I use an Xbox series controller on Linux, and it works great. I like the ergonomics and stick feel personally. 8bitdo also makes excellent third party controllers

Seconded on the Dolphinbar. If you switch it to mode 4 and you have an original wiimote it works natively with Dolphin emulator. Very straightforward setup and minimal tweaking. Best 30 bucks I’ve ever spent

Splitgate already turned me off in the first one when they nerfed all the weapons into oblivion. Not sure why almost every indie shooter I try eventually nerfs their guns into paintballs. I miss the days of the first call of duty where you could just mow everything down with the PPSh or actually one-shot with a sniper

And the Linux community is Gordon Ramsay

In my opinion linux runs old windows games better than windows itself. When I was on XP I used to play games like Starcraft and Lemmings Revolution which absolutely refused to work on Windows 10 after I switched, even in compatability mode. Later when I switched to linux, they worked great with Lutris with very few issues. Linux is great for older games. For newer games, Steam has most bases covered and worked ootb.

I see a couple of other comments reccomending exfat; I’ve had problems with exfat with both the Steam flatpak and the Steam system package. Exfat does not support linux symlinks which are needed for some if not most Steam games to work properly. You will have to re-install your games onto an ext4 or linux-friendly filesystem, for Steam at least.

Emulation and GOG is a different story though. I have both on an exfat drive and I can access and play them with both windows and linux.

In terms of security, you will be at a slight risk using an unsupported os in the future. But hey, some people I know are still on Windows 7, so it isn’t a huge risk. As long as you practice basic computer hygene and have an antivirus running (windows defender (easy), malwarebytes (secure), or clamAV (open source) are decent picks) you’ll be fine.