Quoting: Bumadartrue, choose between alienating ubuntu users or rest of the linux world, saying as they only officially support ubuntu it will probably be that which is a shame as I don't see other distro's using Mir since the licensing issue and more important that there is no promise for a stable frozen api.

I actually think there are higher chances of them picking Wayland in the future. Their whole focus on Ubuntu came before Canonical announced this Mir diversion. Now Valve will have to reevaluate where they are heading. With Ubuntu becoming increasingly isolationist, they might as well choose other distro / middleware as a base.

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Quoting: AnonymousThere is no emulation, you won't install the Windows/MacOS games on your SteamBox, you'll have to use a computer on your local network to run them.

I see. The way they phrased it is kind of misleading. They had to add that other installation of Windows / Mac OSX is required for such cases.

I wonder though if they'll offer cloud streaming for example. I.e. their installations of Windows / Mac OSX on their virtual servers, and users's games "streamed" to the client. In theory this can work for some stuff, though performance probably can be an issue.

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Quoting: liamdaweIf it's compatible with at least Ubuntu then I think Linux gaming will utterly explode next year.

I wonder what their plans long term are, in regards to Wayland vs Mir. For now it's going to be Xorg simply because there aren't any drivers for Wayland/Mir yet. But in the future they'll have to make a choice.

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QuoteYou can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too

I wonder how exactly, especially the Mac OSX games. Some emulation? Is Valve going to boost Wine project as well (especially 64 bit support and DirectX 11)?

I hope they'll make all the DRM optional there (especially one for media services who are the worst offenders). Not really interested in consoles personally, but this can improve interest for Linux gaming. I only hope it will boost general Linux gaming, and not "Steam Linux gaming" only.

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Quoting: Penguin PusherAnyway. What I wanted to show is that Valve is capable in supporting old games on Linux, while GOG is hiding behind a wall of excuses.

I think you miss the point. The bulk of all these discussions is not about difficulties with supporting DOS games (which is pretty trivial given the wide availability of ScummVM and DosBox). It's about difficulties (whether real or perceived) with supporting native Linux games.

For all I care, there is practically no need in additional support for DOS games on GOG for Linux users. You can download them as is, unpack with innoextract, adjust config files and run them in your DosBox / ScummVM. "Support" from GOG here would be mere convenience and maintaining separate config files for Linux, Mac OSX and Windows when needed. Native Linux games support is a completely different beast altogether, and lacking native Linux games is a serious problem in comparison with little inconvenience of tweaking DosBox config files.

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Silviu: They are no tied. I just see no point in supporting Steam to begin with, since Steam itself proliferates DRM as a whole. I.e. anyone who cares about DRM and has an option to get the same thing on GOG or Steam should consider GOG. I don't use Steam at all anyway, that was about people who tolerate DRM to some degree. Of course for those who don't care at all it's unimportant.

Quoting: scaineSame reason as GoG then : "Unfortunately, due to the number of versions of Linux, we are not able to support any of them as far as we wanted to"
Surprising that a myth like that is prevalent. Do they really care about the number of distros, or does it come back to packaging?

In case of CDPR this answer is strange though. They also say something like:

We always strive to provide players with the same quality no matter the platform on which they play and support our game after the release of patches and accessories for all systems in which they operate. Unfortunately, due to the number of versions of Linux, we are not able to support any of them as far as we wanted to and in accordance with the adopted standards. At the same time we do not want to to differentiate fans on more important and less important, and decide on which Linux specifically our games will be available. Therefore, at present we do not expect adaptations for this system. However, we will inform you on a regular basis, if in the future this decision will change.

GOG indeed deals with code for which they have no sources, and if they want to provide long term support, they have a number of problems to solve. CDPR have their sources and can provide support as along as they want to. The point about not differentiating fans is also weird, since by not making Linux versions they precisely differentiate their Linux users as second class citizens.

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Quoting: Penguin PusherFascinating! Valve ist able to do, what GOG can't!

Wizardy 6 & 7 with DOSBox including Linux:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/245410/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/245430/

This particular example is exactly the opposite though. Same thing on GOG and DRM free with that
https://secure.gog.com/game/wizardry_6_7
In such DOSBox/ScummVM cases GOG is a much better place to go than DRMed Steam. I wish GOG would sell Loom and other classic Lucas Arts games as well. But no luck so far.

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On related note, an answer from CDPR about their view on porting their games to Linux (you might need to translate that - see reply from Karolina_Gnaś_IR, 25.06.2013 / 13:48). That's for sure sounds like a brush-off answer to me, and not a serious position on this matter.

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I think packaging and deployment while being an annoyance, are minor issues in comparison with what TheEnigmaticT was saying about long term support. To take a recent example. I got one game on Humble Bundle while being on Debian testing during the recent Wheezy release freeze. The game didn't work, since it was built against newer glibc than the one used in that Debian. The freeze was longer than usual and those freezes are annoying, but it was still less than a year long, so Debian testing didn't fall behind glibc wise that much. Now, this might be not the most common situation, but it's still a possibility. And now with major X.org -> Wayland shift coming along, some games also can break I bet. All this is not the end of the world or the reason to avoid supporting Linux. But those are real concerns.

Really, I have no idea how GOG can solve this "ideally". They only can support such and such range of middleware long term. Unless they are willing to stretch their support too wide making builds for all kind of combinations, which is costly.

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Quoting: AnonymousIndeed. I liked GOG.com, but they are talking bullshit. It is dishonest and dumb excuses. I would respect them if they would say "Linux has too small market share and we are not interested". Instead they just make it like there are 9000 distros and it is impossible to handle. They say it to generally well-versed technically users, really?

And by saying "Mint", "Debian" and Chrome OS as most popular distros, they show their incompetence.

How exactly that is an incompetence? Not sure about Chrome OS (I don't follow it at all), but Debian and Mint are indeed very popular. Not sure if making such close related choice is a good idea though. I'd pick Debian and openSUSE for example for wider variety.

While I don't agree with GOG's excuses, they aren't dumb given their policy which they clearly explained. You don't agree with them aiming at long term support? I think they can offer shorter term support for Linux games as well. But it's up to GOG to decide.

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