Mateys,
I have noticed that games that I used to play on Linux running Dosbox have been dropped from the catalogue.
Does anyone know if there any explanation for this?

I know I can unpack the win exe but I enjoyed the convenience of GOGs install script.

Damn shame.

What games, exactly?

Not a Linux user personally, but unless DOSBox officially stops supporting it, I don't see what the issue is beyond the potential minor inconvenience posed by setting up a separate front-end for games or doing some additional command line stuff. The latter seems like it would be trivial for anyone running a Linux distro though.

Are we talking about games still being sold on GOG but their Linux installers have been taken out or games that have been pulled from the store in which case anyone who had bought them should still be able download the installers?

Or perhaps the latter has happened, but the games were later released again by a different publisher who for some reason hates Linux enough to forbid supporting it with even existing installers and GOG then mistakenly made the old version's buyers to access only the files of the new version?

Or maybe the games in question have been remastered in a way that they now only run in native Windows and therefore the new version would not work with DOSBox, but even then the old version's installers can usually be downloaded as extras.

Could you provide some some examples, please?

Looking through my library, a couple of Linux boycotting publishers pop out: Electronic Arts and Bethesda Softworks, names known to all gamers.

Those DOS games I expect to have a Linux version do.

So, please name the problematic game(s)!

The only game I know for which this happened is Master of Magic, which got updated to allow a new windows-only DLC. If you buy Master of Magic, it still comes with the old Linux install files (now as a "goodie"), but the latest version with extra bugfixes is windows only (as far as official support goes).

This is very much the exception, though.

You could have maybe rephrased that title better, I was about to clatter my metaphorical tea, you cad.

So — no other examples? The thread scared me a bit.

Might and Magic, LOL:TOC，TES，XCOM, Doom, Stonekeep
I still have Might and Magic 3 installed which used the GOG install script but I can no longer download it.
So we're thinking this is a publisher decision and not GOG related?
Does anyone know why they would do that?

I've checked the archive.org and it doesn't seem to confirm your claim that there have ever been Linux installers for some of those titles (others I couldn't decipher, what's LOL:TOC?). Maybe you've used a user script to install those games, or you've modified them yourself to work on Linux?

Edit: Just a thought - maybe you've mixed up Mac and Linux? Because that would be true for macOS, as Apple stopped supporting 32bit applications.

Searching for old builds for Doom on GOGDB doesn't come up with much for old Linux builds.

I would have thought there would be Linux versions for DOSBox packaged games by default, so maybe the publisher requested there not be a Linux version. On the other hand many people use source-ports like GZDoom anyway, so if you want to play Doom under Linux natively, you still can.

I have over 1500 GOG games and I always backup everything immediately after I bought the game.
Those games you mentions, none of them had GOG Linux version. At least after I owned them long time ago.

For this one I remember copying GOG's settings to my own instance of Linux-DosBox. I've never understood why they're not providing Linux installers for DosBox games. It seems to need so small effort once you've already made a configuration...

Seeing as none of the EA games have Linux versions, it's probably a contractual issue.