Just preordered the game on GOG cause it looks to be a hit. I did check out the steam store reveiws and it seems like alot of folks are having an issue with bugs in the initial release and I was curious what the plan might be when it comes out over here. Only reason I got it here instead of steam is cause I thought it might end up a tad more polished with the delayed release. (Plus giving steam 60 bucks feels wrong.)

Most bugs are already fixed on PC, consoles are apparently still a mess because the latest big patch is still waiting for Microsoft/Sony certification. GoG release should be completely fine.

I have game on Steam, playing since release. Sure there are bugs, but so far I have not found any gamebreaking bug.
Game crashed once during 5 days.

I believe the game will get only better. So by waiting for the GOG release you are not loosing anything, just gaining ;)

Post after post is about bugs in the steam forum. I think I'll do like I did with No Man's Sky and hold off a year or more to make sure that I'm buying a finished product.

Especially the save bugs and main quest bugs...I don't want to risk having to start my game over because I couldn't advance in the story or the game randomly deleted my save.

I too have the game pre-ordered here on GoG, so this is a topic which is of interest given the imminent availability for download this week.

Unless one of the mods or staff can provide some feedback in the meantime, I guess it's just a case of waiting to see which version is available for download. I'm very keen to play the game, but it's not really much of an issue if I need to wait a few weeks more for better and updated versions.

The main issue for me is that the game itself will take the best part of a day to download, on my satellite connection, even with decent download speeds that aren't throttled and unlimited bandwidth. For that reason alone, I'd rather wait to download a more polished version with most of the principal launch issues resolved, than have massive patches taking several hours to download each time they're released.

Its release was delayed, but it doesn't mean it will have less bugs upon launch compared to Steam version.
Just saying, considering that Gog releases almost always get updates after Steam.
They didn't know which issues Gog users could face, considering this one was delayed.
It's 27th of February now, let's wait for the reviews.

Well that is up do the developers. By this point *some* bugs presumably are fixed, maybe the most glaring ones, but probably not all of them.

I would wait at least for patch 1.03. Bug fixes and improvement list is quite long. I contains reworked save game system and weights ca. ... 16GB.

Reviews came out. And like I said in my previous comment, the reviwers are complaining about lots of bugs, just like on Steam version.
See - the delayed DRM-free release dos not mean it is going to have less bugs, it means they bought some time to cash in on other platforms and retailers with the DRM version first.
Welcome to the real world.

I had only one bug in 15-20 hours. No gamebreaking. No crash. The only bug I had was in the achery competition where one enemy had not used his bow and I had to go away.

Thanks for posting that info. It's useful (for me at least) to have a rough idea regarding the size of the next patch.

Even though I'm really looking forward to playing, it might be wiser for me to hold off downloading until that patch is fully integrated into the next version released on GOG.

Given this is such a large game download (on my connection), it's one of those rare occasions I'd do so via Galaxy and set it going overnight, when I don't need the bandwidth for anything else. Having to then download a separate patch that's roughly half the size of the core game download itself, not so long afterwards, would just be a chore.

Any idea of vague timing of its release?

I could not find any specific references other than an article from Feb. 20th claiming it to be released "next week."

The whole "save and exit" thing is a major consideration for me. Not sure I want to start the game without it, and the other changes seem significant enough to delay playing as well.

I have stumbled across size of the patch and list of bug fixes on XBox forum (I doubt the size will be less for PC). The post was about 2-3 ago. I couldn't found release date though.
But if the patch size was given correct, it should solve (in my opinion) performance drops issues. I will write about my suspicions in thread CPU requirements, maybe someone will confirm them (or deny).

how do I update my game when patches get released? First time buying from GOG, I do not want to use galaxy w/e its called.

If you do not intend on using Gog Galaxy client to automatically update your game, you will have to manually check for updated version of the game via Gog's website, by logging in and downloading the patch.

Sometimes they blend-in core game files with the recent patch. In that case it means you have to re-download the game again.