zubozrout

Is there any update in this section? Will GOG be available for Linux users anytime soon?
@skylineR390 has a point - Steam is a great source of Linux games nowadays and although it is far form perfect, it is the best we have.

the_all

Versions for GNU/Linux would be great and I think it would fit well to GoGs attitude. Maybe you could start by providing packages of the games which are already ported to GNU/Linux, such as FTL, Legend of Grimrock etc, it wouldn't cost you much.

Freakgs

Well, imo it would already be a huge step forward to either have a native downloader for the games (because most work absolutely fine with wine, in some cases even better than with Windows 8).

skylineR390

In the past, before buying a game I used to always check if the game was on GOG. More often than not it wasn't but in the rare cases GOG had it, I would buy it here unconditionally. Because I sympathized with the cause, loved CDProjekt and enjoyed the extra conveniences the site offers. but above all because I hate DRM passionately.

These days, I never visit GOG anymore. If I want a game, I check Steam. If I don't want a game, I check steam, If I'm bored I check Steam. Every other day, I check Steam. Specifically I check Steam's Linux section. I love how more and more Linux titles are being added and I have bought quite a few of them. Titles which I wouldn't have ordinarily looked twice upon.

I used to abhor Steam and wouldn't have never made business with them, because they imposed the ultimate DRM form. But ever since they started supporting Linux, I decided to make a compromise. Why? because they are offering an escape to the greatest form of DRM, a DRM that enslaves us all, Microsoft Windows.

jdcastellonm

I hope gog adds LInux support soon. It's the only thing missing for the site to be perfect for me.

LamaWaffle

please add more support to Linux

shmerl

There is Wine AppDB, which gives you a rough idea if it's playable with Wine at all. Of course there can be edge cases depending on your system.

ERIIX

I have 38 games on gog.com because I purchased them before noticing that I couldn't download the Linux versions of any of them (Fallout, for example, has a Linux download, though not native, under Desura).

GOG was banned from then on because I'm not going to pay money to someone for the right to cross my fingers and hope it works under Wine. I don't think I ever downloaded a single one of them.

If this is approved, I'll have one more place to buy games again.

quasenada

migrated definitely to linux (using ubuntu), much better than windows 7, i'm even playing some games through steam, if gog games supports linux i will be a very happy gamer :D

shaddim

@SgtH3nry3: I know about SDL (I'm a supporter). Difference to directX is, SDL was not pushed & developed inside the linux ecosystem as THE multimedia standard. (also, frankly, it's not as powerful...a equivalent to win32 is also missing...and a standard to deploy third-party software...and longtime binary interface compatibilitiy *sigh*)

Freakgs

How about not feeding that troll, guys? He's been doing that for months.

SgtH3nry3

@shaddim: There is an ABI called SDL 2.0 which handles input, audio aswell OpenGL and window management. It is as solid as DirectX, except that it also works on Windows and OS X.

shmerl

shaddim: GOG needs to address real problems, not the imaginary stuff which you make up here.

shellbofh

when this feature will marked as "in progress" ??

shaddim

@shmerl: ignoring the problems is not helping the linux desktop cause. Infact, thats exactly the conservative mindset why there is almost not progress since the 90s.

shmerl

shaddim: Can you stop your rants here please? They are mostly false anyway.

shmerl

PyroDevil: Even more than that. Witcher 2 for OSX already uses OpenGL, so I'd expect their RED engine 3 to support it as well.

shaddim

@Lillesort131: oh my... and when people stopping claiming "WINE is not an emulator". :( (Do they thinking it is shameful to emulate the "enemy" API/platform?! I don't get it...) WINE IS to a good degree a emulator... but this is completely irrelevant as it is working solution. (as the directX API and win32 are rock-stable...in contrast to anything in the linux ecosystem)

Overall, the related wish is here: http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/wine_as_a_supported_platform

Lillesort131

Until they do this, it would be a good idea to install WINE:
http://www.winehq.org/
As this is capable of running "most" old games with only minor or no bugs, and also runs at almost the same speed, because it doesn't emulate anything.
But thumbs up for this idea.

shaddim

@PyroDevil: oh my... when people will stopping spreading the myth that the linux support riddle is "solved" by the existence of opengl :(
While openGL is nice it only solves a small subset of the linux ecosystem shortcomings. It not solves the missing availablity of a complete (input, audio...the stuff beyond 3d graphics) multimedia SDK (like directX), a stable OS/window API (like win32), reliable hardware and driver support, reliable third party deployment methods to adress all customers (and not just debian or ubuntu), longtime binary stability (like the 18 years since win95)... all the stuff which makes the windows platform great for ISVs... and the support of fragmented linux ecosystem a pain.

PyroDevil

Porting Witcher 3 to linux should not be such a difficult task, because the PS4 is rumored to use a native opengl api. I only hope they do it.

qchto

@shmerl : i'd love to see that too, but my commentary wasn't to ask the witcher (or any cd projekt game) to be ported to linux. i was talking about being able to play already available linux ports for games on the gog library, as they supposedly support our "freedom of choice".

sukoto

My laptop's running Lubuntu and I often play "good old games" via wine, with varying degrees of success. New games should support mac|linux out of the gate, and gog.com should add "linux" as a system to the website.

shmerl

qchto: I'd surely like to see Witcher 3 released for Linux. So far CD Projekt Red didn't express such interest.

shmerl

shaddim: GOG should think twice about not supporting Linux, when their direct competitors already do.

Raider480

I also wanted to voice my support of this. Even Valve is doing it now, with DRM!

qchto

somewhat related, look this statement about the witcher 3 being released on the new x1 and some people asking them not to (because of its DRM policies):
"...I think, really, that's not fair to a lot of gamers who choose Xbox One as a platform. We strongly believe in the freedom of choice, and not releasing the game on any of the platforms would be a disadvantage..." - Marcin Iwinski, Co-Founder of GOG.com
*clap, clap, clap* .... oh wait, i forgot that "freedom of choice" doesn't apply when we talk about getting linux available games buyed via gog..

shaddim

@trousermonkey: bahh, better then bashing working solutions ("codeweaver"), this whiners should do their part that linux BECOMES a platform... At the moment it is a mess and that's the very reason why game developer, hardware developer and, in the end, also GOG have to think twice if they should try to support this ecosystem mess. :/

trousermonkey

HIB gets flak for releasing games that use winelib or codeweavers instead of a native build.
This is because linux gamers would like to see their platform succeed and wine is a bandaid toward this goal at best.

For old games however, I think codeweavers/wine is a fine solution and even just knowing it *could* run on wine would influence my purchase decision.

I've bought every humble bundle because I'm a linux gamer and because I want to show support for my platform. I bought witcher 2, baldurs gate, and dungeon keeper 2 here because I knew they would run under wine. I would probably buy more games here if I was comfortable they would run under wine.

Offering a play on linux (http://www.playonlinux.com/en/) script for supported games would help.

volsung

I have decided if a game has a native Linux version I will get it from another vendor who is capable of offering the Linux binary. Sadly this means GOG.com will get less of my money. Come on GOG, step up! Take our Linux money!
All this talk about DRM-freedom and you only offer games native to platforms with DRM.

dredhammer

its been a while since i have visited the GoG forums , and it looks like there will not be any linux support in the forseeable future (from what i have read here anyhow) so its valve, humblebundle or desura who gets my money whenever theres a multiplatform indie release and not GoG. They still get some cash when its an old game being released or a more recent games that are still bogged down with drm on other digital distributors (the prince of persia sands of time trilogy and assassin's creed , that new game magrunner for example) but only when they are on sale and not full GoG price.

shmerl

stargazer83: As already discussed many times, you can use innoextract to unpack these games and to use them without Windows installer.

stargazer83

all games written for ms-dos can be run on linux systems with dosbox installed. All that is missing is maybe a special dosbox.conf file for a paricular game. fairly easy to do. I would request that ms-dos games be made available WITHOUT A WINDOWS INSTALLER. That wsay everybody can use them.

shmerl

Legion of issues and work in progress is better than no issues reported and no progress at all.

shaddim

@hardpenguin, VisitntX & everyone else who insists that HIB or Steam solved the linux ecosystem support riddle "Automagically", "easily" or by "community" - even with distro specific packages stuff is broken and breaks again and again: e.g. HIB8 https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1280084
crayon physics: http://www.kloonigames.com/forum/index.php?topic=7683.0
torchlight: http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=35597 "2012: cannot play in fullscreen and the heads of Vanquisher and Alchemist are missing. Even in window mode and all the effects set to the lowest possible settings the game crashes frequently and is unplayable. [...] Strange thing is that the Windows client runs perfectly under WINE 1.4.1." 2013: http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=33360&start=60 "still crashing"

legion of steam linux issues : https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues?state=open

shaddim

@journeman: If you read my previous comments you will see that I'm a big proponent of "self containted software" aka "distro agnostic bundle" approach myself (e.g portablelinuxapps.com ): problem is this approach is hated and sabotaged by the distros (as it would made them obsolete). E.g. autopackage, a very promising and working project, was slaughtered by FUD and friendly fire from the distros ( http://web.archive.org/web/20080331092730/http://www.linux.com/articles/60124 ) and the statical linking approach is discouraged (and technical sabotaged) too: http://www.akkadia.org/drepper/no_static_linking.html

shaddim

@Agent_Tau: It's bad thing as the distro concept tries to provide choice on the wrong level: Choice should be given by empowering the users to customize to their systems themself to their needs. By allowing simple application installations (personal computing/platform concept). Instead the distro concept tries to catch all possibles use-cases by proving a bazillion of OS+apps bundels (the specialized distros) - insanity. I conclude: the distro concept is a archaic approach to cope with specialized needs, know to scale insufficent and cost to much ressources. It also lead to fragmentation as it prevents a standardized OS vs app separation (stable API/ABI) and is in the end the very reason for the low adaption of linux on the deskop. Please, drop this crap (and the defence of it, the advantages are marginal) and work on a unified linux OS base... a free and open source platform also GOG whole-hearty can and will support.

shmerl

hardpenguin: I'd say picking Debian as a metadistro would work better (Ubuntu is based on Debian). It's up to GOG of course.

hardpenguin

Oh btw, if you are concerned about fragmentation of Linux distros, support for Ubuntu only will be sufficient. The rest of distros will adapt, just like in case of Valve's Steam :)

hardpenguin

We are not gonna give up GOG :D We really want Linux support here :D

ShivaSi

@Agent_Tau: Yeah, I read the GOG team reasons regarding linux support and they're right. As we, linux users are right.
So here's another idea: Have an option in GOG profile to enable/view linux versions with a big-font warning to "Only enable it if you know what you're doing since it's an experimental option to get some feedback about linux games usage and most encountered issues".

Agent_Tau

@shaddim:
Where did I write that Linux was about choice? (GNU/Linux or Linux kernel btw? your one liner website isn't even clear about that with its link to Wikipedia)

I wrote that some GNU/Linux distros existed to fulfill specific needs (Ubuntu: easy to use desktop; Tiny Core: minimal RAM usage; BackBox: security assessment), or test different technologies (Bodhi: Ubuntu with Enlightenment window manager), and I can't see why this should be a bad thing.
This is not about choice, but rather about specialization, like for cars: pickups, urban cars, ATVs for specific needs, concepts/prototypes to showcase new technologies (and the choice here would rather be e.g. the bodywork color). However, I'm not saying there is no heavy redundancy in the distro and open source software fields, which is indeed a serious issue IMO (it would certainly be pointless to have choice between hundreds of different colors for a car... right?).

But, back to the point, i.e. GOG's concerns about GNU/Linux support:
Because of specialization / prototyping / competition / redundancy / IWantToPublishMyOwnDistroBecauseImSuchAnEpicNerdBooMyNeighbourUsesSlackwareThatsTooMainstream / whatever, there are WAY too many distros? Yeah, certainly.
Does GOG need to bother about it? No. The GNU/Linux ecosystem would certainly be more effective with less redundancy, but that is not GOG's concern. Limiting the scope of the support they offer (specific distros, specific versions, ... oh my, I feel like I really start rambling) is enough to give themselves shelter (notably by keeping reasonable test run durations).

Though, I do agree with the link to http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-devel-list/2008-January/msg00861.html, which states that one distro (Fedora in this case) is not supposed to include just any possible feature / link to any redundant library just for the sake to give choice to the user.
You might note that this is the same reasoning that made me state that GOG should not provide support for the GNU/Linux ecosystem as a whole (but for a very small subset of distros in specific versions instead; sorry, rambling again): because it would be such an atrocious burden to do so.

shmerl

So, let's GOG get to business and start supporting Linux seriously. If they are understaffed and have no extra resources to hire / train people - they can answer with that reason. But they didn't so far.

Agent_Tau

@ShivaSi:
Quote: I would settle with a bonus like "here's the linux package(s), as offered by the producer, we offer no support for it".

I'd be fine with that as well, but as stated by TheEnigmaticT at http://www.gog.com/forum/general/linux_support_on_gog/post14:

"Of course, we could just release a client, sell the games, and figure that you can sort the rest out yourself--I'm sure some businesses may even consider that a successful business model--but that's not really the GOG way of doing business. ;)"

GOG is willing to offer themselves quality support to their customers, so I guess it's not gonna happen the way you're describing it.

Moreover, I'd say that would not be a good signal to give to the mainstream public. What would someone considering to switch to GNU/Linux (and at least a bit interested in games) think when beeing told that "GNU/Linux users do not need commercial support on GOG like Windows and OSX users, because the community can handle that by itself"? For him that could imply that a GNU/Linux user is expected to be more skilled than a Windows or OSX one, and could scare him away. Which would be sad, because since many years distros like Ubuntu do a huge job to make their users' computing experience easier.

This is why I do agree with GOG staff on that point, that GNU/Linux users (err sorry, "Debian stable, Debian testing, latest Ubuntu LTS and latest Fedora" users :P ) should not be treated differently, even if I may not bother about that myself.

journeyman

@shaddim
This is simply nonsense; anyone ever heard of self-contained software? In compile time simply you buil the software using static linking instead of dynamic linking and you have a single executable which has everything it needs to run without having to deal with system libraries, custom paths and so on.

Also you can bundle the libraries in the same folder as the executable and add them at the beginning of the linking path in a script, the only problem you can encounter in this solution is the difference between various version of the linker library.

ShivaSi

Oh, btw, http://www.islinuxaboutchoice.com/ is wrong. Linux is not kernel, as it clearly states in the second phrase of the wiki page it links to "The defining component of Linux is the Linux kernel"

ShivaSi

I would settle with a bonus like "here's the linux package(s), as offered by the producer, we offer no support for it".
I do believe the community will step over and provide at least the minimum support for those games.

shaddim

@Agent_Tau: no it|s not direct consequence. It|s a unneeded pain in the a** which prevents the success of a open source OS http://www.islinuxaboutchoice.com/
@Half-Shot: even the most subtiles differences are enough to break software.... distros regulary break userland software... inacceptable.

ShivaSi

Thre's already a dedicated topic for linux http://www.gog.com/forum/general/linux_support_on_gog/page1

shmerl

ShivaSi: Feel free to create a public poll on GOG forums (if they don't support poll mechanisms, you can use some external tools).