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50 games for the free OS available right NOW!

A while ago, [url=http://www.gog.com/news/gogcom_soon_on_more_platforms]we've announced our plans to add Linux support as one of the features of our digital platform, with 100 games on the launch day sometime this fall. We've put much time and effort into this project and now we've found ourselves with over 50 titles, classic and new, prepared for distribution, site infrastructure ready, support team trained and standing by, and absolutely no reason to wait until October or November. We're still aiming to have at least 100 Linux games in the coming months, but we've decided not to delay the launch just for the sake of having a nice-looking number to show off to the press. It's not about them, after all, it's about you. So, one of the most popular site feature requests on our community wishlist is granted today: Linux support has officially arrived on GOG.com!

The first 50+ titles we've have in store for you come from all the corners of our DRM-Free catalog. Note that we've got many classic titles coming officially to Linux for the very first time, thanks to the custom builds prepared by our dedicated team of penguin tamers. That's over twenty fan-favorite GOG.com classics, like &[url=http://www.gog.com/game/flatout_2]Flatout 2, , <a href="http://www.gog.com/game/darklands">Darklands, or Realms of the Haunting we've personally ushered one by one into the welcoming embrace of Linux gamers. That's already quite a nice chunk of our back-catalog, and you can expect more from our dedicated Linux team soon!

Now, for the recent titles. We've got some indie games with native Linux versions that finally find their well-deserved spot in our store. Among them, debuting on Linux, - a well received original comedic Sci-Fi puzzler. On top of that, be on the lookout for two new additions to the GOG.com catalog: [url=http://www.gog.com/game/gods_will_be_watching]Gods Will Be Watching (coming in a couple of hours) and Unrest:Special Edition (Linux build coming right up!), both of them very fresh and intriguing. This is the very first time we can provide you with all the PC versions of a premiere game, and we will continue to do so in the future. If there's a Linux version of a title we're releasing, our aim is to deliver it to you Day-1. But enough about us, let's talk about the games. Here's what you can be playing on Linux today:

Anomaly Warzone Earth
Ascendant
Bionic Dues
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold - first time on Linux!
Blake Stone: Planet Strike - first time on Linux!
Bloodnet - first time on Linux!
Braveland
CLARC - first time on Linux!
Darklands - first time on Linux!
Darwinia
Defcon
Don't Starve + DLC
Dragonsphere - first time on Linux!
Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition
FlatOut - first time on Linux!
Flatout 2 - first time on Linux!
Fragile Allegiance - first time on Linux!
Gemini Rue
Gods Will Be Watching
Hammerwatch
Hocus Pocus - first time on Linux!
Kentucky Route Zero
The Last Federation
Legend of Grimrock
Litil Divil - first time on Linux!
Long Live the Queen
MouseCraft
Multiwinia
Normality - first time on Linux!
Pinball Gold Pack - first time on Linux!
Pinball World - first time on Linux!
Pirates! Gold Plus - first time on Linux!
Realms of the Haunting - first time on Linux!
Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender - first time on Linux!
Rise of the Triad: Dark War - first time on Linux!
Shattered Haven
The Shivah HD
Sid Meier's Colonization - first time on Linux!
Sid Meier's Covert Action - first time on Linux!
Sir, You Are Being Hunted
Slipstream 5000 - first time on Linux!
Space Pirates and Zombies
Spacechem
Stargunner - first time on Linux!
SteamWorld Dig
Super Hexagon
Surgeon Simulator 2013
Sword of the Samurai - first time on Linux!
Teslagrad
Unrest:Special Edition (Linux build on the way!)
Uplink
VVVVVV

As if this wasn't exciting enough, we've put more than half of these titles on a special promo! Head out to the promo page and find out which of them you can get up to 75% off until Tuesday, 9:59AM GMT. Of course, all of the games from the list above that you already own will be updated with Linux versions with no additional cost for you, just as you might have expected from GOG.com.

"OK, but how will Linux support actually work on GOG.com" - you might ask. For both native Linux versions, as well as special builds prepared by our team, GOG.com will provide distro-independent tar.gz archives and support convenient DEB installers for the two most popular Linux distributions: Ubuntu and Mint, in their current and future LTS editions. Helpful and responsive customer support has always been an important part of the GOG.com gaming experience. We wouldn't have it any other way when it comes to Linux, and starting today our helpdesk offers support for our official Linux releases on Ubuntu and Mint systems.

Diversity and freedom of choice have always been an important part of the GOG.com way. We're very glad that we could improve our service with the addition of the free (and DRM-Free) alternative to the commercial operating systems. Talking with gamers is just as important, so we're counting on your feedback! If you've got any questions, suggestions, or run into any trouble, just tell us in the forum thread below this post. Just please be gentle, this is [url=http://youtu.be/qBxbPts5tOk" target="_blank]our very first time[/url] with Linux. Happy launch day, everyone!
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JudasIscariot: I heard other Fedora users say that there's a package or program called alien that converts .debs into RPMs, so there's that at least :)
I have heard of it. I've considered installing an RPM distro just to see how well it works.
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JudasIscariot: For me they are great as the Mint 17 equivalent of Software Center takes AGES to show up for some reason so tar.gz all the way for me :D
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ssokolow: *nod* It's as if "performance optimization as part of UX design" is an alien concept to these guys.

(Hence why I always use apt-get or aptitude for repository installs and dpkg -i for manually-downloaded packages.)
Ahh OK, and here I was thinking it was just me as I am running my Mint 17 install on an external HDD via a USB 3 port :D

I also noticed the same lag on Ubuntu 14.04 especially with games like Realms of the Haunting due to their sheer size :/
Post edited July 28, 2014 by JudasIscariot
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JudasIscariot: Well, I'd rather take baby steps in this issue and have us secure permission for the Linux version and then we can go from there :)
Obviously but you should newer stop looking ideas for future consideration. :-) And it's better to post ideas when they pop into my head as I'll probably will have forgotten them tomorrow ;-p
Post edited July 28, 2014 by Petrell
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JudasIscariot: Well, I'd rather take baby steps in this issue and have us secure permission for the Linux version and then we can go from there :)
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Petrell: Obviously but you should newer stop looking ideas for future consideration. :-) And it's better to post ideas when they pop into my head as I'll probably will have forgotten them tomorrow ;-p
That's perfectly fine :) Always good to have feedback ahead of time :)
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ssokolow: *nod* It's as if "performance optimization as part of UX design" is an alien concept to these guys.

(Hence why I always use apt-get or aptitude for repository installs and dpkg -i for manually-downloaded packages.)
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JudasIscariot: Ahh OK, and here I was thinking it was just me as I am running my Mint 17 install on an external HDD via a USB 3 port :D

I also noticed the same lag on Ubuntu 14.04 especially with games like Realms of the Haunting due to their sheer size :/
It's entirely possible your performance is worse than mine (I like my S.M.A.R.T. health monitoring too much to trust my data to USB hard drives) but I've found package management GUIs to perform poorly in general.

Far too much waiting on I/O instead of using tricks like "UI is up and usable immediately, data then loads in incrementally" or the "Make disk I/O and user interaction as independent as possible" trick the *buntu installer uses to streamline things.
Post edited July 28, 2014 by ssokolow
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JudasIscariot: Ahh OK, and here I was thinking it was just me as I am running my Mint 17 install on an external HDD via a USB 3 port :D

I also noticed the same lag on Ubuntu 14.04 especially with games like Realms of the Haunting due to their sheer size :/
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ssokolow: It's entirely possible your performance is worse than mine (I like my S.M.A.R.T. health monitoring too much to trust my data to USB hard drives) but I've found package management GUIs to perform poorly in general.

Far too much waiting on I/O instead of using tricks like "UI is up and usable immediately, data then loads in incrementally" or the "Make disk I/O and user interaction as independent as possible" trick the *buntu installer uses to streamline things.
I would have to benchmark my performance vs. yours but yeah, I am sure it is worse but as long as everything else on the system works reasonably fast (everything else = games :D), I am not bothered by it.

Due to the package manager being bad, I just use terminal, sooooo much faster :) I think whoever makes these distros on purpose to force their user base to learn how to operate the OS via terminal :P /tinfoil hat mode ON
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Daliz: I really like the tarballs. Even if I used Ubuntu/Mint I'd still probably use the tarballs, so simple extract to home directory and run. I know exactly where everything is, I know exactly which partitions capacity the game is using etc.
Same. Debian user here. I use this distro because I'm willing to sacrifice support for a bit more control over what's going on under the hood. Being able to use .deb files is great, but typically, if it's not in a repo and can't be fully managed via the actual package manager, I'd rather just have a tarball as well for the same reasons.
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JudasIscariot: I heard other Fedora users say that there's a package or program called alien that converts .debs into RPMs, so there's that at least :)
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jalister: I have heard of it. I've considered installing an RPM distro just to see how well it works.
At least the tarball of Flatout 2 just worked fine under Fedora 20 (Kernel 3.15.4) with integrated HD4000, but I'm struggeling with optimus support. Bumblebee worked fine under Ubuntu 12.04, but I tried figuring out how the kernel-integrated optimus supports works under Fedora 20 and failed to configure it. HW-accelerated Flash seems to be a pain in the ass too :)
Maybe if I have enough time :(
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Daliz: I really like the tarballs. Even if I used Ubuntu/Mint I'd still probably use the tarballs, so simple extract to home directory and run. I know exactly where everything is, I know exactly which partitions capacity the game is using etc.
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usingalovelytune: Same. Debian user here. I use this distro because I'm willing to sacrifice support for a bit more control over what's going on under the hood. Being able to use .deb files is great, but typically, if it's not in a repo and can't be fully managed via the actual package manager, I'd rather just have a tarball as well for the same reasons.
It also means you don't have to sudo to edit your DOSBox configs.
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usingalovelytune: Same. Debian user here. I use this distro because I'm willing to sacrifice support for a bit more control over what's going on under the hood. Being able to use .deb files is great, but typically, if it's not in a repo and can't be fully managed via the actual package manager, I'd rather just have a tarball as well for the same reasons.
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ssokolow: It also means you don't have to sudo to edit your DOSBox configs.
True.
Though Dosbox can be started with a defined dosbox.conf that (iirc) can be anywhere, like in a users home directory for easy editing.
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ssokolow: It also means you don't have to sudo to edit your DOSBox configs.
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Daliz: True.
Though Dosbox can be started with a defined dosbox.conf that (iirc) can be anywhere, like in a users home directory for easy editing.
Yeah, but then you have to muck about with editing the launchers the .deb installed, so you might as well just use the tarball anyway.
I'm so glad for this! I just noticed Darklands is available!

I haven't bought many GOG games but today I've filled a cart :)

I'm not on a .deb distro (Gentoo) but the .tar.gz worked just fine.

It is so nice to be able to play these games again without having to install a 5.25" floppy drive, find a machine it works in, install DOS, switch through the 9 or 10 floppies and then work out the kinks in an emulator for linux.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
It might be useful for those of us with large catalogs to be able to sort by platform availability.

(I'd be fine with something akin to a sql 'where platform='Linux' type result, nothing extravagant - but client side javascript would work too, I'm not against that.)
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Truck: It might be useful for those of us with large catalogs to be able to sort by platform availability.

(I'd be fine with something akin to a sql 'where platform='Linux' type result, nothing extravagant - but client side javascript would work too, I'm not against that.)
Type "linux", "ubuntu", or "mint" in the search box on your shelf. Also "osx" and "mac". Of course, "mac" also matches "machine", as in "The Incredible Machine Mega Pack" which is not (yet) available for OS X.
Post edited July 28, 2014 by Maighstir
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Ziosilvio: I would also be very happy to see the Witcher games on GOG for Linux.
Not just the last two chapters, but the original one as well.
Same here. The whole series would be great. GOG may not be as big as Valve, but it definitely doesn't have as many games either. Financial compensation would be in order, of course.