Aye, it's pretty uncommon these days to find Wi-Fi that doesn't just work out of the box. Can indeed happen on occasion though. Usually if there's no wiki entry on the issue, the community is pretty good about helping out.

I would definitely give it another go. I've been daily driving for about a decade now - I didn't personally have any issues back then other than some games being pita or not working at all with WINE. But Linux gaming has made huge steps in recent years.

Technically I still duel boot and have always done (for just in case) but I can't even remember the last time I booted into Windows.