Getting GOG.com to support Linux

As I said, they stated that they're over-worked with the problems on the three systems they already support (and would need to hire/train to support Linux), they're not sure whether it's viable (they're estimating that it would hardly increase sales - and I think that's true, because Linux users already buy from them. The increase would be slight) and they're afraid of getting sued (no rights to distribute a publishers/developers game on Linux, and well, some of those publishers do seem likely to do this at times).

Also, many people that have great experience with much of the work (unlike me) have tried and failed.

I'll just quote something from the GOG forums (three reasons why it would be hard), written by one of the people behind it:

Quote...

1: Testing. What distros do we support? There are 10 "fairly common" ones (Ubuntu, Mint, OpenSuse, Fedora, CentOS, ArchLinux, Debian, Slackware, FreeBSD and, um, I've forgotten a couple). Hardware? What level of updates? Only FOSS drivers, or can we take some closed source stuff? Once we've decided on a test bed, we still have to check the games. Do they boot? What about oddball games like, say, Theme Hopsital? There's a version-specific DOSBox-related fix there. Does it in work in any distro? In all of 'em? Managing testing across the 3 OSes we support is tough and requires a lot of time, effort, and money. How much more complex will 10 more OSes make it?

2. Support. Having problems getting your game running? We'll help you out. Contact Support and they'll try to diagnose your problem and offer a solution--but they only know how to fix common (and less common) Windows problems. LInux is famous as the hacker's OS--that is to say, the OS of people who like to do odd things with their hardware. If someone contacts Support because he can't get his copy of Fallout running on his Raspberry Pi with a video out that's connected to a six-panel e-ink display and he wants his money back, well, that puts us in a bad spot.

3. Maintanence. Across those 10 common distros, how often does one of them update? Quarterly? Monthly? I don't know, but the answer is certainly "often". What do we do if slackware updates and breaks the functionality of a glide wrapper that we're using for all of our games? Or if FreeBSD removes a driver from the kernel that we depend upon in order to run some games? Just planning for Windows 8 is a minor headache--ask Tolya about his test plans if you want to hear an earful--but planning for a wide spectrum of OSes that have constantly changing sources and see major feature and bugfix releases more than once a year? Man, that's a Herculean labor.

...

And also, this:

Quote... Not to mention publishers coming to us and saying, "It looks an awful lot like you're telling people that your game is supported in Linux. This is funny, because you aren't paying us for Linux distro rights."

Quoting: "Anon, post: 4665"And also, this:

Quote... Not to mention publishers coming to us and saying, "It looks an awful lot like you're telling people that your game is supported in Linux. This is funny, because you aren't paying us for Linux distro rights."

I already read the other bit you posted but where on Earth is that from? That sounds pretty bad.

It was written by the same person on the previous page in that thread (on GOG forums). The last paragraph.

I think it's not that they believe this likely, but they'd rather be on the safe side.

Looks like Eurogamer Germany has given [URL='http://www.eurogamer.de/articles/2012-06-13-eurogamer-de-fruehstart-13-6-2012']this request[/URL] a mention as well now! It can't be long now. :D

Phoronix has written [URL='http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTEyMTA']a piece[/URL] on this as well now. :D