Compare their reactions. Valve developers made a major public statement, and reaffirmed their commitment to Linux gaming and even working with upstream distros and DEs. They are even sponsoring KDE work to improve it for gaming!

See https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/1640915206447625383/

What did GOG say on the topic? ...[crickets chirping]... I think it demonstrates rather reluctant attitude of higher management towards Linux in general. All that in spite of GOG customers potentially being affected by all that. GOG recommends Ubuntu after all as officially supported distro.

One way to view Linux is as investment. It's a growing market, and those who invest will get higher returns. That's what Valve are doing. But GOG isn't really approaching it this way.

Man, bums me out. Maybe this will just ease GOG into it? Be a confidence boost? But meh, I'm just speculating

I mean they've pretty much stopped communicating anyway. No more good news, no more good stuff Soon^TM, no more judas & vangog hanging out, etc. Even moderators are hard to come by now.

So what are they up to, Galaxy 2 aside? No friggin idea. But in the end, they'll have to make a decision regarding Linux support (unless Ubuntu turns around?) and there's some hope that it won't be a terrible one.

Yeah, it seems that they are still vaguely trying with Linux, and there is most likely no way they haven't seen some of the wishlist posts so, I mean I'm optimistic about it, at least.

So I might be completely mistaken here, but haven't refunds been issued on the condition that support couldn't help you get a game running, which in turn was dependant on using a supported OS? From my understanding that was the problematic part about the Ubuntu situation and lack of communication with regards to that.

Tying into that, this is on the card of the newly added Linux version of Zed, under System Requirements: So, who's the "we" in this situation, GOG or Eagre Games? Because it reads a bit like the latter.
What does this mean for support queries and refund requests going forward?

The developers, most probably. Just my 2 cents, but honestly, does anyone remember the last time GOG tested something on Linux? The heck, GOG even managed to upload corrupted/incomplete installers (e.g. the launch of "Pillars of Eternity II" and "Pathfinder: Kingmaker").

I think, the support queries rely on the "works on" entry in the "game details" section and the automated (mandatory for submission) user's OS poll review file.

So if you are using these and run into problems, you turn to the developers for aid. Usually it is better to turn to the developers with game problems if the game is still being actively patched or developed, with the exception of installer problems.

That's not exactly the case but quite close.. actually the OS poll review file isn't mandatory right now but they can ask for it and then shoot you down. Even if you've demonstrated that your issue isn't OS-specific.

So basically Ubuntu might not be the distro of choice going forward and depending on how exactly that plays out, there's a good chance you'd have to switch in order to still use your existing library to the fullest degree.
Which in turn means if anything doesn't work from that point on, you're not guaranteed a refund and have to bank on GOG issuing one ex gratia.
While GOG doesn't declare version numbers on their store pages and some publishers can't be bothered to supply patches/fixes in a timely fashion or at all.
And there hasn't been a statement regarding that situation so far.

That's slightly suboptimal, isn't it?

Slightly is an understatement.

Anyway, I don't use Ubuntu, I've never used any OS supported by GOG for gaming. So from my POV the situation has been the way it is all along and it doesn't seem too likely to get worse (unless they decide to drop Linux support altogether). So in me there is some hope that some caltrops in Ubuntu bandwagon's way could actually lead to an improvement, if it forces GOG to think about stuff and do something.

Same boat, different view.

It's one thing to have that situation, because I settled on an unsupported distro. That's fine.

Having being on your own if stuff breaks be the default user experience, on the other hand, would be unfortunate. It wouldn't change much for me, either, but I'd be reluctant to call that "support".

To be frank I don't think that's fine at all.. it's something I put up with somewhat begrudgingly (less so back when Judas & vangog were the unofficial but super helpful channel for support that didn't shoot you down for having the wrong distro) because there's not much choice. Things could be much better. But I understand your point. Sure. Sure, it would suck for anyone who's invested in Ubuntu / derivatives and wants to keep using them.

Then again I could sort of see myself in GOG's shoes (or really anyone's who's got limited resources to support proprietary software developed by third parties) and I probably wouldn't hesitate too much to switch over to something else if the currently supported distro decided to pull the rug from underneath. Same thing I do as a software developer, sometimes I just have to tell that I'm not going to fight uphill to support some system that does not want to be used for the given purpose.

Still, the optimist in me thinks that they *could* do something reasonable and give up this blessed distro nonsense. I've never asked my clients about their distro or system specs (well, I happen to know what distro they use but that's not the point), if they report an issue then I try to reproduce it and fix it. If I can't, then I tell them I can't, and that I might need more info.

EDIT: Also, it's not like GOG's just doing what everyone else is doing. Some game developers might have their "blessed distros" but many of them don't give a shit, you use what you like and they still support you if they can. Mozilla doesn't give a shit, they still support you... as do countless other companies. I think GOG is the outlier here when they decided that you must have a particular brand stamped on your Tux if you want support.

The missing information is also an information.

(with regard to the "no statement from GOG")

To me it feels like the trend just continues. The trend of marginalizing any linux operations. The GOG with current staff, organization and budget priorities seems to me (as linux user) like lost cause.

OTOH the future seems bright to me, I had to use win10 in one company at work for few weeks, and it's so dumb, basically nothing works there. No repository. Most of the SW you have to install manually with installer. No bash by default (luckily usually all "git" variants with windows builds have some posix environment stub with bash often included), etc...

I wouldn't use that even for free, I'm still completely puzzled by people actually willing to pay for such inferior piece of crap, when they can simply download modern OS for free.

But that's just my personal desktop view, but also most of the biz stuff now works as cloud service with web interface, running all of that on linux servers with OS agnostic client side SW. I think Windows is now becoming new "Amiga" = good as games launcher, but pretty much insignificant for "serious" IT world.

So the need to support linux for game shops like GOG will only increase in next decade, and they will have to reconsider their position, simply because it will make financial sense.

So I had set up my hard drive with three partitions: Swap (small), root (~20GiB) and /home (the rest) and now I upgraded Linux Mint for the first time ever with that setup and am greeted by a not working Firefox that says I am trying to start an old version, which I am not as I have updated my system before starting it and it is indeed the latest version. When I start it with a new profile, the only thing I am allowed to do besides quit FF, it starts with the standard setup and all my bookmarks missing. Good thing I backed them up before upgrading. Not amused as avoiding to setup FF each time I upgrade was one reason I put my Home on its own partition. Should I go back to pulling FF straight from Mozilla again? If the problems are due to the Mint team, I guess that is exactly what I should do to fix the problem for the future.

Looking in the .Mozilla folder I am now trying to change the profile back to my 'old' one. Will probably succeed when my anger abates a bit.

That's what I've been doing from the times Debian had Iceweasel. Never had problems with Mozilla builds.