Since most surveys and estimates place Linux users at about 2%-3% and Windows users at around 95%, the issue may be less about ethics and more about practicality. Can GOG afford to spend resources catering to such a small market?

GOG is often compared to Steam, which supports Linux, but it ultimately comes down to numbers. GOG does not disclose its number of active users (only its year-on-year percentage growth), but some estimates can be inferred. Steam has 69 million daily users, so assuming a generous 3%, that would be about 2 million daily Linux users.

We do not know how many people play GOG games daily or how many use GOG Galaxy, but the website has around 400,000 daily visitors and 8 million newsletter subscribers. If we assume, generously, that 8 million represents GOG’s total user base, we can compare it to Steam’s daily active users. For reference, Steam’s monthly active users are actually 132 million, nearly twice its daily number.

Applying the same generous 3% estimate to GOG’s 8 million users, we get around 200,000 daily Linux users.

This means that even when being very generous, we arrive at a comparison of 2 million vs. 200,000 daily Linux users.

Then, we must consider that not all users buy every game - only the ones they like and when they choose to. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that 10% of users buy a game at launch.

- 10% of GOG’s estimated 200,000 Linux users would be 20,000 sales.
- 10% of Steam’s estimated 2 million Linux users would be 200,000 sales, which is equal to GOG’s total Linux user base in this calculation.

Without a user base of Steam’s scale, it is questionable whether GOG can realistically justify strong Linux support given the numbers.

Picard’s facepalm gif

Lot of people use linux. I use linux. But I think trying to get everything 1:1 functional....well, I would truly put better odds on a guy literally trying to f**k a bear and survive over getting even a quarter of content functioning on linux.

I mean really. You gotta jump through hoops just trying to get linux running, let alone expecting noobs to figure how to get games running too.

The crowd that always says "Its easy!", are either mentally ill or a pack of liars. People who ACTUALLY use linux should know damn well, even getting Windows games running is a difficult task quite often. So adding an entirely different OS with out much help is a red flag the size of a mountain.

GOG already supports Linux.

Do they now? I'd love to hear how that works. They support linux by not having their client (or any official software that works) on it, by not releasing linux versions of games even when they exist elsewhere, and by only preserving Windows games in their special preservation program, huh?

There are plenty of Linux versions of games on here, and they have plenty of games in their preservation program that have native Linux builds. What are you talking about?

There are a large number of games on here with Linux builds elsewhere that don't have them here and the games in the preservation program with Linux builds, the linux builds are not updated to work with modern systems the way the Windows versions are. The Preservation program explicitly states that it is Windows only.

The best example would be Fetal Interactive as they are very pro DRM so none of there Linux ports are on GOG (Tomb Raider 2023, Life is Strange).

Funny thing is that the ports they did were not well optimized and in many cases you got better performance running the Windows version under WINE than there native ports.

You can download Linux installers for games that do have it, so yes, they do support Linux even if they don't support Galaxy on Linux. Some games don't have their Linux builds show up here, true, we have an issue with these games.

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 with Galaxy? Sure, but you don't have to. You have to downlaod and apply either the heroes3hd mod or the Horn of the Abyss mod (which includes the hd mod plus 2 new fan-made factions), tho. Make sure the person you're trying to play with has the same version of the mod installed.

If you want to give linux a proper try, download Mint 22, put it on an usb stick using either Rufus or Balena Etcher and boot into in. Try before you install kind of deal, from that live USB environment. I recommend the XFCE version, as it is the lightest, well maintained (unlike the MATE version), can completely disable the compozitor (can't do that with Cinnamon) for lowest possible latency and to eliminate any potential mini stutters in more demanding games. Should work fine unless your PC is too old or too new.

With something like Lutris, as sadlyrematch also mentioned, you can play most games on gog.

I would rather games come with optional multiplayer through Galaxy, than without multiplayer at all, ofc. Sadly, cutting corners and realeasing unfinished, buggy games is the state of the gaming industry today.

Catch-22 when it comes to support/adoption. Few devs offer linux versions/support because not many people use linux and few people use linux because not many devs offer linux versions/support.

Fortunately Valve greatly helped the linux ecosystem from 2012-ish onwards. Now most windows-native games can be played without issues. There are even rumors they might launch new linux-based hardware this year.

If and when it is easier and easier to run Windows games (and possibly other Windows applications) in Linux, the userbase may steadily grow as at least people don't have to give up their Windows games, in order to start using Linux.

When the userbase grows enough, then you can expect developers and stores also to take notice.

Yes, Valve has apparently helped quite a bit with what I say above, ie. increase the ability to run Windows games in Linux. Which is good.

Valve doesn't do this out of the goodness of their heart, but because for them Linux is the "plan B" in case Microsoft decides to lock down Windows so that people are forced to buy their games only from MS Store (examples of that: Windows RT, Windows 10X, Windows 10S... so yeah Microsoft's intentions have been clear for a long time already, but fortunately for use their earlier attempts have so far been unsuccessful, not enough Windows user acceptance for those initiatives).

So it is Valve's way to put pressure to Microsoft, in a form of "if you push us too much, we will switch our ecosystem to Linux". And simply so that if MS does it anyway, Valve can try to continue their life on Linux/SteamOS.

Valve has enough money for these kinds of plan Bs, GOG probably doesn't.

Just to be clear though, Valve is not supporting Linux because they feel they can make more money that way (than catering only for Windows (and maybe Mac) gamers), but because it is their plan B against Microsoft who might try to lock down Windows at some point, signs of which MS has shown before already with several initiatives.

So you could say Valve is "wasting" money on Linux support because they can afford to, and to keep that option alive for their business. They would probably do it even if only 0.001% of Steam users were Linux gamers at the moment.

The reason to choose Linux for e.g. SteamDeck has more to do with showing Microsoft "See? We can do it, so you'd better play nicely because we can survive even without you (even if it means our business would still probably collapse, but still maybe survive).", rather than some technical or "we make more money by choosing Linux over Windows, which is what the other PC handheld makers use".

Yes, Valve invests in/supports Linux because it benefits them. It ensures their survival no matter how much MS messes Windows up. I'm just glad i can play my games on an OS that doesn't nag me, doesn't advertise to me, doesn't move my local files to "the cloud" without my consent, uses few system resources, i can use it the way i please etc.

The main difference between Valve and gog is that one is private and the other is public. One acts in its best iterest and has the autonomy to do so long term, the other has to maximize profits by whatever means necessary.

What? When did this happen? I use Windows and have never experienced this issue. I also use local accounts on Windows.