Given the requirements I met in getting the Broadcom 4318 to light up with Mageia, I thought I would boot the current Kubuntu 11.04 Beta CD to check out how their kernel handles the wireless, given the open driver released by Broadcom last fall and Kubuntu's 2.6.38 kernel, same series as with Mageia. What I anticipated was that no longer would the 'buntus offer b43-fwcutter in System --> Additional Drivers, since it should be in the kernel, and that the chipset would be recognized at boot.
Nope, same as Mageia. b43-fwcutter ("b43fw-cutter" for Mageia as I recall, perhaps wrongly) must be retrieved from the repos, and then the procedure is exactly the same as with previous Mandrivas and Mageia Beta 1: download the drivers from wireless.kernel.org and run the several steps to get the wireless working.
Maybe there's an explanation for all this work that would make sense, but to me it seems to be a regression. Has Broadcom done some corporate deed to chase away the driver from being built into the kernel? Maybe MS is threatening Broadcom with a lawsuit because MS is delusional about a patent on "easy wireless." I was sooooo looking forward to NOT having to go through that awkward process to get the Broadcom wireless working....