Stuff like this is the main reason why I only buy from Steam if I can help it. GOG has a noble anti-DRM goal, but Valve is doing a lot more stuff that matters. Besides, I count Steam’s apathy towards their own easily-bypassed DRM as effectively DRM-free at this point, and as far as I understand Steam’s DRM is also voluntary for game devs to use.
I wish they’d align more at least on the Linux issue. What’s the use of preserving games for an OS that’s not going to last? It seems antithetical to their goals. Meanwhile, Wine and the rest of the Linux emulation components are also doing real work for preserving games by just making their original releases continue to work on modern operating systems through translation layers. My guess is GOG is waiting for gaming on Linux to be “worth it” before devoting their time and effort into it, which is basically just being a fair-weather friend and not actually helping.
They do the good that they do. Is there a minimal amount of good one must do to be promoted from “fair-weather friend”? GOG is not a behemoth like Valve, they have to pick their fights more carefully. Also, they are preserving the games for the vast majority of people, on the platform those games were designed for. And since Proton/Wine progress is going well, the games are by extension preserved on other OSes.
I would say the bare minimum is supporting their game client on Linux. They don’t need to be supporting project developments like Valve, but at least giving a token gesture that they recognize and are doing their part for this issue would be a nice gesture to the gamers who feel that anti-DRM/game preservation and a future with Linux are very correlated - regardless of Linux’s present-day state. By not having their game client available on Linux they have actively hindered the growth of Linux, and only through Valve’s support are we getting closer to that future (as well as the Linux community who have eventually made their own GOG clients due to the lack of official support).
They have been making a willful choice to not use any of their money to support Linux, which has been clear for many years by the GOG users overwhelmingly asking for Linux support to no avail. Their Linux game installers are the bare minimum of using someone else’s setup installer. I’m saying that if I’m going to be giving money to somebody, I’d rather give it to a company that’s doing more with it and seems to have a stronger belief in actually making the effort to achieve this future instead of waiting for it to happen by someone else’s hand.
You are free to support or not support whoever you see fit. If supporting Linux is hard requirement for you, so be it. But in my personal opinion, they do deserve support, in the very least because they sell most of their games DRM-free, giving consumer the ability to keep their games forever.
They have been making a willful choice to not use any of their money to support Linux
I believe they give Heroic Launcher affiliate links (so if you buy GOG games via Heroic then they get a cut) so they are giving a small amount of their money to support Linux. What they’re not giving is any time/effort.
Me too. If GOG would support Linux, I would have chosen to buy there too. Valve is actively developing on Linux related stuff and their client and software is supporting Linux. Steams DRM is not anti consumer in a way usually DRM is. It allows us to play offline in example and does not get in our way. Off course DRM free is the best case, but without official Linux support I don’t want to buy from GOG.
Stuff like this is the main reason why I only buy from Steam if I can help it. GOG has a noble anti-DRM goal, but Valve is doing a lot more stuff that matters. Besides, I count Steam’s apathy towards their own easily-bypassed DRM as effectively DRM-free at this point, and as far as I understand Steam’s DRM is also voluntary for game devs to use.
GOG does game preservation, which is nice.
I wish they’d align more at least on the Linux issue. What’s the use of preserving games for an OS that’s not going to last? It seems antithetical to their goals. Meanwhile, Wine and the rest of the Linux emulation components are also doing real work for preserving games by just making their original releases continue to work on modern operating systems through translation layers. My guess is GOG is waiting for gaming on Linux to be “worth it” before devoting their time and effort into it, which is basically just being a fair-weather friend and not actually helping.
They do the good that they do. Is there a minimal amount of good one must do to be promoted from “fair-weather friend”? GOG is not a behemoth like Valve, they have to pick their fights more carefully. Also, they are preserving the games for the vast majority of people, on the platform those games were designed for. And since Proton/Wine progress is going well, the games are by extension preserved on other OSes.
I would say the bare minimum is supporting their game client on Linux. They don’t need to be supporting project developments like Valve, but at least giving a token gesture that they recognize and are doing their part for this issue would be a nice gesture to the gamers who feel that anti-DRM/game preservation and a future with Linux are very correlated - regardless of Linux’s present-day state. By not having their game client available on Linux they have actively hindered the growth of Linux, and only through Valve’s support are we getting closer to that future (as well as the Linux community who have eventually made their own GOG clients due to the lack of official support).
They have been making a willful choice to not use any of their money to support Linux, which has been clear for many years by the GOG users overwhelmingly asking for Linux support to no avail. Their Linux game installers are the bare minimum of using someone else’s setup installer. I’m saying that if I’m going to be giving money to somebody, I’d rather give it to a company that’s doing more with it and seems to have a stronger belief in actually making the effort to achieve this future instead of waiting for it to happen by someone else’s hand.
The thing is, long time ago when GOG was relatively new, they did actually support Linux. And they stopped doing so with the new client.
You are free to support or not support whoever you see fit. If supporting Linux is hard requirement for you, so be it. But in my personal opinion, they do deserve support, in the very least because they sell most of their games DRM-free, giving consumer the ability to keep their games forever.
I believe they give Heroic Launcher affiliate links (so if you buy GOG games via Heroic then they get a cut) so they are giving a small amount of their money to support Linux. What they’re not giving is any time/effort.
Isn’t GOG part of CD Projekt? Not a behemoth like Valve, but not a small fish either.
In comparison to Valve, even entire CD Projekt Red is tiny.
Me too. If GOG would support Linux, I would have chosen to buy there too. Valve is actively developing on Linux related stuff and their client and software is supporting Linux. Steams DRM is not anti consumer in a way usually DRM is. It allows us to play offline in example and does not get in our way. Off course DRM free is the best case, but without official Linux support I don’t want to buy from GOG.