Which is exactly what GOG Galaxy client does. :)

GOG Downloader is and was a useful thing over not having it at all, but it is for all intents and purposes it is dead in the water. If there are any major glaring bugs pop up that GOG can fix easily and push an update out the door they probably will, but GOG Downloader won't be getting any new features or development as they will be releasing GOG Galaxy client in the near future and phasing out support for GOG Downloader some time after that. If there are any features someone wants to see offered by GOG in terms of software, it'd be a good idea to make suggestions in the Galaxy client threads as that is their sole focus in terms of a download/install client at this point. Plus, most of the things suggested so far as "wants" above already exist in some form in Galaxy client right now.

The Galaxy alpha test does not cost any money and anyone can sign up. You might have to wait a while until they do the next batch of invites to get access to it, but it doesn't take more than a few weeks or so. It is very early in development so rough around the edges and not ready for full blown use, I want to stress that. Anyone wanting something feature complete and stable without daily bugs/glitches should not even bother until it is officially launched as it simply is not ready for the masses yet or anyone who can't handle instability/glitches/problems.

But GOG Downloader is pretty much one foot in the grave, so any wishes/wants of features for it are pretty much wasted electrons passing over the Internet for the most part. :) There are 3rd party downloaders available also that one might want to experiment with but Galaxy client will ultimately be the downloader of choice by the majority of folks in the future. As long as GOG keeps the web back end up for Downloader it will probably work for quite some time even after they stop supporting it I imagine also. Additionally they mentioned they plan to make their APIs available so no doubt other people will write alternative downloaders eventually also. Either way we will end up with probably better solutions than anything we have now, and more of them, but it wont be for some time yet.

Even when the GOG Downloader goes EOL, there will most likely be a standalone downloader eventually if GOG opens the API as they said they would. People have implemented open source alternative downloaders already, so with an actual published API it is highly likely someone will whip something up when Downloader is obsoleted. I'll be shocked if someone doesn't really since it will most likely be extremely trivial to do. A few days coding with libcurl + libtidy and a lick of paint, or some pywhatever equivalents.

One way or another, everyone will end up getting either exactly what they want, or pretty damned close to what they want. There will of course always be whiners and complainers, because well... there are always whiners and complainers. :)

All of the complaining that goes on about Galaxy on the forums always reminds me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY58fiSK8E

I guess you really meant that there's no need to reinstall every single game because Steam does that for you, not that all games remain installed, right?

I've been using Steam for a few years now but I can't say I find it that good, more or less for the following reasons:

1) I can't install games where I want.
2) For a storefront limited webbrowser it looks horrible.
3) Apart from enforcing DRM upon us it has absolutely no functionality I use which my operating system can't do.
4) If there was one thing they could have done to make it convenient is to have some preset catagorizations but alas they haven't so I still need to do this myself (see point 3).
5) It's mandatory for downloading every game and mandatory for playing almost every game. Good luck finding out which are and which aren't since Steam dumps everthing in the same location (see point 1).
6) I hate it.
7) See point 6.

Funny is that everybody is ranting on always online DRM but miraculously Steam gets away with it, granted it can be considered a Lite version of always online as it allows some layback, still I have been kicked out of games several times because it lost connection.

Steam client has always been garbage. Clunky, bloated, slow, horrible downloader you call it.

The reason why they get away with those defects is because they have the best library in this planet as Digital Seller.

If you know the system for Steam you can put them ANYWHERE you want. I installed Steam to my games folder (E:\Games) and all my games are located in the one folder. The Steam ones are in the Steam folders there, but that's fine. If I want them on another drive, I can create a steam library on another drive, or I can move Steam (pretty easily). The only thing Steam won't do is multiple folders on the same drive, which seems kind of weird to want to do in the first place.

Steam client has always been garbage. Clunky, bloated, slow, horrible downloader you call it.

The reason why they get away with those defects is because they have the best library in this planet as Digital Seller.

exactly
thats what i mean
gog focuses too much on this galaxy crock that they forget to fix their website
what about that fucking dissapearing game glitch ?

its been around for ages but apparently they dont give a flying fuck because of galaxy

...

Yeah, though there is one thing Steam does better than GOG (okay maybe more than one thing), the gamepage links directly to the games subforum. And in case of GOG they just created one big mess of this where they dumped several games into one subforum.
Nice try, it still needs to go to %:\Steam\Steamapps\Common\ or %:\Steamlibrary etc.
In other words one giant clusterpenetration of epic proportions.

Not sure exactly what you are wanting, but Steam can install games pretty much anywhere if you go into Steam Settings and configure the "where I want" in the appropriate place. You can have multiple "where I wants" in fact, and when you install a game with multiple "where I want"s configured, there is a drop down that lets you choose which "where I want" that you have preconfigured. That may or may not be what you want, but it is an option which you may or may not have been aware of.

Subjective assessment, I think it looks quite good personally. Neither of us is wrong.

The steam client doesn't enforce DRM, it's just a piece of software to access Steam services and manage your games. Individual games may or may not enforce DRM, and they may or may not use Steam's optional DRM service (Steamworks CEG), however that's linked into the game itself IIRC, and not the Steam client. There are lots of DRM-free games on Steam, and oddly enough some of them are actually the GOG versions of the games such as Tomb Raider 1-3 for example (complete with GOG's launcher).

Not perfect perhaps, but these links are helpful in determining that both before and after purchase:
http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_3rd_Party_DRM_on_Steam
http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games

It's not only possible but actually very common for many things in life to use something and also dislike aspects of the same thing enough to complain about it because everything isn't without its flaws and we're sometimes willing to buy and use things that do have flaws because they still have value to us, but we will also potentially express our opinions about the aspects of the thing that we don't like as well. Pretty much everyone does that with things in life most likely including you, whether it is Steam, a refrigerator, or a corner store burrito.

Steam is rather convenient and has a lot of features that many people find useful, myself included. It also has it's own problems like just about everything in life. Everything has pros and cons pretty much, but they're also in the eye of the beholder and one persons +1 is another person's -1. I hate DRM, and I actively avoid the games on Steam that contain the types of DRM that I personally find very invasive and consumer non-friendly (Ubisoft and EA, I am looking at you...). I consult the URLs I shared above before I buy a game to ensure it is either DRM-free or that it has minimal DRM that wont harm my gaming experience likely in a way that is obstructive and thus I can find compromise with for the given price. I certainly respect those however that refuse to buy anything that contains any DRM whatsoever as that's also a valid and worthy personal choice too if it gives a better experience to someone.

For what it's worth I'd be rather upset if I got booted out of a game like you mention as well, which is why if someone does choose to use Steam it is very important to check the two DRM lists I posted above. It's up to game developers/publishers who sell their games on Steam whether their game uses any form of DRM or not, and whether it uses the optional Steamworks CEG DRM. In my opinion, if a game does use DRM, any anger over it is best directed at the publisher of the game and its developers however, and not at Steam because Valve does not require any games to use DRM at all. You do need to use the Steam client to download/install your games and some people consider that a form of DRM (although I don't because no "right" is being "managed" in the process), but then some people consider just about anything they don't like about a game or service to be "DRM". DRM has virtually become synonymous over time in gaming communities to mean "absolutely anything I don't like", kind of how just about any criminal activity these days is called an act of terrorism.

:oP

Anyhow, to be clear, I'm not defending Steam - just pointing out some information and some of my own personal thoughts about it as they apply to me and me alone, and respecting other people's views which may differ or even be the exact opposite of mine. I greatly prefer the GOG way of doing things and hope to see the entire catalogue of GOG-worthy games on Steam come to GOG some day, while the indie shovelware crap there stays there or goes to Desura. :)

No, the games actually remain installed. I don't see them in Programs and Features anymore, granted, but they still function perfectly fine. All of them without a single exception. Not a single megabyte of data is downloaded.