Can confirm, I tried a couple of USB controllers and none were that great. Ended up getting a USB to GC adapter and it’s worked great.

Newspaper can be folded into a hat in a pinch.

I use an 8bitdo controller, and will second them. They connect to anything and feel pretty good to use.

Welcome! I made the leap not long ago as well. I’m using Linux Mint, and I’ve had a great experience with it (including gaming).

My recommendation: when you get to installing games, use something like Lutris or PlayOnLinux. These are frontends (like Steam) that will help manage any special configurations you might need. They can even connect to online sources and apply settings that have worked for other people. I’ve been using Lutris and it’s been pretty good (I’ve been playing a lot of BG3 lately, runs like a dream).

Welcome and have fun!

For what it’s worth, Mint has a Debian-based version that I’ve heard great things about. It would probably have lots of the legwork done for you (getting flatpak, etc).