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General discussionGOG.com Now Supports Linux!(1233 posts)(1233 posts)
(1233 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted August 19, 2014
50 games for the free OS available right NOW!

A while ago, [url=http://www.gog.com/news/gogcom_soon_on_more_platforms]we've announced our plans to add Linux support as one of the features of our digital platform, with 100 games on the launch day sometime this fall. We've put much time and effort into this project and now we've found ourselves with over 50 titles, classic and new, prepared for distribution, site infrastructure ready, support team trained and standing by, and absolutely no reason to wait until October or November. We're still aiming to have at least 100 Linux games in the coming months, but we've decided not to delay the launch just for the sake of having a nice-looking number to show off to the press. It's not about them, after all, it's about you. So, one of the most popular site feature requests on our community wishlist is granted today: Linux support has officially arrived on GOG.com!

The first 50+ titles we've have in store for you come from all the corners of our DRM-Free catalog. Note that we've got many classic titles coming officially to Linux for the very first time, thanks to the custom builds prepared by our dedicated team of penguin tamers. That's over twenty fan-favorite GOG.com classics, like &[url=http://www.gog.com/game/flatout_2]Flatout 2, , <a href="http://www.gog.com/game/darklands">Darklands, or Realms of the Haunting we've personally ushered one by one into the welcoming embrace of Linux gamers. That's already quite a nice chunk of our back-catalog, and you can expect more from our dedicated Linux team soon!

Now, for the recent titles. We've got some indie games with native Linux versions that finally find their well-deserved spot in our store. Among them, debuting on Linux, - a well received original comedic Sci-Fi puzzler. On top of that, be on the lookout for two new additions to the GOG.com catalog: [url=http://www.gog.com/game/gods_will_be_watching]Gods Will Be Watching (coming in a couple of hours) and Unrest:Special Edition (Linux build coming right up!), both of them very fresh and intriguing. This is the very first time we can provide you with all the PC versions of a premiere game, and we will continue to do so in the future. If there's a Linux version of a title we're releasing, our aim is to deliver it to you Day-1. But enough about us, let's talk about the games. Here's what you can be playing on Linux today:

Anomaly Warzone Earth
Ascendant
Bionic Dues
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold - first time on Linux!
Blake Stone: Planet Strike - first time on Linux!
Bloodnet - first time on Linux!
Braveland
CLARC - first time on Linux!
Darklands - first time on Linux!
Darwinia
Defcon
Don't Starve + DLC
Dragonsphere - first time on Linux!
Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition
FlatOut - first time on Linux!
Flatout 2 - first time on Linux!
Fragile Allegiance - first time on Linux!
Gemini Rue
Gods Will Be Watching
Hammerwatch
Hocus Pocus - first time on Linux!
Kentucky Route Zero
The Last Federation
Legend of Grimrock
Litil Divil - first time on Linux!
Long Live the Queen
MouseCraft
Multiwinia
Normality - first time on Linux!
Pinball Gold Pack - first time on Linux!
Pinball World - first time on Linux!
Pirates! Gold Plus - first time on Linux!
Realms of the Haunting - first time on Linux!
Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender - first time on Linux!
Rise of the Triad: Dark War - first time on Linux!
Shattered Haven
The Shivah HD
Sid Meier's Colonization - first time on Linux!
Sid Meier's Covert Action - first time on Linux!
Sir, You Are Being Hunted
Slipstream 5000 - first time on Linux!
Space Pirates and Zombies
Spacechem
Stargunner - first time on Linux!
SteamWorld Dig
Super Hexagon
Surgeon Simulator 2013
Sword of the Samurai - first time on Linux!
Teslagrad
Unrest:Special Edition (Linux build on the way!)
Uplink
VVVVVV

As if this wasn't exciting enough, we've put more than half of these titles on a special promo! Head out to the promo page and find out which of them you can get up to 75% off until Tuesday, 9:59AM GMT. Of course, all of the games from the list above that you already own will be updated with Linux versions with no additional cost for you, just as you might have expected from GOG.com.

"OK, but how will Linux support actually work on GOG.com" - you might ask. For both native Linux versions, as well as special builds prepared by our team, GOG.com will provide distro-independent tar.gz archives and support convenient DEB installers for the two most popular Linux distributions: Ubuntu and Mint, in their current and future LTS editions. Helpful and responsive customer support has always been an important part of the GOG.com gaming experience. We wouldn't have it any other way when it comes to Linux, and starting today our helpdesk offers support for our official Linux releases on Ubuntu and Mint systems.

Diversity and freedom of choice have always been an important part of the GOG.com way. We're very glad that we could improve our service with the addition of the free (and DRM-Free) alternative to the commercial operating systems. Talking with gamers is just as important, so we're counting on your feedback! If you've got any questions, suggestions, or run into any trouble, just tell us in the forum thread below this post. Just please be gentle, this is [url=http://youtu.be/qBxbPts5tOk" target="_blank]our very first time[/url] with Linux. Happy launch day, everyone!
Posted July 31, 2014
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spoonmeiser: It would also be nice if wrapper scripts were added somewhere on PATH so that you could launch games from a command prompt.
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Maighstir: I'd bet /usr/games (where wrappers are placed as gog-gamename.sh if I remember correctly - too lazy to check) is in $PATH on Ubuntu and Mint (it is on my Debian machine).
I don't mind the wrappers being somewhere like that where it's not unreasonable to add it to PATH, but, grrr, why don't they show up with dpkg -L? Surely these are first-class files as part of the package?

I'm aware that I'm sounding very negative. I should say that I *am* very pleased that the games are available in .deb format. I just think there are a few tweaks that need to be made.
Posted July 31, 2014
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Future_Suture: This may have already been answered, but I did read through the whole thread and do not remember seeing it as such. How does GOG see if a game is being obtained for Linux, Mac OS, or Windows? How will Galaxy aid in the process? One would think this is fairly obvious and that it does not need questioning but Steam has proven otherwise.
If you buy a gme, you do not buy it specificaly for the OS. For example, I can download the Duke 3D installers for Win, Mac and Linux - although I play on Win. I hope that is what you have asked.
Post edited July 31, 2014 by animalmother2105
Posted July 31, 2014
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slaapliedje: What Windows really needs is something like what GO launcher on Android does, where you can select 'auto-folder' and it'll do a good guess at moving icons into 'games', 'network', 'media' etc.
Actually, Windows 8 UI (metromoderninterfacewhatchamacallit) tried to do that. When you install a game, it sometimes moves the game icon into the Games category. Problem is it doesn't work often.
Posted July 31, 2014
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Future_Suture: This may have already been answered, but I did read through the whole thread and do not remember seeing it as such. How does GOG see if a game is being obtained for Linux, Mac OS, or Windows? How will Galaxy aid in the process? One would think this is fairly obvious and that it does not need questioning but Steam has proven otherwise.
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animalmother2105: If you buy a gme, you do not buy it specificaly for the OS. For example, I can download the Duke 3D installers for Win, Mac and Linux - although I play on Win. I hope that is what you have asked.
It is not. How does GOG see the share each operating system holds in a game's sales?
Posted July 31, 2014
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Future_Suture: It is not. How does GOG see the share each operating system holds in a game's sales?
They don't. They may guess at that if a game is only bought after a specific version is added, and they can see what files have been downloaded. But they have no way of knowing if you bought Darklands for Windows, Mac or Linux, they only know you bought Darklands.
Posted July 31, 2014
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Future_Suture: It is not. How does GOG see the share each operating system holds in a game's sales?
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JMich: They don't. They may guess at that if a game is only bought after a specific version is added, and they can see what files have been downloaded. But they have no way of knowing if you bought Darklands for Windows, Mac or Linux, they only know you bought Darklands.
If they really wanted to know, they would probably have to take a leaf out of Humble Bundle's book and ask you to check a series of boxes indication which OS you intend to run them on. However, I'm not even certain that anybody really uses that on Humble to begin with. :|
Posted July 31, 2014
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JMich: They don't. They may guess at that if a game is only bought after a specific version is added, and they can see what files have been downloaded. But they have no way of knowing if you bought Darklands for Windows, Mac or Linux, they only know you bought Darklands.
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MrPointless: If they really wanted to know, they would probably have to take a leaf out of Humble Bundle's book and ask you to check a series of boxes indication which OS you intend to run them on. However, I'm not even certain that anybody really uses that on Humble to begin with. :|
Well, as far as I remember the box fitting for the OS you're using while buying is checked as default.
But that isn't very reliable...
Posted July 31, 2014
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Future_Suture: It is not. How does GOG see the share each operating system holds in a game's sales?
To quote some African X-COM base employees, "we have ways".

But we need a couple of months of data, so while I am curious as hell how the sales are, the figures are not yet in ;)
Posted July 31, 2014
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Tolya: To quote some African X-COM base employees, "we have ways".
Weren't those South Americans? Africans are "All In".
Posted July 31, 2014
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slaapliedje: I'm the opposite, I loathe how Windows does their file system. In fact there pretty much is no rhyme or reason to it. They tried to clean it up from the old DOS days where people just put their crap wherever. Oh, so what do we get instead? We get a Users directory (think equivalent to /home in Linux), Program Files (think /usr/bin/) and Windows (think /usr/sbin). But the problem is, that there is no standard way of putting the folders in any of those. Windows is pretty much hands off for third party, for good reason. But Program Files.. The software either does <company name>\<program> or just <program>. Same with the launcher bar. Oh and so many of them just throw up icons on your desktop if you like it or not.

Linux will categorize everything for you as well. What Windows really needs is something like what GO launcher on Android does, where you can select 'auto-folder' and it'll do a good guess at moving icons into 'games', 'network', 'media' etc.

I've found that most people who try to use Linux always complain about the FHS, and all it really does is take a quick read and it makes a lot of sense.

Reminds me of the time a guy I know said he was so terribly confused on my Atari ST, when he was used to DOS and his 6 folders he had to go into.... I pretty much had "C:\Games\<Game Name>\ And of course double clicking on icons is so hard :D
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Magmarock: I like to be in control of the file structure. What I really don't like about the Linux software manager is how much it depends on the internet to function. While you can go to many of the websites linked in the software manager to try and get the offline installer for the programs it often doesn't work because of dependencies and other reasons. Have you ever tried to install wine on an offline Mint system. I still can't figure it out.

The reason I love GOG so much is because of their DRM free policy. Linux might not use DRM but it needs the internet just as much as software that does.
There are various mechanisms for offline package handling. You just need to look them up.

The "quick and dirty" way for when you just need to move some packages over SneakerNet is:
1. Run apt-get install --download-only on a machine with Internet access
2. Copy the contents of /var/cache/apt/archives/ to a thumbdrive and then to the PC without Internet.
3. Run apt-get install --no-download --fix-missing on the machine without Internet.

(This is the popular solution on those rare occasions when a PC only has network access via a WiFi chip where the driver isn't licensed for distribution on the Linux install CD. The --fix-missing flag basically tells the dependency resolver not to give up if its first choice would be blocked by --no-download.)
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Maighstir: I'd bet /usr/games (where wrappers are placed as gog-gamename.sh if I remember correctly - too lazy to check) is in $PATH on Ubuntu and Mint (it is on my Debian machine).
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spoonmeiser: I don't mind the wrappers being somewhere like that where it's not unreasonable to add it to PATH, but, grrr, why don't they show up with dpkg -L? Surely these are first-class files as part of the package?

I'm aware that I'm sounding very negative. I should say that I *am* very pleased that the games are available in .deb format. I just think there are a few tweaks that need to be made.
If they don't show up in dpkg -L, that probably means that they're being generated by a postinstall script rather than actually existing as files that get copied into place during the install phase.
Post edited July 31, 2014 by ssokolow
Posted July 31, 2014
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animalmother2105: If you buy a gme, you do not buy it specificaly for the OS. For example, I can download the Duke 3D installers for Win, Mac and Linux - although I play on Win. I hope that is what you have asked.
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Future_Suture: It is not. How does GOG see the share each operating system holds in a game's sales?
I guess they check the user agent.
Posted July 31, 2014
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Future_Suture: It is not. How does GOG see the share each operating system holds in a game's sales?
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Tolya: To quote some African X-COM base employees, "we have ways".

But we need a couple of months of data, so while I am curious as hell how the sales are, the figures are not yet in ;)
Can GOG publish that data as Humble Bundle does? For example on some periodic basis, like once a month or something. Or you think that developers might not want that to happen?

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Future_Suture: It is not. How does GOG see the share each operating system holds in a game's sales?
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Lillesort131: I guess they check the user agent.
I think all GOG can count is simply the number of downloads of the certain version (by unique user). There isn't much more they can do to estimate sales of certain game per OS. However GOG can try to estimate what OS certain user comes from using the user agent as you said. It's not however a definitive indicator of sales per OS. Just a different metric to analyze.
Post edited July 31, 2014 by shmerl
Posted July 31, 2014
I'm loving linux support here on gog
that's it!
Posted July 31, 2014
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spoonmeiser: I don't mind the wrappers being somewhere like that where it's not unreasonable to add it to PATH, but, grrr, why don't they show up with dpkg -L? Surely these are first-class files as part of the package?

I'm aware that I'm sounding very negative. I should say that I *am* very pleased that the games are available in .deb format. I just think there are a few tweaks that need to be made.
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ssokolow: If they don't show up in dpkg -L, that probably means that they're being generated by a postinstall script rather than actually existing as files that get copied into place during the install phase.
While I haven't looked at the .deb packages, the .tar.gz contain start.sh, which acts as both a launcher and installer, but its installer functions only make the game more easily launchable (by copying a .desktop file to the desktop, an icon for said .desktop to the icons folder, and creating the shell script /usr/games/gog-<gamename> that in turn runs start.sh as a launcher, referencing the current location of start.sh) , they don't actually put the data files anywhere. I'd bet the .deb acts similarly, using dpkg solely to place the files in /opt/GOG Games (start.sh acts slightly differently when given --install and --install-deb, the former not installing the desktop file or icon).
Posted July 31, 2014
This is awesome GOG!! Are there plans to add the Linux versions of other games that already support Linux (I'm mainly thinking of FTL) in the near future?
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Community
General discussionGOG.com Now Supports Linux!(1233 posts)(1233 posts)
(1233 posts)