Yeah, I know my Linux laptop sucks under the bonnet. I don't need to know exactly how much. Oh, ok Riza, you want me to play Team Fortress 2 with you and your Discord friend.
Anyway, we installed Screenfetch because Mint XFCE is somewhat less than willing to disclose system information compared to Windows. So what's the result, then? Well, my processor is a single-thread dual-core AMD 2.2 GHz job that was discontinued in 2017, despite the computer having been built in 2019 and sold in 2020. A piddling 4 GB of RAM with no option to install more, and on-chip video and audio. Suffice to say, TF2 is going to need to be scaled back to "Nintendo 64 Tech Demo" levels before it even approaches playable on this.
Understand, I don't care. I didn't get this computer to play games on. Well, no, that's not fair; I did get it chiefly so I could play Doom during breaks at work. I didn't really need it for any other reason, except maybe word processing and basic internet browsing. Probably NES, SNES, and GBA emulation. But, really, my gaming aspirations for this computer end with The Urbz for Game Boy Advance. Also, the computer was on a steep discount, probably so the store could make space for the new Windows 10 S laptops. But, yeah, this computer used to run Windows 10 until I replaced it with Linux Mint in late 2024, and it has scaled-down specs because of the stated reasons. I had absolutely no idea that, in 6 years' time, I'd have a girlfriend who wanted to play TF2 with me and the most advanced computer I have is a Windows 7 gaming computer from 2013.
Now, in terms of laptop computers, my Linux laptop might be shit but my Windows 7 Thinkpad T430 can run circles around it. 16 GB RAM, a 4-core Intel i7 with multithreading with a clockspeed of 3.1 GHz. It has some trouble with Nintendo 64 emulation, but it's able to play The Sims 2 and a lot of Gamecube games. It's the perfect machine to play Team Fortress 2 on, except... Windows 7. Hasn't anyone made a hypervisor for Windows 7 yet that returns compatibility with LibreWolf and (bleagh) Steam?
Anyway, Riza and I just finished watching the Star Wars main series and prequels and... well, this is the first time I've ever seen Revenge of the Sith. I remember kids at high school positively RAVING about Episode III and... like. Mid. That's a charitable description. I mean, like, if you want an example of "doing too much all at once", there's a good one. It sets up the entire original trilogy in the space of 36 weeks. Things that could have been set up in Episode I and II were put off to III and it was just a flurry of activity in order to reconcile the prequels with the original trilogy. Also, the fact that Chewbacca is present in III seems more like fan-service than anything practical. There was no conceivable reason to put Chewbacca in the scenes on Kashyyyk other than fan-service. Apparently, Han Solo was supposed to appear in that film; he appears in the final draft of the screenplay, but no one was ever auditioned for the part and the character was otherwise excluded from the film. At least then there would have been a reason for Chewbacca to appear onscreen. Oh well.
Since we're done with Star Wars, we're watching Star Trek now. Specifically, we watched 101 of The Next Generation last night. "Encounter at Farpoint" is kind of strange, in that it sets up our main characters as archetypes and then completely ignored those archetypes in all future episodes. Also, Riza brought up something important: everyone says that Trek is more realistic than Wars, yet "Encounter at Farpoint" has space jellyfish that can turn into UFO's. Honestly, I'm more inclined to believe in midichlorians and dudes who can spray lightning bolts from their fingertips than space jellyfish that can turn into UFO's. Fortunately, the space jellyfish don't ever show up again. I am not looking forward to the rest of series 1; 'cos after "Farpoint", we have 103-"We Redo a TOS Episode But Worse", 104-"The Racism Hour", 105-"Quark Plays a Crazed Gerbil", 106-"Everyone Hallucinates and It's All Real Actually", 107-"Yawwwwwwn", 108-"Planet White Aryan Race", 110-"Riker Becomes an Asshole", and 111-"Humans Still Arrange Marriage in the 24th Century", just to name a few. I want to apologise to Riza and say, "this series sucks but it'll get better, I swear".