IIRC, for me Timeshift asked whether I want to use btrfs or rsync. Since I wasn't sure what is the actual difference and whether choosing the btrfs option would mean actually having to use the btrfs filesystem in Mint (I am using ext4), I chose rsync. At least that worked as expected.

You chose . . .wisely ;)

the btrfs option is if you are using btrfs and snapshots

A question to GOG Linux gamers:
My understanding is that with GOG games, there are two (or three?) kinds of "Linux-versions":

1. Native Linux versions
- I think e.g. Firewatch and The Great Rebellion are two such games, and their Linux versions even seem to be up to date compared to the Windows versions.

2. Windows versions just wrapped in some, usually old, version of WINE
- I think e.g. Two Worlds "Linux-version" is like this.

3. MS-DOS and old Windows games running in .e.g DOSBox or ScummVM
- I am unsure if there are such games actually, shipped with Linux versions of DOSBox or ScummVM?

ANYWAYS! I am only interested in downloading 1., not 2 nor 3. For the latter two, I prefer just downloading the Windows version and then setting it up manually with WINE, or the Linux version of DOSbox or ScummVM.
For 1., I might also sometimes skip the native Linux version in case it is some old version seriously lagging behind the Windows version, but let's leave that beside for now.

Is there a way to tell those apart before the download, ie. which games are native Linux ports? Or is there some database kept up with that information?


Earlier I thought I am totally fine with the Windows versions only and setting them up to run with WINE, but occasionally it does seem the native Linux port could yield a bit better performance at least on lower spec PCs.

I noticed this with e.g. Firewatch which is a 3D game, despite being an Unity engine game, and running it on one old laptop. The Windows version ran fine with WINE, but testing also the native Linux version beside it, the graphics did run somewhat smoother. Maybe that difference is not as pronounced on some other games and/or higher spec PCs, but still.
It left me with a feeling that if there is a native Linux port available, it might be a good idea to try it out first, before going with the Windows version in WINE. Just for some extra frames per second if applicable.

At least some Wine wrapped games like Flatout inform you that they depend on Wine:

https://www.gog.com/en/game/flatout

> Requires Wine and dependencies, The Linux version comes with a 32-bit binary only. This is a Wine game and requires your local Wine package in order to play

Looks like Two Worlds game card also mentions Wine. I didn't look closely if all of them consistently do that.

Other than that, it's pretty easy to figure out by looking at game files.

I don't think GOG DB has this as an extra detail: https://www.gogdb.org/product/1207658693#details

In practice, you don't need to worry about that in general, there are very few games that use this Wine wrapping and you probably already know about them.

Personally, I don't see much use in Wine wrapped games, because if they ship Wine - it's very old and stale. Just take the Windows version and run it in recent Wine yourself instead for better experience.

For instance, modern Wine can run all games (64-bit and 32-bit) without the need for 32-bit version of Wine itself and without the need for 32-bit system libraries either. Old versions of Wine can't do that.

I would like to know beforehand so I can skip downloading the Linux versions of games that are mere WINE-wrapped games.

I don't. So far I've been mostly just downloading and running Windows versions in WINE, but recently when I noticed that the Linux version of Firewatch did give me somewhat better performance on a low-spec laptop than the Windows version running in WINE, I became interested in downloading and using also the Linux versions of games.

I kinda wish GOG would simply remove the Linux versions of those games where it is merely the Windows-version wrapped into WINE. Linux-users can already install and run the Windows versions with a modern version of WINE quite easily, e.g. in Lutris it is just a couple of clicks away.

Exactly. To me the wake-up call was trying to run Two Worlds in Linux, that was already many years ago (and Linux/WINE has already come a long way since then).

I first tried the "Linux-version" which was the Windows version wrapped in WINE, and it wouldn't launch at all, there was some mussing dependency. I used lots of time trying to resolve that issue and asking also here about it, but at some point I came into a conclusion that it just couldn't be done, I couldn't get the missing dependency to that Linux distro because it was not supported anymore, the name had changed etc. etc.

Then I tried the Windows version in WINE, and that at least ran. (Back then it had some graphical issues and there was no audio IIRC, but as said that was years ago and it has come a long way, and recently when I tried it again, TW worked just great in Linux/WINE).

That kinda killed my interest in even trying the Linux versions of GOG games, even if they were native Linux games. I thought they'd always have some dependency issues and whatnot, and quite often be lagging behind with the Windows version, ie. missing updates.

But recently I decided to try Firewatch and The Great Rebellion through Lutris, installing the Linux native versions (since WINE offered the option to either install the GOG Linux or Windows/WINE version of the games), and was pleasantly surprised. They installed easily, work great and apparently are even as up-to-date as the Windows version, and as said. Linux-native Firewatch also ran smoother on a low-spec laptop than the Windows version in WINE.

So now I feel I want to download and archive also Linux versions of my GOG games... but only if they are native Linux versions, and not seriously lagging behind the Windows version, ie. missing some critical updates. I guess I just need to start going through them, first checking which of my GOG games even list a Linux version, and go forth from that.

Maybe they worked so great because both are Unity games? I got an impression somewhere that is is quite easy for developers to create and ship both Windows and Linux versions of their games with Unity, and based on those two examples, they also work great out of the box

Anyway, I see it all as a non issue. Download the native version, check what it is, if you don't like it, use the Windows version. I'd expect only a very small number of games being wine wrapped and as above, they probably mention it in the game card so you are able to check it before downloading.

I think I personally haven't encountered anything besides Flatout and Two Worlds that you already mentioned.

I use Linux Mint (older) & Arch Linux (newer) my gaming.

I use Linux native or Windows version of the game, based what's available. Most the time I'm trying first Linux version, but if it has issues, then I try Windows version. I can fix some Linux issues with games as missing someting, but sometimes Windows versions just run better.

I use Lutris to run my games, doesn't really matter what "wine" related software you use for run games. Newest version of Lutris how ever has one issue. It use UMU and proton by default. How ever not all GoG games can be installed with Proton runner. It basicly doesn't run the GoG game installer software. Real problem is that Lutris doesn't anymore have runner selection while installing game. So to solve this GoG game installation issue, Lutris default runner needs to be something else that proton, like any wine type runner.

In my opinion GoG using Ubuntu and Linux Mint as test case, could be better. Main reason is that those two distripution are very close to same. It would be maybe better have more different type distriputions to test games in Linux. Example CachyOS & Linux Mint.

I use Wine directly without Lutris. Just my own scripts to launch games. Never used UMU.

Also side note, you don't need to use installers if you don't want to, you can get and update games with lgogdownloader.

Or extract the installers directly with Innoextract.

I believe The Witcher was one of those. Perhaps The Witcher 2 instead since the first game doesn't seem to have a Linux version.

I don't recall the Witcher ever having a Linux version here? The Witcher 2 has it, but it's not a Wine wrapper, it's eON wrapper (different thing).

At some point I figured that The Witcher 2 in Wine (+dxvk) works somewhat better.

Yeah, but that just adds an extra step, especially for updating things. lgogdownloader pulls things directly from the server already in extracted form.

For Windows versions it's using Galaxy API, for Linux ones it's accessing installers on the server using zip offsets, but result is already extracted game anyway. Once GOG will add Linux versions to their Galaxy backend support, I assume lgogdownloader will work for both using Galaxy API.

Oh, I see. Was a bit dificult to dig some info but eON seems at it's core a DX-OGL wrapper, kinda old by todays standards and probably deprecated. No wonder Wine works so much better.
If the installers are already archived and ready to go no need to download again :)