Addendum: I think GOG Galaxy is a needed product for GOG's development. Like, a mod workshop would be qute awesome. Just slap on a warning onto the standalone installers, "Hey stupid, you won't be able to do this if you don't have galaxy"

Maybe with nicer words.

It was already firewalled by default and popped an error message when it was executed stating that it could not reach GOG's server to check for client updates. I don't think it would work for online game functionality in that state. My thought was to shut off everything inside GOG Galaxy and manually run it before playing a game that I wanted networking in, then to shut it down after I was finished.

So far.

Have you read through much of the thread at all? It's not just the fact that Galaxy is intended to be bundled with that select list of games (with more in the future), it's the way they've changed the option of using Galaxy to the option of not using Galaxy. To have the install of Galaxy checked by default is a terrible decision. If you're okay with that, then great. But there are obviously a lot of us that aren't.

However these games are all supposed to be able to run with no need for Galaxy, offline at least. Plus even if actually installing it isn't strictly required, Galaxy is supposed to be "fully optional" yet now it's being made a mandatory download with these games.

That isn't what it says though. Auto-update of the client is a feature of the client. You are warping definitions to fit your argument.
It wouldn't? Are you sure about that? Are GOG constantly pushing loads of updates that break compatibility?

Initiating a connection, transferring data and modifying files without my explicit permission is in itself a security issue. _If_ the client needs updating, then I will do it manually.

Yup.

Being one click away from not using Galaxy is hardly problematic and the way they are implementing it is going to mostly cover recent releases. I'd be more worried if I had to download the client with dos games, having 150mb bundled with a 40mb dos game is ludicrous.

Bold for clarity. Auto-updating of the client is not a feature in the client, it's standard operating procedure for most software. You playing lose and fast with what the word features mean. But I get accused of warping...

You may have missed my edit, if you allow a client that interacts with the internet (and by design other people) it is a huge security risk not to have the client update to fix any possible bugs before getting online.

See this recent bug in Steam... https://hackernoon.com/steam-chat-message-crash-explained-3c7562abfaeb

It's basically negative marketing; it's the method used by malware/adware; it's anti-consumer; it's an almost universally reviled practice. This has all been covered through the thread. I don't tend to get up in arms over the things GOG does, and generally tend to take a wait-and-see position when they announce changes. I've always given GOG the benefit of the doubt, but this is something I cannot accept. Again, if you're comfortable with this, more power to you. I'm not.

It has not been answered specifically, but I don't see why they are not planning to add this "convinience" everywhere. It will be more 150 MB of convinience, so it will be fine!

GR00T has already covered me.
I hope GOG will reconsider. I'm sure they were expecting negativity, that's why they posted here, as pushing the new installers silently would make things even worse. I'm not sure they were expecting negativity to that extent though.

BS. You are being purposefully obtuse. The auto-updater is a part of the client. You can say it's not all you want, but that doesn't make your claim any more true.
Spoken like a technical layman.

What makes your current version suddenly more vulnerable after an update is released? For that matter, what business is it of yours or GOG's what happens to anyone else's computers if they choose to disable auto-updates? This is all "use at your own risk".

I'll toss you a hint. Automatic software updates aren't what keep systems safe 99% of the time, proper administration is. Oh and crashing a program isn't a security hole, just an annoyance.

Anyhow, this has strayed off topic. You and I are done.

Okay...believe whatever you want, I don't have time for stupid games. What GOG was referring to is plain as day to any sane person.

I've only worked in software development, & got a degree in CIS... so of course I don't understand the reason for doing so. I'm just a layman. All those years wasted building programs in C++/C# and then working as for a while as a web dev building a back-end in PHP and the front-end in AngularJS. Using PHP frameworks like Laravel.

Again what do I know...

Wow and you got the nerve to call someone obtuse, while in fact being obtuse... really? The type of security hole is irrelevant, if I update to a new version that has fixed a security hole and you remain on an old version then I can potentially make your client or possibly system less secure. No developer is going to intentionally allow their users to remain compromised while using their service online, and it's not even just that... allowing a possible security issue to remain open may compromise the service itself.

It's also not just about security of the software and your device, your stability in Galaxy will also decline as GOG adds new features in which your version of Galaxy doesn't know how to interact with. This could cause a host of issues to which you now contacting GOG about blaming them for something fixed already in a previous patch.

It's very much GOG's business in those two cases.

It not all about YOU, you should remember that. That's really petty honestly... there are hundreds of thousands of users GOG has to worry about.

You should also read up on vulnerability in software which that was regardless of what you might think: [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulnerability_(computing)]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulnerability_(computing)[/url]

EDIT: Whoever the trolls are down voting because I spoke against certain ideas (when you all were up voting early for speaking out against GOG's dumb decision here a few post back), you really not doing this user any favors... but whatever... down vote away.

What made it so galling was that it was entirely out of the blue. No hints, no signs...hell, initially they didn't even have the common decency to throw up a barebones download page for those of us who were locked out of our accounts. Thankfully it didn't last very long, but at that time my library wasn't significantly large and I was willing to write it off as a costly lesson in making backups and being cynical about game companies. I remember making plans to jump ship and go to DotEmu/Humble as my source of DRM-free games going forward.

In retrospect, I wonder if there were a whole bunch of people at the GOG offices in Poland having a right jolly laugh at all of their loyal customers who'd been locked out of their games.

I've never forgotten that, and I'm glad that there are others who haven't either.

Indeed. It's time for the people who stated that they would take action to stick to their guns and start to reevaluate their purchasing habits on GOG. I know I definitely am.

The only closed source thing that I let connect to the internet is windows and I don't permit automatic updates even for it. I will never use galaxy as in addition to it being closed source I don't want anything it provides. I consider this a negative act and one that to me doesn't make sense I see far more folks not knowing how to get games without galaxy than I do people complaining about features gog lacks that are present in galaxy.

If you are dead set on this the correct way to do this is to have it all on the website make it so that there is an option in the preferences to make it so that any attempt to download an installer pops up a explanation of galaxy and its benefits with the option on that page to dismiss it and never see it again. You turn on the show galaxy promo option for everyone and new accounts now it is near impossible to not know what galaxy is and things can go back to normal with a tick of a box. Combine it with more ads for galaxy when you install as well as info in the installer for games that require galaxy for multiplayer and you've done all you should do.

What is being done here will end up mostly affecting folks like my family members whose computers often have programs that they do not know the function of despite the fact it runs at start up and sits in the system tray.

I don't really know how folks can miss all the galaxy stuff on the site I have filters to take care of it due to its lack of subtlety.