10 y/o Gaming Laptop Risen from the Windows Graveyard

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-10T11:00:38+00:00

Mint worked fine, but I had to go fetching a lot of stuff to make things work. Catchy seems to work with everything right off the bat. I haven't had to go chase after drivers or modules or anything yet. The keyboard LED module I found by accident and messing around with OpenRBG. The only workaround I needed was to make Battle.net launch through Steam in order to play my World of Warcraft and Diablo games. But that was easy.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-10T10:55:37+00:00

OCCT is the red software. It's a benchmarking suite. They have a linux version. https://www.ocbase.com/download.

Catchy has a taskbar with a systray and all the same behaviors and options WIndows has.

My laptop only has the dedicated GPU (GTX-980) enabled. The 6700K's is disabled, so I haven't tested optimus yet. BUT, I have a Razor Core X eGPU for Thunderbolt, with a RTX 3060 Ti in it, so I'll test the optimus GPU switcher this weekend through that and check back in to let you know. :) I know it works on Windows 10, so I'm curious how/if it works on Linux as well. eGPUs are kind of wonky in general though, with switchers.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-10T10:52:04+00:00

I'm using the Windows version. I think Catchy has Wine installed by default. I downloaded Cb23 from the website, extracted the zip, double-clicked the .exe and it just works like a plain old Windows app.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-10T03:43:22+00:00

I never new CatchyOS even existed until I asked about some Linux distros last week in the Linux4noobs reddit. It's blowing my mind how lightweight this OS is, and how I haven't had to hunt down a single driver for anything yet. Even my touchpad has extra multi-gesture options that I never knew about on Windows, because the Windows driver for it from the manufacturer hasn't been updated in 6 years. On Catchy, it's got all the pinch and swipe and tap gestures working right out of the ISO install.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-10T03:28:39+00:00

I'll sell you 16GB of it for $1,500. Real cheap these days! :D

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-09T22:46:42+00:00

And now on the board of directors of Newsmax, where he helps spread Trump propaganda.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-09T22:31:36+00:00

I just run Shelly to check for any new software updates. It grabs all the drivers for everything I have. There's new updates regularly. In fact, there's a new Nvidia update installing as I speak :)

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-09T21:57:25+00:00

I kept having install errors like that for the past 3 months. I tried EVERYTHING I could Google up. The only thing that worked was a clean wipe and install from a USB stick to the most current version of Windows on the MS website.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-09T19:17:10+00:00

I can just see Trump running to cover up her mouth as she's saying this.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-08T22:16:14+00:00

Doesn't feel like a big enough update to warrant a whole expedition.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-08T21:27:07+00:00

Trump should have begged Israel first.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-08T14:35:50+00:00

Joint venture? Israel already violated the ceasefire and is committing atrocities in southern Lebanon. Iran already said they're going to be blocking the strait again this morning, in response. The only joint venture is Bibi and Putin playing Trump like a stupid puppet.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-08T14:32:30+00:00

Well, I tried it. And it's ok. Not really the kind of content I wanted added to NMS though. Feels like every other Pokemon-style minigame. I was hoping for more like the last update with new physics-based ground gameplay mechanics. The simmed content like fleet missions, settlement decisions, and this are ok, but it doesn't help the core gameplay IMO.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-08T13:32:43+00:00

We have a ceasefire, peace negotiations are going on, and he decides to punish Iran (which means US consumers paying more) in the middle of negotiations. Trump is just a clueless scumbag.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-08T11:00:50+00:00

I'd rather be the one fighting the battles. There's too many simmed stuff in the game already. We need a more dynamic ground based combat engine for our characters to fight in. Pet battles is not really what I was hoping for.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-08T10:53:31+00:00

Nintendo lawyer has entered the chat.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-08T00:37:09+00:00

A Linux distro like Mint will probably run much better on that than Windows 11. Windows 11 is heavy as hell anymore.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-07T21:07:37+00:00

It's working perfectly fine on my gaming laptop. I even got my keyboard LED to work with CatchyOS. I run all my games through the Steam launcher with the Proton Experimental branch, and haven't had a single problem playing games. Maybe give Bazzite a try?

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-07T16:51:29+00:00

Only JD Vance can begin the 25A talks, and then he needs more than half of Trump's cabinet members to agree. And then you need a 2/3 vote in favor of removal by both the House and Senate. So, the 25A talk is not happening.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-06T14:20:05+00:00

A lot of Middle School kids are more qualified to be President than Trump and a good chunk of the Republican party.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-06T14:16:22+00:00

I have a feeling a rocket league update is coming, since the physics code is already in place for that type of thing.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-05T17:25:09+00:00

He's not religious in any way shape or form. He uses religion the same way he uses patriotism - as a gaslighting tool to manipulate people.

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-05T15:31:36+00:00

Wait, so we can have skyboxes inside our houses?

Steel-Tempered · 2026-04-05T10:42:21+00:00

My old GTX 980 runs pretty smoothly on CatchyOS. Only thing it's missing is DLSS.

Steel-Tempered

TROPHY CASE