Overview page: https://www.gog.com/en/anniversary
Direct sign up for Galaxy Linux beta: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/t/YEF5EV/
Guess i can start buying on gog more now, i started buying more just before i left windows, but then staying buying on steam more again because steam just made it a lil easier on Linux, especially for HTPCs with the likes of bazzite.
Woohoo I’m finally getting rid of windows … as soon as I finish replaying Skyrim - not like I’m going to reinstall every single mod!
Can’t you just copy the whole mod directory over?
I’m excited for this. I’ve been hoping this would happen for some time. Hopefully GoG will provide a friendly counterpart to steam to keep each other honest. Never consolidate!
I’d care a lot more if I could figure out how to get Hitman Absolution to run. Last time I tried installing my GOG version, it wouldn’t run after installation on wine, proton, or any other method I tried. I failed to get it running and gave up, so if they can get it running through their platform I’ll absolutely get the launcher when it’s out of beta and officially launched.
Ran perfectly for me from Lutris as GOG game. Worked with zero adjustment on default settings.
Lucky you. I cannot remember what the problem was since this was a couple months back, but I just couldn’t get it working no matter what I did. Maybe I’ll try again whenever I have the time and see if Lutis works or if I’m just dumb.
Might not be a huge deal for current Linux users, because of Heroic and Lutris are well known and widely used, but for gamers who are about to switch from Windows this could be another reason to do so.
I saw many “how to switch to Linux” guides where they had to stop at the gaming section and explain Proton/Wine/Heroic/etc
It sounds much easier: If you want to game on Linux there is a native Steam and GoG clients.
Lots of people loves achievments and cloud saves.
Excited that it finally exists, but just looking at the release graphic I’m concerned of how heavy handed their AI use may have been.
I know every software engineer uses AI to code now. It’s just sometimes it’s vibe-coded slop and sometimes it feels more like AI-assisted human code.
I’d say I’m cautiously optimistic, but I feel more like a pessimist who really wants to be proven wrong.
I know every software engineer uses AI to code now. It’s just sometimes it’s vibe-coded slop and sometimes it feels more like AI-assisted human code.
I don’t. After seeing how poorly coworkers did with it, I never will.
Fine i guess. Just a bit worried about all that vibe code. I hope it will not turn out to be hyper-hackerable.
I’m not going to lie, as a software developer with decades of experience under their belt…I lowkey trust frontier AI models’ design choices more than your typical developer at this point…
I am not really interested in it, because I like that I have most of my digital games in Heroic and I am really annoyed that I have to use Steam in it’s own interface. Using a dedicated programming for GOG is the last I want.
But great for everyone who wants or needs a dedicated Gog client.
I have had problems running games in Heroic. Hopefully GOG Galaxy works better.
good, but maybe it’s too little too late ? but still, competition is always a good thing to have
No such thing. Every time in my life I didn’t do something because I thought it was too late I was wrong. Time marches on and on and on and on and new people become sentient every day. Linux’s user base may be the largest it’s ever been but its growth potential is substantially larger, and a native client lowers the barrier to entry.
No such thing
waiting till the next morning to give someone their epipen seems like a too late situation.
Some situations work themselves out if you wait long enough.
Better late than never. Heroic does a very good job for me, but we will see what the new GOG era can deliver.
Not ever too late. They offer a lot of good products for dirt cheap. Don’t give up on Gog just because everyone is on the steam dick (myself included). The best part is you own your game from GOG. They give you full offline never online installers for all the games on here.
Whilst I definitelly didn’t use this when I had Windows and much prefer general launchers like Lutris and Heroic which aren’t tied down to specific game stores (and thus, amongst other things, aren’t constantly trying tosell you and market you shit, or purposefully designed to make it hard for you to run your games outside them) and instead use those store’s REST APIs to do things like download and install the games, it’s a good sign that finally GOG is making a version of their launcher for Linux.
i want to play this map in worms
Would be fun island vs island map
That being said, I think Armageddon and WMD support PNG images?
This is huge.
Will probably still use Heroic, but I’m happy to see more choices
I wonder how they’re gonna handle windows games. Whether they’ll use system’s version of wine or ship something of their own like Proton on Steam. Very curious.
They’ll like use the ULWGL–Unified Linux Wine Game Launcher for that. It’s basically all the tech Bottles, Steam, Lutris, etc worked on thrown into one project to prevent duplication and share prefix stuff between launchers.
Edit: Whoops, I guess the project was renamed to UMU.
Why wouldn’t they just use Proton.
That’s what I’m interested in. Whether they intend to just use whatever is available (which is absolutely ok) or they’re going to ship their own solution fine tuned however they want and need it (which would be obviously fork of wine/proton).
I imagine they’ll use UMU.
I’d expect them to handle it same way as lutris. Default version + bunch of other options
Isn’t proton just wine with a few other things like DXVK? And all open source, so they could just fork or even copy it directly. Proton is based on a fork of wine too.
So far I use Lutris for GOG games. Does galaxy still work offline and not act as DRM in any way? So anything already installed could be launched with it?
Galaxy is just for automating installation and updates and implementing cloud saves and achievements. The installation is identical to one made with standalone installer and can be launched from the executable without running Galaxy client. Already installed games can be imported to Galaxy library.
Proton is kinda tied to Steam, but UMU already replicates those dependencies so you can run it outside Steam client, so GOG could do something similar and I doubt Valve would object cooperation if GOG wants to participate developing Proton.
Any changes GOG make to wine/proton would have to be open source anyway
Of course, but I meant Valve could be willing to help GOG to integrate Proton into Galaxy if they start contributing to development.
Yes, proton is basically “wine deluxe” as I understand it, so they might use it just as it. I just wondered whether they’ll use available solution or plan to use some modification of their own.
I guess we’ll see, hopefully, soon.
At first, probably not at all?
Get the basic system and cloud saves working first.
I would say so. But I wonder what’s their overall endgame vision.
Will this for example run games based on dosbox natively on Linux?
This is good news.
I’m really hoping that Valve will end up being a better stewart of the PC ecosystem than Microsoft in the long run.
Sometimes, It does really feel like the PC ecosystem can wither and die without them. I know we’re all enthusiasts here but I need to remind myself that we really do benefit from the larger ecosystem of PC owners. Without that demand being present, personal computers would really be for a few choice people and not all of us.
If the larger ecosystem collapses under the weight of one company (like Microsoft or valve) then there are bigger problems to solve like supply chain, trust, and support that no free and open source project will be able to handle. Not because it’s free and open source, but because the problems are just really really big and they take a lot of money to fix.
More people working on these problems is a good thing. I’m happy to see so much more happening on Linux regardless of my preferences.
People might have to learn how to double click an icon on their desktop instead of on steam, the horror
The good news is that Valve is not the steward of the PC ecosystem, even (or especially) on Linux. Everything they’ve contributed to Linux is open source, and they don’t control it. Even if Valve disappears tomorrow, or enshitifies, there are tons of Linux distros and the packages are all public.
I think the greatest strength valve has is being privately owned, rather than having to answer to investors. Combined with them genuinely appearing to care about the state of gaming, it’s a big thing. Especially with their contributions to open source and Linux gaming.
Microsoft and such are all about the money, quality assurance has quietly been abandoned over the years.
Here’s hoping we aren’t disappointed years from now.
This is true, but also kind of depressing that Capitalism is now so insidious that people treat gaben like some kind of benevolent philanthropist for choosing to sit on a huge ongoing cash cow that makes more money directly to his bank account than he’s physically able to spend, rather than IPO it.
On a scale of rich guys, he’s currently one that hasn’t done stuff to upset me. But of course, he’s no God. And the moment he or his company turn into soulless money whores, the trust will evaporate. But for now I’ll be happy that they’re contributing to things that don’t directly generate cash for them.
Eh? How does becoming the main platform for Linux gaming not generate cash for them?
Who said anything about them not making cash. Just that it isn’t their soul purpose. Their contributions to proton and stuff are helpful to everyone. And now it’s encouraging the likes of gog and epic to try, with varying levels of quality. But it’s something. It breaks us from the singular standard desktop gaming os.
they’re contributing to things that don’t directly generate cash for them.
Who said anything about them not making cash.
You did. Don’t you read your own posts or something?
Them selling games makes direct profit. Them improving a compatibility layer for another operating system creates more potential customers, sure. But it also lets people play most of their games from elsewhere too.
Proton isn’t a direct cash generator, it’s a fortunate bonus of them having so much money and nobody else to answer to.
The bar is so low it’s through the floor.
Dude loved his yachts (plural) so much that he literally bought the company that makes them.
He’s a billionaire; he’s not a good guy.
The fact that they are privately owned is the reason why they are even capable of caring about things besides profit above all else. Large groups of people like boards of directors and shareholders are only capable of caring about things in their lowest common denominator that virtually every person cares about, such as having more money.
Note how all VC-owned and publicly traded companies behave like perfectly predictable clones of one another. They are all just apparatuses for money production, with the actual product they sell, their literal means of making the money, an afterthought.
Only capable…? You are aware that they are legally binded to maximize profit, right? Not doing so is a literal crime for the board.
No, they aren’t.
No, they aren’t.
Yep. If Valve ever announces an IPO, they should be considered dead and we should all start to migrate away.
To where? Leaving behind your library? I doubt it. They would have to do a lot worse than that, but it would be a cataclysmic event for PC gaming and their days would be numbered…
Moving away could just mean not buying more stuff there rather than not playing what you have already bought.
I’m really hoping that Valve will end up being a better stewart of the PC ecosystem than Microsoft in the long run.
Outside companies can’t really contribute to Windows development and have no say, so it’s 100% up to Microsoft to look after the Windows ecosystem.
On Linux however, Steam can contribute to the kernel and both audio and graphics systems. All this apart from delivering their Steam service. The same will be the case for GOG, although they probably can’t afford much, and the same will be true for Epic if they want.
Linux has mainly been held up by server development on the professional side, and desktops have been mostly been an afterthought among the ones with the money. Even Linus Torvalds does not use Linux as his personal computer. So most of the Linux desktop was developed by personal private interests with help from Red Hat.
But despite that Linux desktop is pretty damned awesome today with strong alternatives to Gnome. 😀It can never be the responsibility of Valve alone to keep the Linux desktop alive and thriving, they are merely part of it, and they have been a great boon for Linux, like Red Hat used to be who developed most of the GTK graphics back end, Gnome desktop, Pulse Audio and systemd.
Linux desktop is a very very different ecosystem than Windows, in the way it works, kind of like how Eric Raymond tried to describe in his book The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Unfortunately he failed, and the book and ended out as mostly nonsense, but the book is famous anyway, because it does try to describe the gist of it.
Sometimes, It does really feel like the PC ecosystem can wither and die
The traditional PC is dying, no doubt about it. PC used to be a universal tool for everybody, it isn’t anymore, many people have scrapped their PC, and now just use their phones and sometimes also tablets. The PC is a special interest tool today, and as such it will survive, but at a smaller scale than it used to be on. But as a special tool, it will also keep developing for those special “needs” like gaming, and the PC remains way ahead of any other form of game system in almost every way.
Edit:
Linus Torvalds does indeed use Linux desktop today, he Apparently uses Fedora.
But for many years he didn’t.Could you please correct the misinformation regarding Linus Torvalds in the body properly and not just in an appended edit notice? Thank you.
No
Linus Torvalds does not use Linux as his personal computer.
Yes he does. I would imagine the same one he built on camera in 2025 for his desktop. He has been seen with mac laptops, but they had ashahi linux on them.
Edit: I should add around 2011-2015 he did daily drive a mac, so a long time ago.
around 2011-2015 he did daily drive a mac,
That’s what I knew, I never heard he changed to actually using Linux, last I heard he said the Linux desktop isn’t good enough for daily use.
I’m glad if he actually uses Linux desktop now. 😀Wow, i have been using desktop Linux longer than Torvalds!
Me too and it is honestly hilarious.
Same here.
I thought Linus used Fedora and that systemd was made by Poettering as a personal project unrelated to his work at Red Hat.
I’m pretty sure Red Hat financed it, although it was a pet project of his.
Last I heard Linus was using a MAC.Edit:
Apparently Linus does use Fedora now.His most recently stated preference is definitely Fedora: Linus Torvalds on Linus Tech Tips
He specifically likes it (over say Ubuntu) because it’s easy for him to build/replace the kernel whilst at the same time, it’s a “just installs - just works” distro with no tweaking required.
Edit: I see no evidence that Linus has EVER used MacOS as his daily driver, despite using Mac hardware several times.
This is all way off topic, but “Even Linus I INVENTED LINUX Torvalds doesn’t even use it” is wrong.Yes I was not aware he had done that, I have LTT blocked on Youtube because he’s an asshole, so didn’t see it.
When I started using Linux in 2005 Linus was definitely using MAC, and I heard that a few times within the first decade. Linus also expressed that Linux desktop is not suitable as a daily driver.
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/05/03/09/1314250/torvalds-switches-to-a-mac
Torvalds Switches to a Mac
I’m surprised it was a bit hard to find, and I had thought I’d find better sources on it, but apparently it’s hidden behind things that have happened since.
And yes, he is running Linux on it ;)
It’s literally right there.
Edit: The article needs to be dug out of the waybackmachine: https://web.archive.org/web/20050309174306/http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/0,39023165,39183867,00.htm
Torvald’s response came quickly and succinctly. “My main machine these days is a dual 2GHz G5 (aka PowerPC 970) - it’s physically a regular Apple Mac, although it obviously only runs Linux, so I don’t think you can call it a Mac any more ;)” he said.
OK then I’ve been mistaken for 20 years. 🙁
But the context that he was running Mac and he criticized the Linux desktop for not being suitable for a daily driver, lead me to this obvious conclusion.For some reason I have never seen an article before that he uses Mac but with Linux on it??
