Realtek RTL8187 cards is old but does the job perfectly. There are a lot of "special" packeges of them from Asia with increased power and bundled accessories.
And forget about running virtual machines. Boot the Live CD. It is hard and unreliable to get VM to recognize USB WiFi NIC properly.
Exactly, Realtek rtl8187 is good way..
I use Alfa AWUS036NH (2000 mW) that's working perfectly (monitor mode, injection etc.)...
You can buy from Rokland:
http://store.rokland.com/products/alfa-awus036nh-802-11n-wireless-n-usb-wi-fi-adapter-2-watt