Honestly, I will never understand how a mandatory client is not DRM. What could be a clearer example of Digital Rights Management than arbitrarily enforcing the use of particular proprietary software to access my games?

That was entirely my point that I think you missed. If GOG stopped making offline installers, you also wouldn't be able to download installers via Galaxy either and the only way of backing up GOG games would be to do exactly the same "go to a bunch of trouble" you just described to create your own installers. So where's the incentive to buy the GOG version vs games on the Steam list which significantly overlaps with GOG's catalogue and would end up "the same bunch of trouble" to backup for future games?...

It's not that I don't ultimately agree with the gist of what you are saying, but it doesn't quite fall into the "classic" DRM definition most people advocate. Some are just fine to use a client to download/install a game, and, as long as they don't have to launch the client to play said game, don't see a problem with this completely unnecessary situation.

Just for the record, I'm not fine with it, but neither will I go as far as calling it DRM. It's just aberrant and unjustified use of software, which I won't ever put up with.

You are mistaken. You don't need to do that with a Galaxy download. Or have to repeat the whole process like you would with Steam if you get an update. A Galaxy installer is not the same as Steam install arrangement.

Indeed, and just for the record, if Galaxy weren't such a bloated thing, I would be just as happy using it as I would the old GOG Downloader.

While Galaxy is also a client, in the end it is not that different, that aspect aside, from using a third party downloader, like the GOG Downloader or Free Download Manger 5 or gogrepo.py and countless others. Hell even your browser is a third party downloader. You have to use something to download your game files.

The DRM-Free aspect is not having to use a web connection once you have downloaded your game files. Every game installer has a built in program to help you install the game, unless the game is just zipped with no install routine.

The only aspect that concerns me about Galaxy installers, other than the current bloat of that program, is the future proof aspect, where a future version of Windows may not run Galaxy. But then we have generally had that issue since the beginning of computer games, where older installers are not supported by newer OS. You can't easily install many DOS games in Windows now, not since Win 95 for a good number, and nowadays you just about always need to use DOSBox or ScummV to play such games.

I will admit I am not entirely familiar with downloading Galaxy installer games with Galaxy. I've only ever downloaded the offline installers with it, and that was before version 2. I do seem to recall that Galaxy had some options for downloading and installing. But even if I am mistaken in that, I often download my game files now from GOG with gogrepo.py, and the Kalanyr forked version allows you to download the Galaxy variant of an installer, instead of the offline installer. So even if GOG removed offline installers, you should still have access to the Galaxy variant through the GOG SDK.

By "Galaxy variant", assuming you mean "the offline installer that you download through Galaxy instead of GOG.com", there's actually only one set of offline installer files. The only difference in downloading an offline installer via Galaxy vs GOG.com is that Galaxy (which internally is a Chrome based web browser too) just hides the direct link better than the web page. That's all. The "download an offline installer via Galaxy" method just pulls the same files that the "download via gog.com" method does. They even MD5 the same. As Brian said, if GOG truly scrapped offline installers they'd actually scrap the process of building via InnoSetup, hosting and serving them and just use their own "Steam-like" .exe less Galaxy method. They wouldn't just hide the download link for gog.com users as it saves them nothing at all in time, storage space or bandwidth vs ceasing to make offline .exe's altogether (at which point they'd be gone for downloading for everyone, GOG Downloader, GOG Galaxy & gogrepo users all included...)

Edit - The concern that offline installers may disappear isn't that irrational given that the recent Epic deal means GOG will technically be selling games provisioned through Galaxy for which there will be no offline installers, which some see as "testing the waters" for the obvious irrespective of financial issues...

No I don't, and as you say there is only one set of offline installers for each game.

There are two install variants for each game though.

(1) Offline Installers - Available from browser, Galaxy or various programs through SDK (i.e. gogrepo.py).

(2) Galaxy Installers - Available through Galaxy and as far as I am aware gogrepo.py via SDK ... perhaps others, but no longer through your browser except as a Download & Install option, which uses Galaxy.

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In fact, rather than just rely on my memory and what I have presumed, I decided to grab a game through my browser, selecting the Galaxy - Download & Install.

First thing to note, is that a small file (498 kb) was downloaded for the game -
GOG_Galaxy_Irony_Curtain_From_Matryoshka_with_Love.exe

I ran that, and it downloaded a web installer for the game, then ran that to install an update of Galaxy, seeing as I only had a version 1 variant installed.

Second thing to note, is that amazingly version 2 of Galaxy installed and ran ... on Windows 7 ... even though it is not listed as being supported ... or wasn't last I looked ... so I was completely surprised by that, as I had also read where Win 7 wasn't supported by Galaxy 2.0.

Third thing to note, is that Galaxy runs as horrible as ever ... perhaps even worse.

Fourth thing to note, is that even before it finished loading, it started downloading my list of owned games, and seeing as I have something like 1170 of them, it was doing that very slowly. It also WTF executed the last game I had installed using an offline installer, so DOSBox was running for the game Normality, which I had to manually quit.

Fifth thing to note, after stopping that stuff, is that I could not find any setting or option that would stop a game installation after downloading the web installer.

I haven't yet investigated where the web installer for that Irony Curtain game was downloaded to.

I also wanted to double-check myself with gogrepo.py manifest, but alas I discovered the Galaxy variant files weren't listed with the Kalanyr forked version, which I no longer use ... I'd found it best for me to stick to the original.

So I am currently downloading details for something like 106 games to bring that manifest up-to-date. Then I will grab the Galaxy Installer details for that game. Then I will report back here ... the things I do for science. LOL

P.S. I also closed Galaxy down, and with a shudder I might add. Clearly the Irony Curtain game would not install until it appears as an entry on my Owned Games list in Galaxy.

EDIT
And I cannot find that Web Installer file, which was something like 230 Mb or 320 Mb. Perhaps when Galaxy was fully closed it cleaned up after itself ... should have checked first I guess, but I could not bear to have Galaxy running any longer, making my PC slow.

EDIT 2
Found I probably have a bug in my GUI code for the forked version of gogrepo.py, as the Galaxy downloads field remains empty for that game after an Update.
So as I need a break now, I will investigate that later, and report back.
I have of course been avoiding anything Galaxy as much as I can, so I may have missed something, especially as I don't recall doing a Galaxy variant download ... though I am sure I have seen entries listed for 'galaxyDownloads': in my manifest file in the past, during earlier development testing. Maybe I have changed something in a program update that has screwed that.

I am not sure if everything is working again, but just now I saw that two of my games (Dysmantle and Low Magic Age) have updated their offline installers.

Thank you for the update. Keep up this line of communications, that's one of the most important things your customer base truly appreciates. The not knowing is never easy.

Also, hopefully in the future an official stickied thread can be posted in the "General" forum section to keep us all updated on anything that affects GOG users. Similar to the December support delay stickied thread.

Maybe this way GOG support and moderators don't have to focus on individual threads if there is an official thread to announce system issues, website issues, etc. and any significant updates in between. Including final updates when the issues are resolved.

I'd like to think this would benefit everyone here and also lighten the load on GOG staff members supporting the forums.
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Highlighting this quote for its relevance to the "is a client itself DRM" debate. I would say this is overwhelming proof that the Galaxy client is, but that's just me.

My library saw some activity today as well. I've gotten the first update flag, with offline installers, in the last two weeks (Northgard).

You can balance making your preferences clear along with not jumping to conclusions and cynicism. I've been on this site for coming up on 13 years now and that ENTIRE time people have been raving in these forums that DRM is just around the corner. Just you wait, GOG is about to betray us all! 13 years of that, over and over again, and yet here GOG are providing (and promising) offline installers that are DRM free.

There have been mistakes and delays, but the vast majority are fixed. There are some questionable things like dumb Cyberpunk promotional t-shirts. I'm sure there might be more hiccups, but in the end no company is perfect, and GOG are certainly doing WAY more than other store at selling lots of big games DRM free. No one else is even trying, and GOG turn down tons and tons of games to do that. They deserve a lot more credit than they get from people who have spent 13 years waiting for the other shoe to drop.

No, it's not. I'm not sure how you draw that conclusion - and forgive me if I'm misunderstanding something here. If you're using Galaxy to install a game, then of course it can't install a game if the list isn't updated - you can't click on the game and tell it to install it if it isn't in the list. But you can install any game you want if you have the offline installers whether Galaxy's list is updated or not.Galaxy doesn't bar you from installing anything.