Are GOG.com About To Support Linux?

Quoting: KristianJust look at what they did with The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. Also they support mod tools. I am a huge advocate for mod tools. So for reasons like that I would say that the GOG situation is complicated. But overall I still very much consider them good guys. I just have some pessimistic tendencies and I am going overboard NOT to get too excited. 

Call it 3D Realms forums regular syndrome if you want... all those years hearing magazines hype their next cover followed by people in the DNF forums starting threads speculating that it wold be DNF(Which I ended up enjoying as one of only three FPS games I have completed from beginning to end(What can I say, I suck as a gamer), the others being Quake 1 and Bioshock Infinite).

What did they do with Witcher2?
And you beat all 4 episodes of Quake1 ? I play that game at least once a month still and I haven't beaten it yet lol

Quoting: philip550c

Quoting: Quote from KristianJust look at what they did with The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. Also they support mod tools. I am a huge advocate for mod tools. So for reasons like that I would say that the GOG situation is complicated. But overall I still very much consider them good guys. I just have some pessimistic tendencies and I am going overboard NOT to get too excited. 

Call it 3D Realms forums regular syndrome if you want... all those years hearing magazines hype their next cover followed by people in the DNF forums starting threads speculating that it wold be DNF(Which I ended up enjoying as one of only three FPS games I have completed from beginning to end(What can I say, I suck as a gamer), the others being Quake 1 and Bioshock Infinite).

What did they do with Witcher2?
And you beat all 4 episodes of Quake1 ? I play that game at least once a month still and I haven't beaten it yet lol

Yes but I can't beat the second level of Duke3D, after trying intermittently for the last 15+ years... I really do suck at games. Majorly.

Quoting: Kristian

Quoting: Quote from philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Quote from KristianJust look at what they did with The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. Also they support mod tools. I am a huge advocate for mod tools. So for reasons like that I would say that the GOG situation is complicated. But overall I still very much consider them good guys. I just have some pessimistic tendencies and I am going overboard NOT to get too excited. 

Call it 3D Realms forums regular syndrome if you want... all those years hearing magazines hype their next cover followed by people in the DNF forums starting threads speculating that it wold be DNF(Which I ended up enjoying as one of only three FPS games I have completed from beginning to end(What can I say, I suck as a gamer), the others being Quake 1 and Bioshock Infinite).

What did they do with Witcher2?
And you beat all 4 episodes of Quake1 ? I play that game at least once a month still and I haven't beaten it yet lol

Yes but I can't beat the second level of Duke3D, after trying intermittently for the last 15+ years... I really do suck at games. Majorly.

hmm lol I guess you do. I also play Duke3d a bunch but I beat that one. I like it more than duke nukem forever. But seriously what did they do with witcher2?

Quoting: philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Kristian

Quoting: Quote from Quote from philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Quote from Quote from KristianJust look at what they did with The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. Also they support mod tools. I am a huge advocate for mod tools. So for reasons like that I would say that the GOG situation is complicated. But overall I still very much consider them good guys. I just have some pessimistic tendencies and I am going overboard NOT to get too excited. 

Call it 3D Realms forums regular syndrome if you want... all those years hearing magazines hype their next cover followed by people in the DNF forums starting threads speculating that it wold be DNF(Which I ended up enjoying as one of only three FPS games I have completed from beginning to end(What can I say, I suck as a gamer), the others being Quake 1 and Bioshock Infinite).

What did they do with Witcher2?
And you beat all 4 episodes of Quake1 ? I play that game at least once a month still and I haven't beaten it yet lol

Yes but I can't beat the second level of Duke3D, after trying intermittently for the last 15+ years... I really do suck at games. Majorly.

hmm lol I guess you do. I also play Duke3d a bunch but I beat that one. I like it more than duke nukem forever. But seriously what did they do with witcher2?

Quoting: philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Kristian

Quoting: Quote from Quote from philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Quote from Quote from KristianJust look at what they did with The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. Also they support mod tools. I am a huge advocate for mod tools. So for reasons like that I would say that the GOG situation is complicated. But overall I still very much consider them good guys. I just have some pessimistic tendencies and I am going overboard NOT to get too excited. 

Call it 3D Realms forums regular syndrome if you want... all those years hearing magazines hype their next cover followed by people in the DNF forums starting threads speculating that it wold be DNF(Which I ended up enjoying as one of only three FPS games I have completed from beginning to end(What can I say, I suck as a gamer), the others being Quake 1 and Bioshock Infinite).

What did they do with Witcher2?
And you beat all 4 episodes of Quake1 ? I play that game at least once a month still and I haven't beaten it yet lol

Yes but I can't beat the second level of Duke3D, after trying intermittently for the last 15+ years... I really do suck at games. Majorly.

hmm lol I guess you do. I also play Duke3d a bunch but I beat that one. I like it more than duke nukem forever. But seriously what did they do with witcher2?

Quoting: philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Kristian

Quoting: Quote from Quote from philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Quote from Quote from KristianJust look at what they did with The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. Also they support mod tools. I am a huge advocate for mod tools. So for reasons like that I would say that the GOG situation is complicated. But overall I still very much consider them good guys. I just have some pessimistic tendencies and I am going overboard NOT to get too excited. 

Call it 3D Realms forums regular syndrome if you want... all those years hearing magazines hype their next cover followed by people in the DNF forums starting threads speculating that it wold be DNF(Which I ended up enjoying as one of only three FPS games I have completed from beginning to end(What can I say, I suck as a gamer), the others being Quake 1 and Bioshock Infinite).

What did they do with Witcher2?
And you beat all 4 episodes of Quake1 ? I play that game at least once a month still and I haven't beaten it yet lol

Yes but I can't beat the second level of Duke3D, after trying intermittently for the last 15+ years... I really do suck at games. Majorly.

hmm lol I guess you do. I also play Duke3d a bunch but I beat that one. I like it more than duke nukem forever. But seriously what did they do with witcher2?

Quoting: philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Kristian

Quoting: Quote from Quote from philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Quote from Quote from KristianJust look at what they did with The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. Also they support mod tools. I am a huge advocate for mod tools. So for reasons like that I would say that the GOG situation is complicated. But overall I still very much consider them good guys. I just have some pessimistic tendencies and I am going overboard NOT to get too excited. 

Call it 3D Realms forums regular syndrome if you want... all those years hearing magazines hype their next cover followed by people in the DNF forums starting threads speculating that it wold be DNF(Which I ended up enjoying as one of only three FPS games I have completed from beginning to end(What can I say, I suck as a gamer), the others being Quake 1 and Bioshock Infinite).

What did they do with Witcher2?
And you beat all 4 episodes of Quake1 ? I play that game at least once a month still and I haven't beaten it yet lol

Yes but I can't beat the second level of Duke3D, after trying intermittently for the last 15+ years... I really do suck at games. Majorly.

hmm lol I guess you do. I also play Duke3d a bunch but I beat that one. I like it more than duke nukem forever. But seriously what did they do with witcher2?

Quoting: philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Kristian

Quoting: Quote from Quote from philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Quote from Quote from KristianJust look at what they did with The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. Also they support mod tools. I am a huge advocate for mod tools. So for reasons like that I would say that the GOG situation is complicated. But overall I still very much consider them good guys. I just have some pessimistic tendencies and I am going overboard NOT to get too excited. 

Call it 3D Realms forums regular syndrome if you want... all those years hearing magazines hype their next cover followed by people in the DNF forums starting threads speculating that it wold be DNF(Which I ended up enjoying as one of only three FPS games I have completed from beginning to end(What can I say, I suck as a gamer), the others being Quake 1 and Bioshock Infinite).

What did they do with Witcher2?
And you beat all 4 episodes of Quake1 ? I play that game at least once a month still and I haven't beaten it yet lol

Yes but I can't beat the second level of Duke3D, after trying intermittently for the last 15+ years... I really do suck at games. Majorly.

hmm lol I guess you do. I also play Duke3d a bunch but I beat that one. I like it more than duke nukem forever. But seriously what did they do with witcher2?

They provided a major content update with gigs upon gigs of data for free to those that already purchased the regular version of The Witcher 2.

Edit2:

Great, accidentaly quoted the same post multiple times and now I can't seem to be able to delete them.

From my personal experience in the tech industry, I would place the time between hiring a resource to implement something like a GOG infrastructure for Linux, and actually launching it, to be no less than 6 months.  However, I believe it to be longer than that, perhaps a year or so, and of course, since at most 30% of all software projects even launch, it could easily be cancelled.  I can't imagine this happening "soon", or anything that remotely looks like "soon".

Though, the description is quite telling:

QuoteShape and develop next generation of multi-platform desktop software, experienced by millions of users every month

This is certainly not an internal tool to be developed;  rather, it is clearly some sort of desktop client.
<pure unsubstantiated speculation>
I think they're going after Valve, but in a Desura-like way (i.e., giving customers a choice to not use it).  If that is true, than I believe that they'll require web-accessible standalone downloads for all supported platforms, as opposed to Desura which simply offers that functionality to its game devs.  I believe that this is something GOG have been planning for a while, and that it will go forward, regardless of the state of Linux support (which may not materialize).
</speculation>

One thing important to notice; no job listings have appeared for Linux QA testers (unless that was the QA position that is no longer listed).  For something as big as a new platform, you'd expect 1-3 dedicated QA engineers to be hired on, with platform-specific qualifications.

Quoting: Kristian

Quoting: Quote from philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Quote from KristianJust look at what they did with The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. Also they support mod tools. I am a huge advocate for mod tools. So for reasons like that I would say that the GOG situation is complicated. But overall I still very much consider them good guys. I just have some pessimistic tendencies and I am going overboard NOT to get too excited. 

Call it 3D Realms forums regular syndrome if you want... all those years hearing magazines hype their next cover followed by people in the DNF forums starting threads speculating that it wold be DNF(Which I ended up enjoying as one of only three FPS games I have completed from beginning to end(What can I say, I suck as a gamer), the others being Quake 1 and Bioshock Infinite).

What did they do with Witcher2?
And you beat all 4 episodes of Quake1 ? I play that game at least once a month still and I haven't beaten it yet lol

Yes but I can't beat the second level of Duke3D, after trying intermittently for the last 15+ years... I really do suck at games. Majorly.

How about turn-based strategy?  Tactical games can be loads of fun!  Just drop twitch-style games, and you'll be right as rain.

Quoting: KristianThey provided a major content update with gigs upon gigs of data for free to those that already purchased the regular version of The Witcher 2.

CD Projekt Red who created Witcher series s a great company indeed. And they pioneered the GOG service with its strict DRM free position.

I asked them on several occasions, whether they have any plans for releasing their future games (Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077) for Linux. But they are very secretive about their future releases, and didn't even want to talk whether their current RED engine which they use in their games supports OpenGL or not. It surely supported OpenGL for the Witcher 2, since their Mac OS X version was a native release (unlike Witcher 1 which was  Windows version in the Wine wrapper).

The only hint of their interest in OpenGL can be found here: http://cdpred.com/technical-artist-technical-animator/

Required skills & experience:

• Solid knowledge of 3D game art modeling and texturing pipelines


• Algebra, geometry and vector calculus


• Understanding of real-time shading techniques and post processes


• Understanding of DirectX(9.0-11.0+) / OpenGl (SM5.0+)


• Proficiency using 3D Studio Max and Motion Builder


• Programming / scripting experience (MaxScript and C++ preferred)


• Fluent English


• Ability to work in a team environment and under a tight schedule


• A true passion for gaming

Quoting: s_d

Quoting: Quote from Kristian

Quoting: Quote from Quote from philip550c

Quoting: Quote from Quote from Quote from KristianJust look at what they did with The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition. Also they support mod tools. I am a huge advocate for mod tools. So for reasons like that I would say that the GOG situation is complicated. But overall I still very much consider them good guys. I just have some pessimistic tendencies and I am going overboard NOT to get too excited. 

Call it 3D Realms forums regular syndrome if you want... all those years hearing magazines hype their next cover followed by people in the DNF forums starting threads speculating that it wold be DNF(Which I ended up enjoying as one of only three FPS games I have completed from beginning to end(What can I say, I suck as a gamer), the others being Quake 1 and Bioshock Infinite).

What did they do with Witcher2?
And you beat all 4 episodes of Quake1 ? I play that game at least once a month still and I haven't beaten it yet lol

Yes but I can't beat the second level of Duke3D, after trying intermittently for the last 15+ years... I really do suck at games. Majorly.

How about turn-based strategy?  Tactical games can be loads of fun!  Just drop twitch-style games, and you'll be right as rain.

I could have sworn I already replied to this. Oh well. I remember trying a turn based strategy game many years ago and quitting within a few minutes due to lacking patience to wait for my turn. Really FPS and TPS are my favorite genres.

Quoting: Kristian** cut out a great deal of your reply to save some space **

I am on a mission to keep my personal excitement levels down, way way way down.

Edit:

For the record: I am perfectly happy with GOL, including this article. It is nothing like Phoronix. I enjoy GOL as a site and a community immensely.

Edit2:

My motto basically is: "Always expect the worst thing you can imagine, then stretch your imagination beyond the breaking point to envision an even worse scenario and except that instead. Reality will probably still be far worse than you excepted".

Your exam? Expect to fail it. Your friends and family? Expect them to die. Your job? Expect to be fired. You get the picture. 

Edit3:

If you haven't noticed I am prone to exaggeration and hyperbole but I stand by my basic message. It is how I live my life.

Thanks for the detailed explanation - definetely changes the picture about your feelings for GOG.
I also believe that they're doing a great number of things right.

I think that GOG is interested in supporting Linux and that they will. But their "all inclusive" approach of customer service combined with the apparent lack of experienced staff makes them very careful in the way they plan and work on it and therefore it's taking longer than other digital stores that rely on the devs doing the support.

I also like to think that they've been working on it silently and secretively and it won't take another year to see some results.

Are you really 100% convinced that Linux support is never coming to GOG? Or is it just your life-motto kicking in?


And one last thing, if I may - not wanting to get too excited is one thing, but your life-motto sounds like a very stressful way to live your life. Or not?

Quoting: Anonymous

Quoting: Quote from Kristian** cut out a great deal of your reply to save some space **

I am on a mission to keep my personal excitement levels down, way way way down.

Edit:

For the record: I am perfectly happy with GOL, including this article. It is nothing like Phoronix. I enjoy GOL as a site and a community immensely.

Edit2:

My motto basically is: "Always expect the worst thing you can imagine, then stretch your imagination beyond the breaking point to envision an even worse scenario and except that instead. Reality will probably still be far worse than you excepted".

Your exam? Expect to fail it. Your friends and family? Expect them to die. Your job? Expect to be fired. You get the picture. 

Edit3:

If you haven't noticed I am prone to exaggeration and hyperbole but I stand by my basic message. It is how I live my life.

Thanks for the detailed explanation - definetely changes the picture about your feelings for GOG.
I also believe that they're doing a great number of things right.

I think that GOG is interested in supporting Linux and that they will. But their "all inclusive" approach of customer service combined with the apparent lack of experienced staff makes them very careful in the way they plan and work on it and therefore it's taking longer than other digital stores that rely on the devs doing the support.

I also like to think that they've been working on it silently and secretively and it won't take another year to see some results.

Are you really 100% convinced that Linux support is never coming to GOG? Or is it just your life-motto kicking in?


And one last thing, if I may - not wanting to get too excited is one thing, but your life-motto sounds like a very stressful way to live your life. Or not?

That Anonymous is me, sorry forgot to put in my name.