Linux gaming has gotten really good and continues to get better. Currently, I’d agree with what most of the other responses here have been and say Mint or Pop!_OS

This doesn’t help for the current build you’re setting up and I’m not suggesting to wait for it, but for the future I’d suggest also to keep an eye on SteamOS and when Valve eventually releases it for people to just download and install on whatever machine, it’s likely going to be the best option for this kind of scenario

so I originally got mine for my PC and that’s where I mainly use it, but I also use it with my Steam Deck sometimes via Bluetooth

I have the Epomaker EK68 and it’s a 65% sized keyboard so it’s smaller than a full sized one but not too tiny. I find it nice because it’s not TOO compact but can slip into a backpack without taking up too much space. It can connect with USB, dongle, or Bluetooth and switches between them with a little switch on the back. It’s mechanical and you can swap the key switches for whatever type you want

Overall not too expensive either

Yeah I’m new to Lemmy, myself and this is really my only complaint. There’s some things that I’m interested in that just don’t really have an active community on here at all

I’m liking it here so far so I’m going to try to do the same and post more actively, I mostly lurked when I was on Reddit