Time to stop being excited (GOG not supporting Linux)

Did anyone seriously think GNU/Linux was going to be their "new OS" announcement?
I mean, being an ultra-vocal minority doesn't make us any less of a minority. And it's not like innoextract and basic .conf modification are that hard.

And WINE is no proper way to actually support GNU/Linux.
And there are more indie games available for Mac than for GNU/Linux.
And Windows 8 is around the corner, while Windows 7 still isn't supported by them.

Non-news. Unfortunately.

(still, thanks for the report ^^)

Windows 7 is almost fully supported by them, with a couple of exceptions. Not many, less than ten, which is better than Steam in this case.

And well, no, not really. However, Linux users are not in a minority on their forums, and judging by the number of posts, it might be around 10% of their user base.

Still, I said from the start to assume the most likely, and this is the confirmation then. They are standing by their points from I think back in July or something. Too bad, but honestly, can't they for once do it half-assedly and just support one distro? They claim they'd have to support Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Mint, Debian, Red Hat, CentOS and a bunch of others...

The comments indicate disappointment and disapproval. One even goes as far as to say...

Quoting: bmr5770I'm so tired of excuses like GOG's: " really difficult to bring the [URL='http://GOG.com']GOG.com[/URL] level of support and ease-of-use to the wide variety of distros that are commonly used by Linux users". It's pure BS. If you *ask the communities* they WILL help you. Companies need to stop the "we have to do it all" mentality when dealing with Linux. You want it to work on Arch Linux, ask the Arch Community. Ubuntu? Ask them.. Slackware, Fedora, Newflavor Linux - JUST ASK. Heck, under a Linux forum, make sub-forums for each one, assign a community moderator. Make a [URL='http://GOG.com']GOG.com[/URL]. We're the Linux community. If sound doesn't work for Game X on our distro, yeah, we'll complain...then we'll find a fix...or work with you to find one. At the very least, you could simply provide the DOS based games with recommended settings for DosBox (which the various distros already have working). You could partner with Code Weaver to create standalone Wine wrappers for the MS Windows based games. There are any number of easy ways to start supporting Linux, right now. So please stop with the "it's hard" line - it's been way over used. Just add it and ask us for help.

Uh-huh. Lovely.

I can understand the disappointment, but it still requires QA, it still requires packaging (unless they go with .tar.gz, but then you can be sure there'll be some whining from people who'd prefer .deb/.rpm and to hell with other distros), it still requires support, if they want it to run from the get-go it requires a standalone dosbox (and then say hello to problems in the long run, Loki and LGP have proven it more often than not)... Asking is the FIRST step in a LONG process if they want to give the same quality for GNU/Linux as for Windows.
"JUST ASK"? :rolleyes:

I'm with GOG on this one. I'd rather see them take their time than rush it and support *Ubuntu*. Ubuntu is NOT GNU/Linux. It's ONE GNU/Linux variant. Truth is, the simple fact they see it that way instead of "oh well let's support Ubuntu and f*** the others" like so many others is a great relief to me.

Sure, they could make things easier with simple zip files as far as DOS games are concerned (as a temporary workaround/helper, I mean). But I don't mind innoextracting their packages and cp/vim a common launcher to point to the conf. Never had any problems with that.

And Windows games? I don't WINE (anymore). So I couldn't care less. Things will get tough when they start with it... You can be sure there'll be whiners complaining that it's WINE. Limbo anyone? :/

And I'm quite unsure about our market share on GOG. Until I see an official statement about that, I won't trust any votes or... well, pretty much anything.

That doesn't mean I don't want them to support the penguin. It just so happens that being rude and lacking patience never helped developers and publishers come around to it.

On a more positive note, the Linux request on GOG has now made 7 000 votes. :D

Always using the same excuse. Distribute your own libraries and you'll just have to give support for the Linux kernel and glibc, and they're compatible backwards. It's easier than supporting Windows when done properly. Please, someone tell them to stop trying to support distributions, companies usually suck at that when they try it.

Quoting: "Hyeron, post: 5777, member: 223"I can understand the disappointment, but it still requires QA, it still requires packaging (unless they go with .tar.gz, but then you can be sure there'll be some whining from people who'd prefer .deb/.rpm and to hell with other distros), it still requires support, if they want it to run from the get-go it requires a standalone dosbox (and then say hello to problems in the long run, Loki and LGP have proven it more often than not)... Asking is the FIRST step in a LONG process if they want to give the same quality for GNU/Linux as for Windows.

Mostly agree with what you are saying - however, the fact that Loki games are having trouble running for some users (personally never had that many issues myself though) over ten years after release does not really indicate a problem with their methods. GoG was founded because of compatibility problems on the Microsoft end, so I do not see this as being a real bane for Linux.

If they could get the rights to Loki's old games (not that I ever expect that to happen, but I would be so happy if they did) they could easily take the ports and rerelase them in the manner that liflg already does (only this time actually being able to sell the game data!) without much effort - but what little effort they would invest would certainly be much appreciated.

That is really the point of the service. At least it was - I understand they have branched out a bit from their original goals. But that is what I would really like to see.

Yeah, Loki is on the far end of the spectrum as far as brokenness goes. Still, even some recent LGP titles give people trouble. See Cold War for example. No sound? Oh why yes, let's rename that /lib folder. Oweeee, that worked. :/

And that falls right into the "support" category. That kind of workaround will work for some, others will need the lib folder, some will have to use padsp/pasuspender while others are still using ALSA, and so on. An Arch x64 running on XFCE without compositing and on ALSA isn't an Ubuntu x86 with Unity and Pulse.

I wish it was as simple as shipping your own libraries and so on. Unfortunately, it isn't. That's my main concern. Even though DOS games should be pretty much unaffected by this. I mean, regressions aren't legion on that end.

But they'll be on their own for most titles, methinks. I don't see Ubisoft giving them support for this old game that has weird behaviour on this and that distro. Even some indie/shareware titles can go wrong pretty quickly (see Sokoban by DanSoft and its libboost problems). It still requires some staff on GOG's end, and isn't as easy as "just asking". :)

Yes, I certainly agree to that. As I said, I agree with most of what you are saying. But I did feel I had to point out, in fairness, that the system does work. Of course you have to provide support, and they have been doing that for years on Windows (and have sometimes had to jump through quite a few hoops to get things working there to). The same can be done on Linux, and it is not all that much harder to do on Linux compared to Windows. We just have to make it worthwhile for them to do so.

Well, I've been doing my bit - rebuying games I already have just so I can get a DRM-free version. Not often, since I don't have the cash to just waste it on games, but I definitely prefer to go through them.

Maybe we could knock the Linux activity up a notch on their forums? Provide info on running each game on Linux and help, make threads on each forums for each game and we could show them we are there and active. Maybe would lead them actually invest time into Linux. Just no spamming!