Quoting: michaDepending on GoG Galaxy means, it's using a form of DRM essentially, right?

No, it means developers simply didn't care to code their game with ifdef or stubs, that compile against Galaxy APIs, but don't do anything, and fail gracefully.

I.e. if you put a hard requirement "compile only if Galaxy headers are present" and "don't release if platform doesn't support cloud saves and multiplayer", then it doesn't mean they insist on DRM, but means they made some features mandatory, which they didn't have to, and are dropping the whole release for Linux because of it. I.e. GOG don't stop developers from not providing Galaxy features in their Linux versions. But it's extra work which developers might not want to do.

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Quoting: SolitaryBecause Steam provides it. The comfort is indisputable, no matter how much you or some other people don't care about convinient clients, auto-updates and all that noise.

I'm not against them making clients, I just won't use them if they are closed source. The problem is that it became a hard requirement for some games, and they simply don't come out DRM-free for Linux, since Galaxy for Linux wasn't yet made.

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Quoting: SolitaryYou are right and most of the Linux DOSBox wraps are mostly easy byproducts and not direct porting effort, but them porting is not really necessary. However it just shows a point that they do not do much else apart from providing bandwith and link with Linux game someone else made. That is their extent of Linux support, they let other people sell for this platform too.

That's what distributors are supposed to do. But they got into this whole idea of added value through providing multiplayer backend, matchmaking, cloud saves and what not. And that requires dedicated effort for each OS they target.

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Quoting: SolitaryWow... well. Except Steam itself is not DRM, if anything we could say some games have vendor lock-in because of use of Steam APIs, but DRM it is not.

But you have obviously "strong" opinion on things, so maybe it should be better if you ignore me, we will obviously not agree on many issues.

I'd disagree here, unlike itch.io client and Galaxy, what makes Steam DRM is mandatory requirement on installing through it. I.e. having DRM-free installer / package for games is a hard requirement for DRM-free store. Steam doesn't fit the profile. Anyway, let's not get into the off-topic.

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Quoting: tmtvl"Client" funny way of spelling DRM.

Steam is not your friend. Just because they decide they want to milk Linux users as well does not make them Linux-friendly. It simply makes them indiscriminate vultures.

The client doesn't need to be DRM, itch.io one isn't for example. The Galaxy in itself isn't DRM either, but games blocked by it from coming out is a problem. I.e. while GOG claim it's optional, this de-facto makes it mandatory for those games.

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Quoting: Guest200 games... But how do you update them? Even if you just install 10% it would be a lot of manual work. The thing is, nobody expects from GOG to offer all features on Linux, just the basics like install and update games. This is not really any effort for them, I don't believe them.

I don't have an issue with updating stuff manually, and would prefer it to any closed client. The main problem is not inconvenience, but whole games missing from GOG because of Galaxy.

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Quoting: SolitaryBy quick look, most of those 700 linux games on GOG are actually effort of the developers/publishers of those games and not GOG by any means.

GOG are distributors, not developers. The only exception are their restored games, which they fix to run on modern Windows, and games they package with DOSbox. I don't think they ever did anything like Humble Bundle and actually fund Linux porting efforts. I'd like them to, but I don't expect them to do it.

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Quoting: GuestHeh, a bit amusing since if you for instance play Serious Sam: Bogus Detour (from Steam) your ~/ gets polluted with a GOG.com [External Link] folder. Which apparently wont have any use since they have no interest in Linux. Good show.

I suppose Crackshell / Croteam had no interest in making non Galaxy version for Linux GOG users. Is it another example of game not released on GOG because of lacking Galaxy? Developers here are partly to blame, but less than cases when they simply ignore GOG.

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I think the main problem is that by not supporting Galaxy, they hurt their own Linux user base, since new Linux users are less likely to use them. It's clearly a management issue that they have.

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Linking to individual posts there works most of the time, but occasionally it's broken.

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