Smartcard reader now operational in Linux!

One of the things I've had on my to-do list for months is to be able to login to work from home using Linux. Somehow, today it happened. The problem had been that I couldn't get my smart card reader to work in Ubuntu at all. I couldn't get the drivers to work, and I couldn't get source code to compile. I was retracing my steps today, and for some reason, the package straight from the repository worked. I have no idea what has changed--I had done all of that before to no avail. Now I can check email no problem. VPN is the next step, but I'm not sure that even makes sense. The only reason I would have to VPN would be if I wanted access to my files, and if I was going to be editing work files I probably want to be in Windows anyway. Though now with the card reader up, VPN + coolkey + samba could make even that a reality.