Review on 🔌 2PCS USB to ESP8266 Breakout CH340C ESP-01 ESP-01S Prog WiFi Programmer Downloader Adapter with Reset Auto-Download Circuit - High-performance ESP8266 Programming and Downloads by Jeremy Romero

This is the most convenient USB to UART adapter I've seen for ESP8266. It can control the RESET and GPIO0 of the ESP8266, making flashing completely automatic and painless with most flashing tools. UART is already supported by the Linux kernel shipped with Ubuntu 20.04. You don't need to install anything, just plug and play. For Windows 10, the drivers are loaded automatically after connecting to USB. It's cheaper and much more convenient than, for example, FTDI USB-UART. I've flashed this UART many times and never had a problem.