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A sweet new build of 'Minigalaxy' is out for easy GOG game managing on Linux

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Last updated: 11 Mar 2020 at 11:37 am UTC

No GOG Galaxy? Not so much of a problem right now with handy open source apps like Minigalaxy and a big new release is up.

The application has a simple purpose allowing you to login to your GOG account, download and install your games without hassle. It's getting closer towards that goal now with this latest release cleaning it up nicely and adding some useful features.

Minigalaxy version 0.9.3 adds in translations for German, Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish and French from various contributors. On the feature front there's now the ability to actually cancel downloads, downloads are queued to not annihilate your internet, a support option was added to game specific menus which open the GOG support page, a confirmation before uninstalling to ensure you don't wipe your favourites accidentally, installer verification and more.

It's progressing at a real decent pace, it loads up quickly and it does pretty much all you need now to get going. You can pick up Minigalaxy on GitHub.

Now feel free to go buy some DRM-free games on GOG.com and try it out.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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11 comments Subscribe

14 11 Mar 2020
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I just started using it a few days ago and it's just about everything I want. An option for automatic updates would be nice (there are some games I wouldn't want to auto update), but other than that, I hope it doesn't get too complicated.


Last edited by 14 on 11 Mar 2020 at 11:57 am UTC
ghiuma 11 Mar 2020
Excellent, installed on my Manjaro and works very well !! Too bad that in the menu in some games the icons are missing...
Shmerl 11 Mar 2020
I stick to lgogdownloader, since now it also supports incremental updates for Linux versions using pseudo Galaxy method (through zip offsets hack) quite well.
Avehicle7887 11 Mar 2020
No GOG Galaxy? Not so much of a problem right now with handy open source apps

Unfortunately it's still quite a big problem. Open Source alternatives may make the UI similar, let you download, install and manage your games. But the lack of a proper API is wreaking havoc all over the place.

- Multiple games missing multiplayer (Stardew Valley being the only exception so far).

- Evil Empire (Dead Cells developer) issues regarding their DLC on GOG: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/f596kw/were_the_dead_cells_devs_weve_just_released_our/fhxhovf/ - They managed to resolve it in their own way (as every dev should initially do).

- Some games missing the Linux build entirely due to lack of Galaxy.

----------

Technically all of this can be avoided if the devs implement those features in an agnostic way without depending on Client X or Y.


Last edited by Avehicle7887 on 11 Mar 2020 at 5:39 pm UTC
Desum 11 Mar 2020
My problem with buying games on GOG is having to mess with dependencies before I get to play the game. It's a major pain in the ass that makes me more forgiving of the ancient mess of old Ubuntu 12.04 libs that is the Steam Runtime.

And GOG should really be tossing a few eggs into the Wine/Proton basket just as an insurance policy.

As for MiniGalaxy, it looks quite nice, but it does diddly about the dep issue with GOG games.


Last edited by Desum on 11 Mar 2020 at 11:13 pm UTC
Shmerl 11 Mar 2020
My problem with buying games on GOG is having to mess with dependencies before I get to play the game. It's a major pain in the ass that makes me more forgiving of the ancient mess of old Ubuntu 12.04 libs that is the Steam Runtime.

Dealing with dependencies for GOG games is much less of an issue than using ancient runtime from Ubuntu 12.04.


Last edited by Shmerl on 11 Mar 2020 at 11:52 pm UTC
Desum 11 Mar 2020
My problem with buying games on GOG is having to mess with dependencies before I get to play the game. It's a major pain in the ass that makes me more forgiving of the ancient mess of old Ubuntu 12.04 libs that is the Steam Runtime.

Dealing with dependencies for GOG games is much less of an issue than using ancient runtime from Ubuntu 12.04.

In terms of time consumed? Not really, since you pretty much HAVE to deal with it on a case by case basis on GOG. And don't get me wrong, the runtime is a VERY ugly solution. But most gamers don't care about how bad the means to getting games to run is as long as the games run.


Last edited by Desum on 11 Mar 2020 at 11:55 pm UTC
Shmerl 12 Mar 2020
In terms of actual problems faced. At least in my experience. More often than not, games that ship outdated libs and crash are fixed by removing those outdated libs.


Last edited by Shmerl on 12 Mar 2020 at 12:02 am UTC
Desum 12 Mar 2020
In terms of actual problems faced. At least in my experience. More often than not, games that ship outdated libs and crash are fixed by removing those outdated libs.

A lot of libs are not backwards compatible. And we're not even just talking about the GNU stuff here.
Shmerl 12 Mar 2020
That's why I said that it's most of the time. There are opposite cases (when libraries break ABI). But in my experience, they are more rare. Both can happen.

And then there is the topic of forward compatibility of libstdc++.


Last edited by Shmerl on 12 Mar 2020 at 12:12 am UTC
14 12 Mar 2020
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
I stick to lgogdownloader, since now it also supports incremental updates for Linux versions using pseudo Galaxy method (through zip offsets hack) quite well.
I was using this for a while and made my own script around it until it stopped building via the AUR. I spent some time trying to get it to work until I decided I had had enough.
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