AshFirelord: I'm pretty sure that demos would, at the very least, delay the release of the games. And you wouldn't want a demo that would not work on your operating system, when the game does. That would be actually hurting the perception of the game, the opposite of what a demo is supposed to do.
On the other hand, I see no reason not to link demos that already work. I'm not sure about Vista but it's apparent that some of the games in today's catalogue have XP-compatible demos (nowhere to be found at GOG.com).
But I agree that porting the demos sounds unnecessary (after all, I can use another computer or an emulator, if it's just for a try).
I see your point, demos have saved me a lot of money by _not working_, but I guess GOG is another case, as they guarantee the OS compatibility, and are gaining my trust regardless of (absence of) demos.
AshFirelord: I think that 5 bucks (or 4-something euros) is cheap enough that you can take the leap of faith if you are not sure, and not feel bad about yourself. It's about the same as a lunch, and you don't ask for a taster before a 5 dollar lunch.
For some people, it's more like 5 lunches. You should never underestimate the value of (your customer's) money.
AshFirelord: That said, most games in GOG are amply documented on the internet, and while reading about it is never the same as trying, it should reduce disappointments to a minimum.
Yes, I can read about them, and yes, I can find the demo, and in fact, I will. But why shouldn't I have it the simple way?
(I don't trust professional reviews so I don't need them (or metascore) linked to the games. Demos are fine though.)
gadhen: online backup for savegames
Dwuk: intresting idea but obsolete one I think. first of all each game stores savegames in diffrent file format and disc location so making an application to automatically upload and backup can prove rather difficult and/or human resource consuming as it would require profile to be written for each game.
In fact, creating the "profiles" would only require a few hours per game, which is not much compared to the time it would take to create the client and setup the server or the time it probably takes to prepare each of the games for the shop.