budgie-extras VS hid-fanatecff

I like Ubuntu Budgie. 6th year on it. https://ubuntubudgie.org/

My experience has been that Ubuntu's Gnome DE is somewhat less suitable to older computers than Ubuntu "official flavors" with lighter DE's -- Ubuntu Budgie (Budgie DE), Kubuntu (KDE Plasma DE), Ubuntu MATE (MATE DE), and Xubuntu (XFCE DE) -- all of which use somewhat less resources than the Gnome DE.

If you were a fan of Windows 7 - install Ubuntu Budgie. I have been running it since Windows 7 and it is rock solid.

I recommend two official Ubuntu flavors to friends contemplating migrating from Windows 10 to Linux -- Ubuntu Budgie (Budgie DE) and Kubuntu (KDE Plasma DE).

In terms of distros that will help facilitate the migration from Windows, I would suggest either Ubuntu Budgie or Kubuntu.

Take a look at Ubuntu Budgie 22.04 LTS and Kubuntu 22.04 LTS, two official flavors of Ubuntu that give you the stability of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and a good looking, very functional desktop environment. I have used both extensively and can vouch for them. My use case is similar to yours -- lots of internet/browser work, occasional word processing, spreadsheet and file work.

Consider looking at several of the Ubuntu official flavors -- Kubuntu (Plasma DE), Ubuntu Budgie (Budgie DE), Xubuntu (XFCE), Ubuntu MATE (MATE DE). I wouldn't bother with Lubuntu (LXQT DE) unless you need a lightweight distro, because the LXQT DE is not as mainstream or well-supported as the others.

But... sim racing is an exception. Most of the games will work (though not iRacing), but support for the hardware is not there. If you google around, you'll find a lot of projects like this one), that are clearly of the "well, if you compile this thing, and you tweak a bunch of configs, maybe it'll mostly work in some games most of the time, if you're lucky" variety.

- Installed hid-fanatec to get it working with FFB (https://github.com/gotzl/hid-fanatecff)

The fanatec wheel should be supported by this HID driver, but I have not tested it out. And the Rift S is just a no go.

Yep oversteer in combo with the hid-famatefff driver is likey the best bet.

there's oversteer: https://github.com/berarma/oversteer which says it works with your wheel once you also add this module: https://github.com/gotzl/hid-fanatecff

Fanatec Wheels, Probably the biggest update in 2021 we had, there is now a community driver on Github https://github.com/gotzl/hid-fanatecff That has the elite and sport working and appears to be experimental with the DD setups. I do not have a fantec wheel to test this.

The CSL DD has experimental support with this driver https://github.com/gotzl/hid-fanatecff

I'm using the CSL: DD, Logitech shifter and clubsport v2 pedals, there is support at the moment for the CSL DD https://github.com/gotzl/hid-fanatecff but it's experimental and some games don't work right now like the f1 games and beamng and I use simhub for my dashes which isn't on linux. so sadly there isn't much for linux options in my case.

Not completely true. There exists a driver for Thrustmaster T300: https://github.com/Kimplul/hid-tmff2 Other wheels I also have seen supported are some fanatec wheels: https://github.com/gotzl/hid-fanatecff

If your wheel pedal and shifter is of the Fanatec kind, there is a driver on github.