtek RTL8812BU USB Wireless Adapter 1200 Mbps with 5 dBi Antenna Dual Band AC1200 here, which actually lists Linux as supporting it (and Vista thru Windows 110) . Likewise this USB Wireless Adapter 600Mbps Realtek RTL8811CU lists lists Linux as supporting it, so I do not know why none of the distros I have tried even show mine as detected.
"Combined with the fact that your adapter's maker doesn't appear to make a driver for it should tell you its incompatible with Linux. I don't understand why you're complaining if you have a piece of hardware that you know isn't compatible with Linux?"
Rather, if you are going to promote a OS as desktop ready - including for older PCs as it often is - then it ought to do what the competition does out of the box for a very common essential hardware device. And while it appears there are drivers for these adapters (one of the adapters listed above has them on a CD) yet since Linux does not even show them as detected in its very sparse Device manager, then it already is behind its rival out of the box. That said, for the other speedy PC I installed Mint on, I did find a USB wireless adapter that it did detect and configure.
Fair point.
and the RTL8812BU Software is for 32bit/64bit Windows7, Windows8.1, Windows10 from 2017 and as it works well with the latter OS than it should be supported by Linux in the interest of relevancy.
"In the interest of relevancy" is pretty subjective and your opinion.
Likewise this USB Wireless Adapter 600Mbps Realtek RTL8811CU lists lists Linux as supporting it, so I do not know why none of the distros I have tried even show mine as detected.
Probably because not everything is "plug and play" in Linux. Saying a Realtek RTL8811CU based adapter is supported in Linux may also mean the end consumer will need to download the code for it, run some simple commands to compile it and then make it available to the OS.
Based on the Realtek RTL8811CU adapter you have, I located those instructions for you. They seem fairly simple to me with the commands needed to run included along with the output expected.
Good luck!
Linux has always been free in their form of remaining free a lot of distros do not contain proprietary drivers video codex and many programs you must pay for, but most make it easy to find them and add them to your system.
I would say your best bet is to read about compiling a driver find the source code and compile it for your OS. You might do a search on Source forge as someone may have already compiled it and have it available for download..