a few things ...
You probably did not need ndiswrapper in either case.
The 'rt2500' driver has been made open source over a year ago:
apt-cache search rt2500
A small group is currently rewriting the code for a mode generic and friendlier driver but I don't believe the work is done yet - but the drivers and tools are fine. I've built a remote device using a USB key which uses the rt2570 driver, which is closely related.
For the PRISM - well, that depends on which model PRISM. With the earlier models, drivers have been in Linux for ages; originally in the 'pcmcia-cs' project but lately they have been accepted into the main kernel. Whether or not you need to install the older pcmcia-cs package depends on what version kernel you are running.
You can find other tools to help configure the PRISM card using 'apt-cache':
apt-cache search prism
I would not recommend using a GUI for the job at the moment - there have been too many changes recently (and yet another major change in the works).
There is a linux wireless / PCMCIA compatibility site which has been discussed in these forums several times in the past; if you can find those discussions and a link you will find a lot of useful information.
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