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GOG have officially supported Linux for just over a year, and to mark the occasion they have worked out new official installers for all their Linux games.
It was only recently they phased out the .deb installers in favour of simple .tar.gz files to extract, and now we know why!
Here's an example of their new installer on Linux:
They are right, it looks much closer to what Windows has, and I think that's a really good thing for them to do. Having installers on Linux look and work similar to how they do on Windows lowers a barrier for less knowledgeable gamers. I think it makes Linux look better too.
Forum post copied below:
It was only recently they phased out the .deb installers in favour of simple .tar.gz files to extract, and now we know why!
Here's an example of their new installer on Linux:
They are right, it looks much closer to what Windows has, and I think that's a really good thing for them to do. Having installers on Linux look and work similar to how they do on Windows lowers a barrier for less knowledgeable gamers. I think it makes Linux look better too.
Forum post copied below:
QuoteIt's a year of Linux gaming on GOG.com!Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Today, we want to share with you a few new updates to the way that installing our games on Linux will work. Based on what we've learned and on your feedback, we have revamped our installers to offer a much improved experience, and make it more consistent with the way we do things on Windows and OS X.
Starting today, our Linux games will come with all-new installers that include more features, combine the best of our previous solutions, and plain ol' look better. Among other things, here's what you can expect:
--The new installers will be distro-agnostic. That means that you'll be able to run and try them out on virtually any Linux distribution without any tweaks.
--A simple installation process, done in just two steps that we all know well: simply add executable privileges to the installer, then simply run it.
--Patches. Differential patches. No one likes downloading lots of data for an update, now you'll be able to grab future patches for big games with frequent updates.
--Support for installing DLC.
--Pretty backgrounds, pretty desktop icons.
For more info about the new installers, you can always check out our Linux FAQ.
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Linux needs the GOG Galaxy badly. I truly love it. Obviously lacks a lot of the features of Steam, but it's a no-bullsh*t gaming client - very clean and simplistic. And GOG needs more AAA games. I got the Witcher 3 from them and surprisingly even for myself I don't really miss Steam while playing. Still, I can't wait for them to add achievements.
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Quoting: ShmerlI'll ask GOG to give credit to MojoSetup and add it here: https://www.gog.com/thanks
Good idea. About the MojoSetup experience, I have played dozens of games packaged with it and never had a single problem.
I also like to play older games from time to time. Ancient versions of the Loki installer can be troublesome but there's always a workaround. I admit the workaround may not be beginner friendly though.
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Quoting: EagleDeltaAs much as this will be easier for some users, it removes the ability to have the package manager control the updates.
I personally would prefer Galaxy, Deb or a PPA. While GOG can do whatever they want as a vendor, going outside of package managers is generally seen as bad practice on both the Desktop AND Server side.
What you suggest would make the lives of non-debian-based users slightly more complicated without any reason whatsoever, users would be required to unpack those deb files and then proceed to move the files to their desired installation directory.
I know gog only officially supports ubuntu and mint, though there's no reason to hinder/exclude anyone else.
I doubt gog would keep updating package dependencies for all of their linux titles (I doubt they'd include package dependencies anyway) so, since those scripts can handle moving the archive contents to the default installation directories, the only benefit of using .deb installers (version control) would be eliminated.
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The Mojo-Installer is already used in many Humble-Games. So no hurdles expected on that side. I actually didn't know it could handle differential updates. Learn something new every day.
As long as this installer option stays around when they release their galaxy stuff (I really have no use for that) I'm fine :D
Semi-OT:
There's only one thing I still dislike in their FAQ:
Not that I ever really had that problem, running on openSUSE ever since. A change of that term would nevertheless substantially increase my psychological satisfaction with GOG. <3
As long as this installer option stays around when they release their galaxy stuff (I really have no use for that) I'm fine :D
Semi-OT:
There's only one thing I still dislike in their FAQ:
QuoteWill GOG games work on other distributions anyway?What good is an distribution-agnostic installer if you cannot get a refund if the game doesn't work?
You're more than welcome to give it a try, but we cannot guarantee that everything will work without a hitch.
That means we won't be able to offer refunds, or support, for technical issues on a Linux distribution other than Ubuntu 14.04 LTS or Mint 17 LTS.
Not that I ever really had that problem, running on openSUSE ever since. A change of that term would nevertheless substantially increase my psychological satisfaction with GOG. <3
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Quoting: PitWhat good is an distribution-agnostic installer if you cannot get a refund if the game doesn't work?Basically they require you to reproduce your problem on one of the supported distros if your problem is technical. Seems sane to me. After all, it's arguably not a technical problem in the game if it doesn't work on an unsupported and untested platform.
However distribution-agnostic the installers are and how many distributions the games actually run on, they are still only supported on Ubuntu and Mint. Just like Valve only officially supports running the Linux version of Steam on SteamOS or specific releases of Ubuntu the last I heard. How strict this policy is in practice, I cannot say. I've never asked for a refund from either company.
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Looks good, but not really future proof, when everyone will be using "LinuxApps" or whatever docker-like desktop container.
(If that ever happens one day, which I hope).
(If that ever happens one day, which I hope).
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Quoting: MyeulCLooks good, but not really future proof, when everyone will be using "LinuxApps" or whatever docker-like desktop container.How would you go about supporting a standard that doesn't exist yet? No installer or packaging scheme is future-proof in this sense.
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installers are great imo, but the support for different distros is still a miss.
for example flatout 2 doesnt have sound because their compiled wine searches for wrong locations for 32bit libs
View video on youtube.com
other than that, i welcome those installers
galaxy would be better though
for example flatout 2 doesnt have sound because their compiled wine searches for wrong locations for 32bit libs
View video on youtube.com
other than that, i welcome those installers
galaxy would be better though
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Quoting: GuestQuoting: Xpanderinstallers are great imo, but the support for different distros is still a miss.
for example flatout 2 doesnt have sound because their compiled wine searches for wrong locations for 32bit libs
Does LD_LIBRARY_PATH not work?
it is working ofc.
i meant it doesnt work out of box :)
its always tweakable ofc
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I wish they would keep the tarballs around, they are easier to work with than an installer and I'm sure I'll need to lookup how to extract it manually every single time. Doing patches is not a problem either and it certainly doesn't require an installer. I get that it's more user friendly for some, but for me it's a step backwards.
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