Recently, Ubisoft introduced Ubi Connect and Electronic Arts introduced EA Desktop App as beta versions, having similar features as GOG Galaxy 2.0

I realize GOG Galaxy 2.0 is open source. What I don't understand is whether or not those publishers are using GOG Galaxy source code and rolling their own similar client or actually contributing to the project as well.

Don't get me wrong, their current release clients (Origin and UPlay) aren't great (in my not so humble opinion), but if publishers start to allow cross-platform connections and they choose to use existing code, wouldn't it make sense to also contribute back to the community and help with e.g. the ongoing connection issues related to their own platform?

Currently I'm using both GOG Galaxy 2.0 and Playnite (another open source launcher) as my main drivers.
The other clients I only have for product activations and such for those games that aren't available on GOG or exclusive to their respective platforms.

So while I welcome those publishers finally addressing some of the shortcomings of their desktop clients / launchers, I wonder if they're really rolling their own or just copying what's already been done.

Any thoughts?

Oh? I didn't realize that happened. Was it open source from the start (of 2.0), or is this a more recent change?

If I'm not mistaken, 2.0 has been open source from the start, well perhaps not entirely, but at least the platform integrations that enable cross-platform connections through the various platform APIs: https://github.com/gogcom

Big success for CDP Group and GOG!

I already mentioned in the past that Valve (Steam) are copying sale formats from GOG.
Now other big players are copying GOG's client. That is a serious acknowledgment!

Even if so... how does it benefit GOG that others are re-using their(?) ideas?

"Ei kissa kiitoksella elä" like we tend to say..

(something like "A cat doesn't live on acknowledgement" or "Кошка не живет признанием")

EDIT: Of course, if the others decide to adopt DRM-free releases from GOG, that is always a plus overall.

They will be always one step behind. And won't release something better than GOG.
They are just blindly copying, without knowing the final point or the whole picture.

I guess that is a point...

Then again so far I haven't seen that much difference with the clients I've used (Steam, Epic, Origin; I haven't used Galaxy as I don't want it to mess with my offline-installed GOG games, and the only time I tried Galaxy 1.0, it had some dependency problem and wouldn't start at all).

To me they all do what they are supposed to, ie. let me install and play the games, and keep the games up to date. Beyond that, I don't know what I should be expecting from them, e.g. what is what allegedly makes e.g. Steam or Galaxy 2.0 better than e.g. Epic.

To me Steam feels a bit confusing to use nowadays, it seems to have feature-creep like lots and lots of features over features whose real purpose I don't even understand, and having hard time to find the features I want to find.

For instance, on weekend I had Steam running on two different PCs in my household, with separate Steam user accounts (my kids were playing Team Fortress 2). Those two users have been marked as friends in Steam, but then when one of them is already playing some TF2 map on some server, I simply try to find the option to join the same game and server.

Where the heck do I find that option? There are all kinds of friends lists in various places in Steam, but not a simple option "join the game your friend is playing". It has some stupid chat options and the ability to "add a friend to a group" and whatever. I didn't get ahead with that in either the Steam client, or in the game itself.

Maybe it is possible somehow, I guess I should read some Official Steam Bible from cover to cover to find out how to achieve something simple as that. I don't want to phucking chat with the friends, but play with them.

EDIT: I recall i was able to earlier find an option to join the game a friend is playing, but either I have completely forgotten how to do it, or that option has changed or has been moved elsewhere in the meantime.

Yeah it's not open source at all, and the plugins being open source isn't very useful for other clients' developers.

Ok, in that case I misunderstood - thank you for clarifying. So it's just the plugins being open source then?
For those looking for 100% open source there is always Playnite (but it lacks some GOG specific features, obviously).