is there a Linux… idk what to call it, type? OS? Thing??? that runs out of the box without me having to install additional software manually or at least automatic setup wizards
The word you are looking for is called a distribution, or distro for short.
I’m surprised no one else has mentioned Bazzite, which should be exactly what you’re looking for.
is there any specific hardware that works easier with Linux
An AMD GPU for sure. Nvidia drivers have come a long way, but they don’t generally behave as well out of the box like AMD.
I would recommend editing your fstab and use the USB drive’s UUID to mount it to a consistent location. That way, even if you reboot or disconnect the drive and the reconnect it to, say, a different USB port, it will always mount to the same mountpoint.
See this page from the arch wiki for more info.