I think this is the essential point here. People whinge and moan about being "compelled" or "forced" to install Galaxy, but at the end of the day they're not being "forced" to, they're offended that other people have the option to. Sure, there's a risk that GOG could abandon DRM-free and adopt online authentication, but that risk is and always has been there regardless of Galaxy. They could just have easily become a Steam key distributor with DRM-free releases for "willing publishing partners" (as Shinyloot and Desura did, and we all know how that panned out).

If anything, Galaxy reduces the risk of GOG adopting DRM, because it limits the ability of developers to apply pressure on GOG to adopt Steam key distribution. The Galaxy API supports leaderboards, matchmaking and achievements, by and large the three features that any standard gaming platform should have nowadays. The one key difference between GOG and Steam (and bone of contention between gamers and developers) is that Steam allows developers to deploy patches directly while GOG requires patches to go through them first.

If people believe that the absence of these features means that GOG could have pressured developers into offering direct IP play and otherwise fully-featured offline experiences tailored to GOG's requirements, then I'm sorry, but those people are nothing short of delusional. Look at how Brütal Legend and Anomaly 2 turned out for hints as to what a Galaxy-less GOG would be like.

The ultimate point is that should you choose to, you could backup your saves, remove Galaxy at any moment, download the offline installers and carry on as if nothing had happened. Could you go onto the Steam Community site and ask everyone "so is everyone using the Steam client now"?

And yes, I do use Galaxy, I do like collecting achievements (within reason) and I do like auto-patching. I just refuse to be beholden to them, which is why I prefer GOG over Steam.

If I could give you 10.000 upvotes, I would do it

I uninstalled it when the "Galaxy in installers" debacle happened, and haven't really had a reason to reinstall.

You should ask that to everyone that feels uncomfortable about Galaxy, not to me. I just agree with every single word in that post.

I can forsee a time when Galaxy will be like steam, online login to play. Here's how it will happen...
Gog was originally Good Old Games. There was always going to be a finite supply, given that GoG were honest and not pirates. Permission(s) had to be agreed etc. Once the old gaming fraternity had bought them, the sales will fall.

So they introduce new games as well. Of course, only a limited number of publishers / developers want their games to be free for all (buy it once, copy and sell. I'm NOT pointing the finger, but we know it happens). So they go the Steam / DRM route. This limits GoG's sales.

So they gradually add more not so old titles, and eventually the market is nearly stagnant, until they launch Galaxy. This brings in the steamers who want one touch gaming and all the teeny stuff.

One day, this will also slow, and someone high up in GoG will see, "Hey if we go online to play, we'll get AAA titles and the rest, and sales will rocket." It is called turning a small business into a big one. It happens. Apple started in a shed with the best intentions.

Until then, I am happy with the GoG I've got. When it happens, well, I have my installers backed up....

Most of the peeps here are unhappy about GOG's decision to infect the offline-installers with it's proprietary client. The client itself isn't the issue.

No, no need to.
I don't care about achievements, time tracking, cloud saves, etc.

I understand that, and it was a huge mistake on the GOG side, as far as I'm concerned. But in this day and age, with GOG being a store with a lot of modern games (even fresh releases!), something like that (building and spreading GOG Galaxy) was necessary (because games get patches nearly every week if not every day, look at Spellforce 3; because games are built around Steamworks environment whick features leaderboards and matchmaking; and because people actually like cloud saves and achievements, and I must stress that I like them to be optional, unlike Steam). That doesn't necessarily mean that GOG will turn into an evil Steam-like platform with DRM and online activation. If raising money was their only purpose, they would've become a Steam key reseller long time ago. Some people should try to see Galaxy as a way for GOG to survive as a DRM-free store (exactly like the regional pricing and stuff), not the other way around, as hard as it can be.

You hit the nail on the head.

+1

Totally disagree with you. First of, companies like GOG always want more and grow bigger. If that is not happening to the satisfaction, they search for new ways to get bigger. Happened before, when they broke all their principles and started their long way towards Steam. Flat prices ... no, we need to sell more and more quickly, fuck that. We need to open up to more customers, why not create different language „parts“. Hm, no censorship? No that is stopping games from coming here, so let‘s implement some drm. „You don‘t this game and you don‘t get that game.“
We need more multiplayer, but wait, why should we say „no drm multiplayer“? Just fuck that and copy Steam. Easier for everyone. Let‘s try to do a Steam clone, but without all the AAA titles. Therefore we have a lot more bugs and a lot of missing options that Steam has since like forever.
While I‘m at it. Let‘s just rush this drm client out of beta, because our drmed (all copies that come on DVD) Witcher 3 is bound to come out.
As bonzer said. When the growth ceases, they will look for a new way and completely forget about drm and become a 1:1 copy of Steam, except their bugs and missing features and missing updates and such.

I installed Galaxy out of curiosity and it's still installed, but I almost never use it, it's configured not to start at system start-up. Once in a while I use it for easy updating of already installed games. I tend to forget there's an update, but Galaxy reminds so with a blue dot (only works for unmodded games though, as updating through Galaxy removes in stalled mods and lets the game go back to a vanilla state if I'm not mistaken).

GOG Downloader I use far more often and is configured to load at system start-up. It's my preferred method of downloading games.

Games I start up from their shortcut in the custom toolbars I've added to the Windows toolbar on the left of my screen. I don't want any client to start up if I start a game, if I can help it. There's no other way to start a game of Far Cry 3 (UPlay), Battlefield 1 (Origin) or XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Steam) for instance, but I'd rather don't use a client, if at all possible for the game I want to play.

I keep it around only for updating games and downloading installers. I always run games without it, though. For me, it also eats away system resources and makes my potato overheat (then shut down by itself).

Actually they can do that on GOG now too, via the Galaxy Dev Portal. Otherwise though you are spot on.

Take a look around you. What posts are getting upvoted and downvoted?