Title says it all. Never played X-Wing or TIE Fighter, and I don't have a joystick. Is a mouse/keyboard or 360 controller good enough?

That said, what kinds of joystick would you recommend to a casual noobie?

I personally would suggest using a joystick, they were made with that in mind though you CAN play the DOS versions with a mouse and keyboard. I've never personally tried using a controller, but I think it would be awfully hard to be precise in your control.

That said, as far as current joysticks go I really don't know. The last one I bought was ten years ago and is still working fine!

Playing Tie Fighter with 360 controller just fine. Well, it's damn hard to center the "joystick" so I usally have a bit of a pull to the left while trying to fly straight but there's work arounds (xpadder, joy2key, other mouse/gamepad emulation software or just flying by the seat of your pants). If going the mouse route, make sure to increase the sensitivity in your Dosbox config.

Back in the day I used to play only with mouse + keyboard, and that's how I started out this week... but was frustrated to no end. It's much, much, much easier with a joystick.

I just got a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, and it's pretty great. I'd recommend it!

I'm guessing a joystick would be the optimal approach, but I've been playing it with a 360 controller for a couple days and it seems to work great. I used to play with keyboard/mouse once upon a time, and a gamepad is far superior.

I purchased a Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS (a relatively cheap stick with separate throttle control, excellent value for money) for use with ELITE: DANGEROUS and other upcoming space sims, and I was surprised to see that it supported X-WING immediately. Some of the button placements are a bit odd, but you can change them. Even the separate throttle control works fine with it, which for a 21-year-old game is pretty impressive.

The only problem is that you can't seem to map the rotation controls onto the stick's twist. You have to hold down the second button (for select target on screen) and go left or right. Once you get used to it, it's pretty good.

Bah. You don't need a joystick at all.
I completed both X-Wing Collectors' CD and TIE Fighter floppy + Enemies of the Empire with mouse and keyboard. It's annoying? Yes. I grew some biceps near the end when you fight so many TIE Advanced foes, and I had to keep my mouse sliding back and forth non-stop all over my table.
However, out of those missions, the mouse gives you the precision to snipe ships at basically max range (1.6 km?) with your lasers. I have been unable to do that with a joystick, ever.

I used also both a gamepad with analog sticks and a joystick. Probably I will get a lot of hate for saying this, but I prefer the gamepad over the joystick.
I can map 16 different actions on my prehistoric Logitec RumblePad 2 both in DosBox or in the W98 version. That puts the direction of the ship on my left thumb, and all other fingers are available for different functions. And I can quickly reach the keyboard with my right hand for those rarer ones that aren't mapped. The thumb stick is way shorter than a joystick, so even when that gives me less precision at long range (nothing that some practice doesn't overcome), it allows me to turn faster and effortlessly in those crazy dogfights against A-Wings or TIE Advanced.

With a joystick i need to move the whole arm all the time while dogfighting, most of my right fingers are basically wasted on just grasping the stick, with a couple of fingers for just shooting and targetting, and for the other functions I need to use my left hand, to control the dials and throttle slider in the joystick. But what is the point? I could just as easily access the keyboard with it!
I have always found the joystick the most imprecise control method. Unless you have a surgeon hand, it becomes impossible to snipe far targets with it without a red lock. Forget about hitting moving TIE Fighters with your lasers at anything farther than 300 meters.

ANY (analog) joystick is better than every gamepad there is.

of course, its nice to have mouse control as a backup but it just doesnt feel real.

1.5 km if "supercharged".

Back in the day, I played this with a friend on his DOS machine and we shared the work: he was doing the "big moves" with the joystick while I would be targeting and sniping with the mouse and controlling the keyboard input like shields orientation and power distribution. X-Wing was a great co-op game!