GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client
(xda-developers.com)720 points by franczesko 2 days ago
720 points by franczesko 2 days ago
I also feel like this is an insane opportunity for companies who previously did not offer Linux native clients to start doing so and see some of a hike in sales specifically coming from the Linux crowd. I would absolutely pay good money for high quality Linux compatible software, after all, its not free as in free beer. I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly, fully opt-in by default of course. I think maybe Ubuntu did? I don't know that Arch ever has. I think its a wasted opportunity to fund Linux distros by taking a small cut (probably not 30%) from commercial products directly on those app repositories.
> I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly, fully opt-in by default of course.
Why would a bunch of volunteers put a ton of effort to create infrastructure so people (corporations, really) can make money?
Flathub is making inroads into having paid apps but they’re explicitly not a distribution really
Big businesses are already contributing a LOT of money and manpower into Linux development (especially kernel).
They could simply fund developing app store extensions in the same way redhead enabled systemd to happen. Both Sievers and Poettering were working at Redhat at the time.
It would fund their projects. Imagine if more Linux distros has enough funding to fully hire part-time volunteers full time? Those companies will sell them without those stores. This at least gives them a piece of the pie.
> I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly
I think you're alone in this.
> I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly, fully opt-in by default of course.
That's essentially being done with Flatpak.
Linux is largely still built on the old (and indeed, outdated) Unix trust model. The system itself is assumed to be trusted, and the primary security boundaries on the system are drawn between users. Since Linux package managers actually install and manage the base system as well as end-user software, anything the package manager installs is treated as part of "the distribution", and thus trusted. It's not a good idea to use such a thing to install proprietary, third-party software. The curation and vetting of the distro maintainers is actually vital here, and when you add a third party repo, you're giving it a lot of trust. At the same time, why would distro maintainers give free labor to integrate proprietary software? Most are not super interested in that, and even if they are, they don't generally have the rights necessary to redistribute, let alone modify, proprietary software. On the other hand, those third-party developers and publishers don't want to master and manage a half-dozen different packaging formats, and various other packaging ecosystem differences that vary across distros.
Flatpak is positioned to solve all of these problems, and it's no secret that enabling (relatively) responsible use of proprietary software is one of the goals. It enabled distributing a small number of large, common runtimes of which different versions can safely coexist on the same system, addressing fragmentation. To reduce the amount of trust given to installed apps, it separates what it installs from the base system, and offers sandboxing to help limit the permissions granted to an app that still runs under the OS user of the person using it. And it supports third-party repos that publishers can run themselves.
I'm not currently a daily Flatpak user, so idk how much the current reality lines up with that goal, but that's where the movement towards this is on the Linux desktop today.
> I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly, fully opt-in by default of course.
One of the advantages of open source software is the ability to distribute said software with relatively few restrictions. It simplifies life for the maintainers of Linux distributions, those who manage Linux systems, the end user, and software developers. Making a package manager a retail product store would complicate things for everyone.
That said, the only thing preventing the distribution of proprietary software by most Linux distributions is policy. If a distribution wanted to do so, and the vendor's license allowed for permissive software distribution, they could do so. The vendor could implement their own mechanism for selling and distributing license keys. The advantage to them would be using a common software distribution method without having a middleman taking a cut. (Think shareware, or even physical software that included a license key.)
> I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly, fully opt-in by default of course.
It's not "zero cost" but plenty of proprietary software with native linux clients will do things like set up Ubuntu package repos. You're pasting a handful of lines in the command line (or for the fancier stuff downloading the isntaller that does that for you) and you're off to the races
There might be a boutique business that could help with installer/package repo mgmt for people wanting to ship linux clients and take advantage of the auto-updaters and the like. Maybe.
The package manager can't help with subscription schemes based on short lived licenses.
proprietary != commercial
You can have free commercial software, and proprietary shareware, the opposites are oxymorons.
Thanks, for downvoting pointing to definitions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software
> I would absolutely pay good money for high quality Linux compatible software, after all, its not free as in free beer.
What software are you looking for?
About the only thing seriously lacking is a proper competitor for Photoshop and Illustrator, really.
Steam developing proton was what made it possible for me to change fully. No dual boot or anything needed. It's great.
Funnily I also run GoG games through steam proton.. But looking forward to the GoG client working!
Steam with Proton is simply incredible.
And now it doesn't even split games in "Linux" vs "Windows"; it simply assumes all games run on Linux. And they mostly do! Though to be fair I had to tweak a couple to make them run, and Space Marine II absolutely refuses to play past the cutscene, but most other games "just work".
I was amazed that the PC port of Spider-man Myles Morales worked perfectly with no tweaking at all. That’s the newest AAA game I own (I think), and it runs silky smooth and hasn’t had any issues.
It wasn’t that long ago that Wine was only really useful for games that were at least 5-10 years old. Proton is amazing.
WINE crawled so that Proton could run.
Like even in 2014 WINE worked well enough for most games for me. Proton just made it utterly effortless, and lets me run AAA games like RDR2 and CP2077.
I would say that WINE did 90% of what had to be done, then Proton came and did another 90% so now we are 99% there.
Proton is amazing and it's really three different subprojects that deserve a lot of credit each.
First is Wine itself, with its implementation of Win32 APIs. I ran some games through Wine even twenty years ago but it was certainly not always possible, and usually not even easy.
Second is DXVK, which fills the main gap of Wine, namely Direct3D compatibility. Wine has long had its own implementation of D3D libraries, but it was not as performant, and more importantly it was never quite complete. You'd run into all sorts of problems because the Wine implementation differed from the Windows native D3D, and that was enough to break many gams. DXVK is a translation layer that translates D3D calls to Vulkan with excellent performance, and basically solves the problem of D3D on Linux.
Then there's the parts original to Proton itself. It applies targeted, high quality patches to Wine and DXVK to improve game compatibility, brings in a few other modules, and most importantly Proton glues it all together so it works seamlessly and with excellent UX. From the first release of Proton until recently, running Windows games through Steam took just a couple extra clicks to enable Proton for that game. And now even that isn't necessary, Proton is enabled by default so you run a game just by downloading it and launching, same exact process as on Windows.
Im not super familiar with the space.
Is the only reason for needing Proton is to do direct x api translations?
> Gamers are still a huge factor as hardware customers.
A drop in the bucket really, nvidia used to make the majority of their revenues from gaming, now it's under 10%
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4U09!,f_auto,q_auto:...
Most gamers don't give a shit about openness. A much more likely outcome is "big tech" following the numbers and slowly making Linux unusable by using EEE or any other tactic under the pretense of usefulness.
> Most gamers don't give a shit about openness
I don't think this is a given. I think most gamers so far haven't cared about openness because pragmatically, it didn't matter for them.
Now they're seeing the long-term effect of not caring about that though, which is why we're suddenly seeing a movement of gamers moving to Linux, and trying to get others to move with them, because they realize the importance now, as their desktops are slowly collapsing over Microsoft's decision to let AI do all the programming, and having zero QA before releasing stuff to the public.
They don't care about it as an abstract idea, but they do notice that Windows 11 is worse than Windows 10 was worse than Windows 8 was worse than Windows 7.
I'm not saying there have been zero useful improvements in later Windows releases, but 7 looked good and did what you told it to. "Openness" is a very abstract idea but "Only does what you tell it to" is a selling point for Linux.
You know it's not going to upload all your documents to OneDrive and then erase them from the computer.
> Most gamers don't give a shit about openness.
With the Windows 11 debacle, many are learning first hand about what closed ecosystems force on you. It seems every feed I have that has gaming as an interest has an article about Linux as the future. Clearly someone is reading these articles.
Of course they don’t care about F/OSS — the vast majority of games are closed proprietary software. The small minority of Linux gamers are there for anti-Windows reasons rather than pro-Linux or F/OSS reasons. Which given Microsoft is now signaling a pull back on AI and a gear to improved performance/quality in Windows, if those anti-reasons evaporate, you’ll have the more frustrated Linux gamers potentially move back.
Linux needs a positive reason for Linux rather than relying on anti-Windows reasons (and there are, but I see those reasons outside of the gaming space).
There are 1B Windows 11 devices. Granted not all are for games, but it is not an unpopular OS by the numbers alone.
The pretense is security, PC software attestation is already in the workings: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46784572
> Most gamers don't give a shit about openness.
Most gamers are idiots. They are okay paying exorbitant sums for broken games and most have no problem with forced rootkits.
I don't think gaming is or should be driving people to Linux.
Microslop turning their OS into a data mining and ad platform should and is pushing normal, rational people to Linux. But, most gamers don't care about such things as long as they are getting their sweet, sweet dopamine hit.
Ironically, lower framerates(even though they are higher than the human eye and nervous system can perceive) on Windows 11 might push gamers onto Linux.They still want their rootkits, though.
It is always the dumbest reasons that get gamers upset.
Until it fully supports multiplayer which doesn't seem to be a thing for any major game or studio, it's a nothingburger for the majority of people.
but they do care about AI slop and owning their own system.
a lot of FOSS is an abstraction but even the rubes can realize that they're being spied on, that Big Tech wants to be Big Brother, and is enshittifying their experience to that end.
Gamers generally game on PC because they like building their system. Otherwise they would use a PS5 Pro or whatever.
The PC is an “open” platform in that you can buy and choose your own hardware. Intel vs AMD vs Nvidia, Seagate vs Western Digital, etc….
Using open software isn’t really more than a few steps from that. Being able to pick how your system works and customizing it to your liking is basically the software version of picking your PC parts. Gamers also like to run all sorts of software to rice there Windows desktops and will install all sorts of abominations tha mess with the Windows desktop shell. Much easier and fun to rice a Linux desktop.
Linux enthusiasts need to just learn how to appeal to their sensibilities. Valve knows, and they are very effective at getting people excited for a Linux based gaming platform. They’ve also proven they can walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
Sure, they won’t give a crap about the source code but there is more to libre software than just being able to change the source code if you want.
We’re also at an inflection point where people are getting really really really annoyed with companies like Microsoft treating them like lab rats and shoving Copilot down their throat when they don’t want it. There is a chink in the armor; people are opening up to the idea of alternative platforms where you don’t have to worry about any of that garbage.
> making Linux unusable by using EEE or any other tactic
This will never happen because projects will just be forked.
> Gamers generally game on PC because they like building their system. Otherwise they would use a PS5 Pro or whatever.
You're making a huge assumption here. I think that's a really small percentage. Most people game on PC because certain games they like to play are only on PC, or are much better suited to PC, or because their friends are on PC, or because they want to play on the go (Steam Deck is very recent and still not widely used), or because they need to have a PC anyway. Or because they grew up with it at home/in the neighborhood because there was no money for a console. Or because "Because they like building their system", I'm going to peg at <10%.
Many game mods and community maps, etc. are only available on PC. You can play the vanilla version on console, but not the mods you watch Twitch streamers playing. So, it's not b/c they like building PCs, it's because they want to play the mods with their friends.
I am speaking as an old gamer. I no longer play.
I would not worry too much about the mod community! They are the one persistant group of people who will hack the software to their liking. Yes you can't play full FiveM GTA V right now, but it will get there eventually. There is nothing technical that is limiting the mods from working on Proton, just time from some annoyed mod dev that has had enough with windows, and it will be migrated over.
>This will never happen because projects will just be forked.
There's a chasm of difference between a technical fork and a meaningful fork. The entire point of EEE is relying on usefulness and convenience combined with network effects to make the entire system restricted and control it. Sure, you can go and fork anything you want - nobody stops you, technically. But you're getting the rug pulled from under your feet in any case.
You can witness the early stage of subversion with very useful software (without any hint of irony) made by people who "left" Microsoft: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46784572
> Gamers generally game on PC because they like building their system. Otherwise they would use a PS5 Pro or whatever.
I haven't built a PC in over 2 decades and I can't stand trying to game on a console or on a phone. I buy a stock machine like AlienWare, overwrite Windows with Kubuntu and go to town gaming.
There is nothing to save as long as it relies on game studios using Windows workstations, coding in Visual Studio and targeting DirectX.
The goal has to be to make native Linux attractive, so that they actually bother to create native executables, using Vulkan and co.
Until then it is no different from playing arcade games with MAME on Linux.
The most stable Linux API is Wine/Win32.
There are many older games I can't install on Linux anymore, because they used an older SDL1 or some particular X11 version or some GPU driver that's no longer available for the current kernel.
The exact same game, Windows version, can be installed and runs flawlessly on both Linux and Windows.
So, native Vulkan executables? Sure, if they can continue to run in 20 years.
Valve is working on this problem for native Linux games: https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/steamrt/steamrt/-/blob/steamrt/...
This is a similar idea to flatpak/snap etc.
Targeting DirectX and Win32 has become targeting Linux with how good Wine/Proton have gotten. I am able to play brand new games with no Linux support absolutely perfectly through proton. These games run better than games that had linux support actually ran on linux.
Ironically, Win32 has sometimes become more universal than native Linux binaries. For example, Baldur's Gate 3 released a native Linux version only supported on the Steam Deck, whereas the Proton version is verified for Linux almost everywhere. Win32 became the stable Linux gaming ABI.
Clang can target windows just fine afaik, although I'm sure the whole process could be improved.
That said, as long as windows is the bigger more profitable market I wouldnt expect a switch, unless the dev tooling situation becomes dramatically better on linux
The top played games are not the ones made this year
I don't see what the problem is with game studios buying Windows licenses.
Sure, the platform is enshittified spyware, but that only impacts the game devs on their work machines (which are probably locked down to protect secret IP anyway). Microsoft has basically lost control over their own platform at this point. The game studios have been refusing to migrate to new APIs until after they're working well in Wine.
If the rest of us can run something decent at home, that's a > 99% solution to the problem.
Put another way, for a long time, you needed to buy an SGI workstation or whatever to make assets for PC games. That didn't hold the DOS ecosystem back.
As for the ABI:
The Linux kernel has started adding syscalls to enable native-like execution of Windows binaries, and game devs are testing with Linux at launch. In the worst case, these are only used by Wine. In the best case, some good ideas from the Windows kernel will be exposed to regular Linux user-land.
I don't see how it really matters if the binaries are targeting libc, musl, or an opensource win32 / win64 layer. It's free software regardless. End-users are getting better backward compatibility under Linux than Microsoft is supporting under Windows. That one victory goes a long way towards winning the entire war.
On top of that, Linux is starting to show better framerates than Windows in the same hardware. It's not 100% of the time, but it's enough that you should run the game in both places if you really care to get that extra few percent out of the hardware.
Frankly, WINE/Proton are likely more consistent targets for game dev/testing... I wish they'd at least do that much more often than not. At least smooth out any rough edges.
I would say it's a lot different, since it's an API implementation, not hardware emulation.
> Gamers are still a huge factor as hardware customers.
They are but AI has fried the markets for RAM, SSDs and GPUs. Everything has gotten ridiculously expensive ever since the wash trading and the 100s of billions of $ worth of deals really took off.
Personally, I think at least one or two of the major GPU OEMs will go bust thanks to all of this, and I would be surprised if Framework, Pine64 and Steam's hardware line survive it. Hell, at the point we're at, I even have serious doubts the Xbox line survives.
Things have become crazy, indeed. I still kick myself for not buying the SSD I was eyeing in December, which has now went form 250 € to almost 400. I'm already maxed on RAM since a year ago, bought 64 GB for a fraction of today's cost.
But I still feel like we're still in the eye of the storm, and things will improve. Remember late 2020 when every useless GPU would command a fortune? I remember buying a used RX 5600 XT with a warranty somewhere around October for 300 €. A month later, it would cost at least twice as much, if you could even find one in stock. Last December I looked a bit at prices, and the current equivalent model (9060xt 16 GB) was roughly around 300 again, and I don't think it has gone up since. I understand there may be a shortage of equivalent Nvidia GPUs from a thread the other day, so this may change soon, again. I have no use for top-of-the-line models, so I'm not familiar with their prices and availability.
A bit of a nitpick - that's not what the "eye of the storm" is. In fact, if you perceive RAM prices as leveling off, that would be the "eye of the storm", meaning a brief, deceptive calm surrounded by... storm.
Truly I have seen not even a hint of reason to believe prices would come back down in the near term. Fab allocation is booked years out, and building out new manufacturing capabilities is difficult and slow. Everything I'm seeing points in the same direction: this is only going to keep getting worse for consumers month after month for a long time.
Thing is, you don't need a GPU.
One of the major x86 manufacturers makes CPUs with integrated graphics that is good enough for gaming. It's in "Steam's hardware line" btw.
Oh yes, AAAs maybe won't run on that. But they're boring af anyway. And predatory. So not much loss.
> Oh yes, AAAs maybe won't run on that.
...so you do need a GPU.
Sadly, their "native" client is a web browser.
Besides the usual complaints about electron and CEF applications, another pain point is they work horrendously in emulation. GoG Galaxy is only available as an x86 application on Windows. I'm running Windows ARM64 in a VM on an M-series macbook to play some games occasionally, and Galaxy is the slowest piece of software I have. Ironically, it runs worse than the games it spawns, which have a much more complex rendering procedure (and, like Galaxy, they also run in emulation, since the binaries are x86).
Emulation works particularly slow with JITted languages, so having the entire UI written in JavaScript doesn't help at all.
I even checked their job posting in the hope that it will be about a ground up rewrite for GNU/Linux, without the browser (since they are looking for a C++ developer), but it seems there are no plans to change that in the porting process. Which makes senes, it's a lot of work, but still a pity.
On a tangential note, requirements like this in the job posting also do not inspire much hope for improvements in the near future.
> Actively use and promote AI-assisted development tools to increase team efficiency and code quality
About as usual for a CEF/Electron app last I tested ~ a year ago. I.e. "impressively well considering, but still not all too great". For a while there was an issue where it was launching games in compatibility mode, but I assume that's been long fixed without needing to migrate the base app (if anyone regularly uses GoG on their Mac feel free to chime in, I only have a work MacBook these days).
A lot of hate in the comments, I think it's great that companies are in a position where they think it makes sense financially to support Linux as a target platform.
Come on... it's always the same reason: money.
Companies don't support Linux because it's not widespread enough so it can't outweigh the costs. They don't give a rat's ass for the market's resentfulness or lack thereof. The Linux market was basically not a real market before because their market share was simply too small.
There are plenty of products made for resentful markets and as long as they keep being profitable they don't care.
It's not hate, but we are now at a point where the vast majority of games just run, mostly thanks to Valve and the Wine/DVXK community's efforts. What Linux gamers fear now (with good reason) is that increased interest in the platform from companies more interested in money than freedom will undermine these efforts with anti-consumer and anti-FOSS initiatives, such as closed source clients, DRM, signed kernels, hardware attestations.
> closed source clients
If people really want Linux to be a viable alternative to Windows, run by a majority of the general public, it has to be possible to sell closed-source software that runs on it (where "it" means a broad range of different distros).
Yes, that means less freedom concerning that particular software. But without it, the platform is a tiny niche that's easily run over by the hardware OEMs.
This is the mixed bag... and I'm glad that Valve is at the forefront of this one... While I feel the fees may be excessive in a lot of cases (same for mobile app stores), at least Valve seems to be good stewards of PC gaming as a whole, and building a lot of good will in the community.
I don't really want to see locked down hardware in the space any more than there already has been (Nintendo, Sony, X-Box, etc)... I think the PC centered gaming community largely wants a more open platform in general. In the long run, I don't see a lot of solid competition... especially with ever growing legacy libraries of content.
If I am signing my own kernel, that's awesome.
If Poettering is signing my kernel and reporting my UUID to websites along with proof I am viewing all ads, that is dreadful.
Unfortunately it will be the latter. Motherboards already have signed binary firmware blobs, some people cannot remove the Microsoft keys and still have functioning UEFI secure boot.
They're just trying to ride the wave of Valve's deck (and they will fail). The fact is that, since I bought the Steam Deck, I bought less from GOG and more from Valve.
And this won't change a thing: it doesn't matter if they make a Linux-native frontend to the horrible GOG Galaxy. I just want my games to launch as seamlessly as they do from Valve's UI, not yet another launcher that I have to launch on top of Valve's system UI. I am already doing that with Heroic Games Launcher, which is far better than whatever they will concoct in-house and supports many other stores.
>I just want my games to launch as seamlessly as they do from Valve's UI
Valve integrated steam all the way down to the OS level to do all that. GOG galaxy meanwhile is focusing more on being an accompanying app to optionally use than centralizing everything under GOG. I think Galaxy trying to strive to be as "seamless" will break the very philosophy of GOG to begin with; being a store to grab games you truly own, not a platform to immerse yourself in.
While on the other hand I'm often frustrated and feel limited by a steam-only deck and am going to start installing the other store fronts. I have games there I've gotten cheaper or even free. I don't like being locked into steam and "Gabe the goodest billionaire" propaganda exists to keep people from engaging in competitor products. I also want to support stores that take less from developers, especially smaller ones. Steams 30% cut while Epic is 0% up to $1m is concerning. I want smaller devs to succeed better. Steam is a huge compromise even if its a 'fan favorite' quasi-monopoly.
So yes I want gog to be native linux on things like the deck.
No. Please don't. Contribute to something like Heroic Launcher instead. Don't create something new just for GOG. Help make the existing tools better. It'll mean GOG has to do less work, and the programs people are already using will get better. Or even just sponsor Heroic so they can send more time we can working on it themselves.
GNU/Linux gamers are always decrying GOG, saying they won't buy stuff from them because Galaxy doesn't run on GNU/Linux, now we're getting people saying GOG porting Galaxy to GNU/Linux is bad!? By Taranis, GOG just can't get a break, can they?
Yep, luckily they represent a very small, albeit loud, minority of Linux users.
The vast majority of Linux users are very happy to get an official GOG Galaxy for Linux. I hope they will plug into Proton and collaborate with Valve, but we really need official tools and brands on Linux for common users to feel comfortable enough to come over.
It is the same thing, just emphasizing that the OS is more than the kernel, and than the userland comes from the GNU project.
The latter had been designed to be a full OS but didn't have a functional kernel when Linux was released, and Torvalds adopted the GNU userland for his project.
And Chimera Linux which is GNU-less. I guess you could call it FreeBSD/Linux but I think that'll just confuse people.
GOG needs to contribute 0-day fixes to the kernel, otherwise they’re not committed to Linux /s
They're not creating something new. They're taking their existing tool (which - for all its flaws - is still far ahead of Heroic in many ways), improving it further, and changing it to also work on Linux.
If they then go add additional features like wine integration to that tool to make it overlap more with Heroic is something we're all assuming, but not actually a given.
They could at least use Flatpak and containers instead of choosing a given distro or package manager.
A lot of words for "yes they will insist on fragmentation"
Linux userspace is defined by fragmentation. Linux users can't even unify on a distro, such that significant swathes of software are incompatible for some users despite everyone using the same kernel. In that environment, and also just in general, why is anybody obligated to contribute to a specific existing project rather than building their own?
Fragmentation is a good thing, it's called competition, and user choice. If you don't like it, buy a Mac or something.
Like I'm not aware and it's sunshine/rainbows, actually. Competition in the GOG launcher space, huzzah. To the detriment of One Launcher To Rule Them All.
To be clear: I'm for a first party solution. I support their efforts as much as I can. It will have considerable impact on the users. Both ways.
If you see it form the point of view of a Linux user it's more fragmentation, but if you look at it from the point of view of a gamer it's less fragmentation. Guess who their target audience is?
Guess what has been serving those gamers, actually I'll be kind: Heroic.
Let me know when you finish with your 90000th spin of Debian. I'll be over here playing w/ Heroic
Everyone in the linux world insists on fragmentation, though? It's a part of what makes it great and a mess at the same time.
And what of it? Every time a for profit company uses open source they'll either create a closed fork, and if they can't they'll create closed source modules for it.
I'm not saying it's bad to wish for companies to support FOSS, I'm just saying it's an unrealistic expectation to have.
So many replies. Hello everyone. Beats me, just commenting as someone who won't pivot to the new thing. Outcomes matter, etc.
Supporting Heroic would appear on-brand given their old game/archival messaging, but I'm not learning marketing for free.
Not really against a first-party option, even. I do, however, find the inevitable user split notable.
> It'll mean GOG has to do less work
[citation needed]
GOG's launcher team is presumably already familiar with their codebase, already has a checkout, already has a codebase that's missing 0 features, has a user interface that already matches their customer's muscle memory, and presumably already has semi-decent platform abstraction layer, considering they have binaries for both Windows and OS X. Unless they've utterly botched their PAL and buried it under several mountains of technical debt, porting is probably going to be relatively straightforward.
I'm not giving Linux gaming a second shot merely because of a bunch of ancedata about proton and wine improvements - I'm giving it a second shot because Steam themselves have staked enough of their brand and reputation on the experience, and put enough skin in the game with official linux support in their launcher. While I don't have enough of a GOG library for GOG's launcher to move the needle on that front for me personally, what it might do is get me looking at the GOG storefront again - in a way that some third party launcher simply wouldn't. Epic? I do have Satisfactory there, Heroic Launcher might be enough to avoid repurchasing it on Steam just for Linux, but it's not enough to make me want to stop avoiding Epic for future purchases on account of poor Linux support.
Alternatively, work on developing protocols for game launchers instead. Get the Heroic Launcher devs and devs from other launchers to work on a common interface.
This comment and some of the other nearby ones have me confused if many people have actually tried GOG Galaxy?
This is one of the areas where GOG Galaxy has tried to stand out. It supports integrations with other launchers in Python: https://github.com/gogcom/galaxy-integrations-python-api
It's intended for the other direction of other launchers (or third party integrations with other launchers) feeding data to GOG Galaxy, but it's still one of the more interesting attempts in the wild of a launcher trying to be a little bit more than just a walled garden.
I don't know if in an Official Linux port of Galaxy if they'll try to find more ways to integrate beyond what they've already done with their Python API and how much they would be willing work with other launchers, especially Heroic, but of the big game stores, GOG seems one of the few that actually wants to try. Maybe they will. It would be nice to see. It's interesting seeing so many comments assume the worst of them, as someone who has played around with that Python API a little bit. (I was toying with a third-party Itch.io integration. Didn't get very far, but it was neat what seemed possible.)
I wouldn't say you need launchers necessarily, but installers/configurators maybe. Getting the directory structure and the right WINE or Proton dependencies is a bit involved sometimes. Especially when what you have are really OLD DOS or Windows installer files.
Had various issues with Heroic and whatever the other popular one was (Lutris, maybe). I personally don't need official support for a single launcher that tries to integrate every gaming platform ala Steam, GOG, Blizzard, Epic, Amazon. A single-platform launcher with native Linux support would be good enough for me.
Why they shouldnt develop version over which they have full control?
Meh, I use Lutris instead of Heroic.
I am happy that GoG will finally make its launcher available to Linux.
Hopefully they'll somehow support Proton and Valve devices. Trying to run older windows-only games bought on GOG with launchers like Heroic is a bit of a hit or miss, despite the Steam releases of the same games having somehow a bigger chance of working out of the box. I guess there are some weird differences between the default Proton Runtime and the proton-ge/wine-ge builds.
If you have steam installed on the same machine, you can use proton runtimes from steam already.
I'd love to see it, too. There are a few Gists floating around supposedly letting you run a third-party game using proton, But everything I've tested fails with little to no usable debug indications on what's going wrong.
On the upside, this might mean I'll buy more stuff from GOG again. Steam+Proton is just so darn convenient.
This is one thing that's been puzzling for me ever since I switched to Linux full time a few years ago and so also started gaming on it.
In my experience GOG bought games handled by Lutris/Heroic/Mini Galaxy trump Steam in convenience almost every time. There's been quite a few deal breaking issues with Steam client and/or Proton that went unaddressed by Valve for months that just never happened to me on the GOG+game manager combo. (Remember the most recent Steam rewrite that made certain UI elements not work on Linux and which still needs a workaround option in the client years later?) All that on top of another application requiring full browser engine under the hood eating resources just to be able to launch a game. I don't know if I am just extremely unlucky to get hit with every Linux related issue on Steam and notice its drawbacks or if people are offering Valve unreasonably high leniency, because they see then as some sort of champion of gaming on Linux, while not giving enough to other players like GOG.
Pardon my rant.
The Steam client was always flaky as hell - on Windows as well.
I've always wondered were problems on Steam's side or on the side of game devs implementing its APIs?
Anyway I personally experienced scaling issues, but chalked that up to my DE being unreliable. I also occasionally can't click on certain UI elements, but I recall this being a problem in Windows as well.
I'm genuinely confused about all this. Can someone help me out?
I've been buying and playing games from GOG on Linux for a very long time with no need for GOG Galaxy -- which is a thing I know nothing about. Since this announcement, I've been trying to figure out why I'd need it.
It seems like it's just a convenience application and social connection point (leaderboards, etc.). In which case, it's not something of interest to me. However, I've also seen references to Galaxy that imply that it's necessary to play games -- which is obviously untrue in general, but perhaps there are some games that require it?
Anyway, I'm tremendously confused by all this.
So to me the things I want from a game launcher are pretty simple:
- Download and all the gamefiles that I am entitled to, and keep them updated.
- Show me a pretty interface to launch games from, including recent news and patch notes about that game's updates.
- Keep track of my save files, synchronize them to other devices, and make sure they never get lost.
- (linux) have some kind of per-game startup command manager because even a platinum rated proton game might need a --force-grab-cursor or something.
If native software was routinely available, launchers might not feel necessary.
But I sure as hell don't want to invest howevermany weekend days figuring out how to make games from other platforms as easy to play as Steam games on SteamOS.
I imagine this is that - give me "download" and "play" buttons that let me run GOG games on Linux, even if the binaries were authored for Windows.
Cloud saves and achievements and all that are nice (and expected from something like GOG), but even just a normal launcher feels essential on Linux.
> If native software was routinely available, launchers might not feel necessary.
> But I sure as hell don't want to invest howevermany weekend days figuring out how to make games from other platforms as easy to play as Steam games on SteamOS.
For games that are licensed under terms that allow it, Debian's Game Data Packager has already automated that work. And- as your comment suggests- a native port is much better than running on a wine shim, which will always be second-rate.
https://wiki.debian.org/Games/GameDataPackager
List of games supported by Game Data Packager:
As far I'm aware as a casual user of Galaxy, you're correct. It's just a convenience application with some light social features.
I find it slightly more convenient when installing games on a new machine. I've never personally seen a game that required using it.
Convenience is 100% Steam’s most important feature. Finding games, installing them, updating, auto-login, cloud saves, probably more that I can’t think of right now.
Yeah, I'm remembering the time immediately before Steam launched, getting a computer set up with games for a LAN party or whatever, someone sharing a folder of installers/updates from their HDD so everyone could be on the same version and whatnot. .. and that was the best-case scenario. Sometimes you just don't play a certain game because half the people have a different version or whatever haha
People always say that Heroic or the other one (I forget the name) is seamless, but I needed to do troubleshooting with a few of the games I owned. In one case, the best solution was to install via steam as a non-steam game. So, I'm hoping for better support and compatibility.
There are games distributed by GOG which rely on the Galaxy client for multiplayer functions. For example, the GOG version of Grim Dawn needs the Galaxy client being loaded to enable multiplayer. Solo play works without Galaxy.
It's just a convenience app, but it's a pretty nice one. When I moved my main PC from Windows to Linux, I was definitely sad to lose the ecosystem of nice launcher apps (GOG Galaxy but also others like Playnite, Launchbox, etc). The dream for me is to have all my games in one cohesive library, and that's what these sorts of apps offer. On Linux I use Lutris for this and it's fine enough, but I'll definitely be taking a look at Galaxy when it comes to Linux.
Galaxy is purely convenience. If you want to see all your games from all storefronts (Epic, Steam, GOG, etc) in one place, Galaxy lets you do that. (Along with the social stuff)
You can still play GOG games without any launcher, which is how it's intended to work.
Some people really like having a launcher to keep track of everything, so this isn't a nothing burger. It's one more convenience to help convince people to move over.
Please make it open source. Please create an API. Please, if you feel like you have to have your own client, build it, but don't ignore the reality of Linux gamers using a whole set of tools and one doesn't need to reinvent the wheel.
Especially for the older games you will get a lot more reach. You'd even reach beyond Linux (BSDs, etc.).
Please don't forget that a big chunk of your audience are nerds and that a lot of games run on engine re-implementations by nerds.
It's great that you make a client, but if you really want to offer something that would make people get games on GOG then do something that Steam does not offer, while probably being easier for you.
If that is too much to ask, please, at least do it in an unofficial capacity.
I have a hunch that the currently sole owner just wants to do this until retirement. GoG is financially stable so there's no pressure to increase revenue.
I see no simpler explanation why someone would buy out a subsidiary like that.
All in all, GoG thrives on people being sentimental and it's totally in character for the owner to be sentimental as well.
Not wanting to buy DRMed games now is counting as sentimental? I beg to differ. There are a lot of reasons for buying games free of DRM.
I’m loving the huge uptick in coverage that Linux is getting recently, from the stories about switching from Windows, to the huge leaps made to support gaming.
I’m now hoping that this will gradually push the big publishers to go the extra mile and figure out their anti-cheat stuff on Linux too, so the remaining big games can make the transition.
Got a Steam Deck recently and I presume this is the power of Proton mostly but I'm amazed how it feels entirely native on everything I've tried so far. Really makes me wish games were the only thing keeping me on windows but unfortunately I use Adobe a fair bit and Cinema4D.
I decided I'm going to take the plunge soon. I've used Windows for my personal computers for a long time (25 years? more if you count our family computers back in the day). I have only used linux desktops for little hobby projects, in Pis and VMs, and most of my experience has been headless servers. I loaded up Mint on a thumb drive pretty recently and it seemed like it would be good enough for running my steam games and VS Code. I'm actually liking the idea a lot because while I've been very happy with WSL, there is still a wee bit of friction developing locally with it, especially for game development stuff. And when developing its usually in the linux CLI anyway. Docker usually has some bumps too.
Thankfully I have my old PC still lying around and it'll play most of the games I like, so I'm gonna give it a spin soon and see if its the right fit for me. Maybe I can use a bot to help me document setup better than I have in the past too.
While you're waiting for a GoG native client, I can whole-heartedly recommend:
Heroic Game Launcher: https://heroicgameslauncher.com/
RPM/Deb/Flatpack/TGZ/AppImage for Linux
DMG for MacOS Intel/M1+
EXE for Windows
Heroic supports GoG, Amazon Luna, and the Epic Game stores.
Heroic even streamlines the app updates so you don't have to figure that out.
I'm very excited for this. GoG is a DRM-free platform (for the most part) and I see it as the only positive competition Steam has. Imagine how bad the gaming landscape would be if a company like Epic soundly defeated Valve. They would enshittify at record pace. GoG doing well would only put positive pressure on other players. Ideally, you want your opponents to be healthy and sane, in case they win. And sane opponents drive the market towards better outcomes. I'll definitely buy some classics from GoG with their Linux client.
I do the vast majority of my gaming on my handheld with Bazzite configured to feel like a Steam Deck.
I basically don't leave the Steam UX. Valve has done such a great job here I don't see why any Linux user would consider buying games anywhere else.
Okay. But I still probably have to hop into desktop mode to configure stuff.
I don't even know how to install non steam applications on my current stepup.
What handheld do you use? I'm window shopping an upgrade from my miyoo mini.
Lenovo Legion Go.
The original one with detachable controllers. The SSD is really easy to replace, and my logic is the controllers have to go bad eventually.
Edit: comes with a nice case and 2 USB c ports.
Be realist with what games will work, frame gen only goes so far.
I'd rather spend 80$ on new controllers vs 600$ on a new device.
I'm very hopeful that Linux gaming will save the open PC desktop despite big tech is coming to destroy it. Or at least keep PCs alive for another decade. Gamers are still a huge factor as hardware customers.
GOG creating a Linux launcher and Steam Box with SteamOS coming out soon should benefit PC users in general not just gamers since Microslop sees Windows like a social experiment where they can test AI on unsuspecting lusers, as an ad platform and a store front now.