If you've never downloaded drivers manually it's super easy these days. You'll get a tool from the device manufacturer that checks your hardware and system and automatically installs the correct driver with computer restarts at the correct places. You just press the go button.
That said most default drivers are open source and included in Linux, so you should be able to get by without downloading anything unless you need the latest manufacturer driver.
That's definitely an issue. I checked my printer today and it has Linux drivers ready to go. And everything else is ASUS/AMD/Corsair. And I really don't care if the RGB in my mechanical keyboard works.
AMD for sure, with NVIDIA your mileage may vary. I'd go check their site but I'd be very surprised if they were behind the times on driver update tools. The drivers can make a huge difference in games so usually they're on top of that.
You'll not have to download anything then, AMD drivers are baked in. You'll literally be able to boot your OS for the first time, install a game and it'll get full performance off the bat
I have an old Steam Machine (Asus GR6) with Optimus graphics and it worked well enough. It's been relegated to home server role for many years now but even then it wasn't so bad to set up.
Exactly the issue I had on my laptop. Plug in an external display to extend the desktop and the laptop screen turns off. Wasted 6 hours of my life trying to get the damn thing to work properly until I gave up.
I have installed Linux on a dozen computers from crummy laptops to custom build with graphics card.
Most went fine. For the graphics card one, I installed popos to avoid learning about internals , but I could have spent time to solve it, I was lazy.
But I recommend having several distros on usb to do tests . That way things are easiest. Some installs have default settings that work best for random computers. So just spend a few minutes on each to test sound, WiFi and graphics. 5 minutes on each to test 10 flavors
No need to mess with any text settings at all these days.. I mean, you can