stalebrim What matters is the chip inside. Panda Ultra is Ralink something (can't remember, uses rt2800usb driver anyway). TP-Link N-150 (which seems to be actually TL-WN725N) is Realtek so I'm not surprised you were experiencing problems.
I want to be clear that I've used a TP-Link N-150 (TL-WN725N) for years on a variety of computers (both mine and those I've set up for others), in both Windows and Linux environments, without any issues whatsoever. It just works.
The only time I've run into trouble (dramatic drop in speed followed by disconnect**) is with running eopkg up in the Solus terminal. I do not have a corresponding issue using the adapter with Ubuntu during updates. I don't pretend to understand why the problem happened, but it happened so consistently (typically 2-3 times during the eopkg up process) that I decided to swap it out for the Panda PAU06, based primarily on comments in this forum that folks have had good luck with Panda adapters. The Panda adapter occasionally disconnects during eopkg up, too, but not with any frequency.
I understand the chipset issue, although I can't say I have given it any thought whatsoever, since the TP-Link N-150 was plug and play for me with Ubuntu and more recently with Solus, and on every other distro I installed on that test machine over time. In fact, the TP-Link N-150 worked so consistently with a variety of distros on my test box that I assume that the driver was in the kernel. I plugged it in and checked this morning, and dmesg -w shows it using r8188eu, and it seems to be working just fine, as it always has, eopkg up issues aside.
stalebrim While possible, I doubt the chip would overheat in about a minute. I guess it's a kernel regression at some point or the adapter is faulty.
I agree with you, but the pattern I saw was that the eopkg up download process would slow dramatically (to the 90-100 Kbps range, often down into the 70-80 Kbps range, essentially modem speed) and disconnect after 5-7 minutes. Whatever was going on caused the adapter to heat over that 5-7 minute period of time.
The issue did not occur otherwise (downloading distro iso files, for example, or updating other distros) so I have no idea what was going on. It may not have been the adapter at all, given the number of complaints about the Solus update process freezing. Whatever it was, it wasn't worth spending a lot of time on when I could fix it for $20 US.
===================
**That is, disconnects from the update process with an error message rather than disconnecting from the internet.