And me thinking "I'll have to check Wikipedia, to see if it mentions what this "Dinput and Xinput" thing is.
Thank you.

Does anyone has any experience using controllers in GNU/Linux?

I'm using my gamepad (Logitech F310) and a flight stick (Logitech 3D Extreme Pro) on OS X without problems although neither do support OS X officially. I think as long as the controller conforms to the HID standard it should work out of the box. I don't get any fancy features and all buttons are referred to by their number rather than the letters they have printed onto them, but they work.

My gamepad has a DirectInput/XInput switch and it doesn't work in XInput mode at all, so my guess is it would be the same on Linux as well.

Thank you. What are the "fancy features" on the controllers nowadays? Auto-fire? :-) Or some sort of tuning on analog sticks?

mostly that games reconigse the analouge triggers
or the analouge buttons

( the face buttons on the dualshock 2 and 3 are fully analouge ...not that you will notice it much )

I can't user the analog shoulder buttons in a pressure-sensitive way in DirectInput mode, they are either on or off. This is the case with DirectInput mode on Windows as well though.

Aside from that though it's just software features like custom settings per game or changing the dead zone of the analog sticks. I use a different program (ControllerMate, Mac only) for that though, it's more capable of a wide variety of tasks, even if I had the Logitech software there would be no reason to use it.
http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/

Of course if the game is well-programmed there should be no need to use such a program in the first place. The DXX Rebirth port for Descent 1 & 2 for example lets me set everything I could want to in the game settings.

If they are configured as buttons, then yes they are on/off. If you want pressure based, they have to be configured as an axis based. Manual configuration is usually limited unless it's got decent drivers. The original X-box controller's were that way, but the home-brew driver opened that up as pressure sensitive.

Some emulators can also utilize them being different types.

How's the build quality of the Logitech controllers? There are some bad customer reviews about cheap plastics, bad soldering etc. while the majority of the low rated reviews for the xbox 360 ones are for a crappy d-pad.

xbox controller was a good buy when even many pc games support it, you know those crappy console ports.

ive got three original wireless xbox360 controllers. One is from actual xbox360, but works just the same.

I can recommend these. No doubt some 3rd party might have better version of this, but with the original one you dont need to think about compatibility. I had two cheap copies before, but they were frankly both low quality and hard to even detect in games.

Xbox One controller is supposedly better, but its not out for windows just yet. No idea why not.

I am also interested in Valve's controller, but we'll see. I doubt it will end up much different than xbox controller.

Yeah, the plastic is somewhat cheap. It is at the low price end, after all. The one I have has been pretty sturdy, though -- dropped from about 1 meter (3 feet) height a couple times and still working. Still, wouldn't recommend ragequitting games.

I'm going to butt in and recommend the Thrustmaster GPX. It's got the exact same layout as the X360 controller but with a proper cross-shaped D-pad, heavier triggers (better for racing games and, IMO, everything else as well) and supposedly more precise thumbsticks. It was also cheaper and came with a longer warranty at my local computer shop, so there.

I have the cheapest one (F310) and when I received it, I thought it was going to be worse because the plastic doesn't look and feel very good, but after a year smashing it, I can tell you it is as good as it gets for this price. It is really good. Reliable and precise. Stands violence (I have dropped it several times and it's still good as new) and overall works like a charm. The only drawback I can find are the analogue sticks, which are a little clunky for aiming. But well, that is where mouse shines, so I think every controller will suck at it, but I think other gamepads weren't as bad as this one for aiming

Thanks for the advice javihyuga and Mrstarker but I already got an xbox 360 controller. After two new Logitech mice have stopped working in a less than year, decided to go with a different brand this time...

Same for me. I've been using the PS2 joypad for ages, in fact when I sold my PS2 console I kept my second controller with hopes I could make it work in Windows and throw away my Sidewinder gamepad I've been using. At first I used a special driver while also I converted for use with serial port (or parallel, I don't quite remember - it also used a 9v battery) and then I found a USB adapter that works perfectly.

For a period I also used a 360 controller but I could never get into it as I didn't liked the triggers & the assymetrical thumbsticks. But it is also a very good gamepad with great building quality.