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General discussionWe DO NOT WANT say goodbye to GOG Downloader(809 posts)(809 posts)
(809 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 16, 2020
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Lifthrasil: Right now GOG lost it's only advantage over their DRM-free competitors. (zoom-platform, itch.io, fireflowergames, gamejolt). You can download games via browser or via free downloader there as well. The GOG-downloader was a tool that made downloading GOG-games more convenient. They remove that convenience in favour of their client.
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SirPrimalform: Which features of GOG Downloader do you feel are missing from Galaxy?
Choice.

Galaxy comes bloated with lots of 'features' and, apparently, still some bugs. I don't want Galaxy and I don't like the way GOG tries again and again to force it on their users. It's a matter of principle. You know, like that totally ridiculous no-DRM thing. Just a matter of principle that I, for one, follow.

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SirPrimalform: Sure, because occasionally firing up Galaxy to download a standalone installer is indistinguishable from firing up Steam every time you want to play.
just wait. It will become indistinguishable. Bit by bit Galaxy will be developed into a mandatory, de-facto DRM client. GOG will be careful to make smaller steps than the bundling of Galaxy with all offline-installers was. But they are taking those steps and removing the Downloader is one of them.
Posted March 16, 2020
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Lifthrasil: just wait. It will become indistinguishable. Bit by bit Galaxy will be developed into a mandatory, de-facto DRM client. GOG will be careful to make smaller steps than the bundling of Galaxy with all offline-installers was. But they are taking those steps and removing the Downloader is one of them.
I think there was a fair indication of were they wanted to go with what at some point got bundled with offline installers which, and rightly so, resulted in an outcry that made them back off on that one.

Came across today a 2017 article from PC Gamer calling Galaxy a 'great lightweight client', would love to have their take on it now for lightweight it sure is no more.
Posted March 16, 2020
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Lifthrasil: Choice.

Galaxy comes bloated with lots of 'features' and, apparently, still some bugs. I don't want Galaxy and I don't like the way GOG tries again and again to force it on their users. It's a matter of principle. You know, like that totally ridiculous no-DRM thing. Just a matter of principle that I, for one, follow.

just wait. It will become indistinguishable. Bit by bit Galaxy will be developed into a mandatory, de-facto DRM client. GOG will be careful to make smaller steps than the bundling of Galaxy with all offline-installers was. But they are taking those steps and removing the Downloader is one of them.
Choice? At the moment you still have the same level of choice as you did before: You can download through the browser or you can use GOG's proprietary download program.

I've found Galaxy to be far less buggy than the old downloader was even when it was still actively developed, but I understand this is subjective.

I think your fears about Galaxy becoming required are paranoia, but I guess only time will tell.
Posted March 16, 2020
Hi. . . I've only used the GoG Downloader since I can remember. At first glance, GOG Galaxy may look like something, but as long as I don't have more setting options, it's not for me. Too many things are displayed that do not interest me, but unfortunately I cannot hide them either. If nice icons, why not in the size I would like to have? OK, I digress ; ). . . Anyway, it was very convenient to use the GOG Downloader, a few clicks and everything was secured. It's too bad he's gone now. Helmut
Posted March 17, 2020
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SirPrimalform: You're partially right here, the old Downloader did use more resources.

I'm not even joking, I found it to be prone to memory leaks and Adobe AIR is slow as treacle in general.
this is why i only ever used it a few times and switched to downthemall (which still works with palemoon for anybody missing it) - which turned out to be faster anyway for me.
Posted March 17, 2020
I'm all for getting rid of the GOG downloader if it gives GOG some more resources to get games updated.

Their little line about "the devs aren't giving us their updates" seems to be progressively proven to be false.

Anyhoots, I'm here for the DRM-free beer. I don't mind using Galaxy or the web, b/c they're both pretty reliable these days. But back in the day, the downloader was my friend.
Posted March 17, 2020
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rjbuffchix: What?? Your (sirprimalform) claim was that the time to complain was 5 years ago. People not being here at the time isn't an "excuse" it's a simple reality. Yes, people started using the Downloader even though it was not officially supported, because it worked and provided a functionality that is no now longer available in the same form.fill...
[...]
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amok: Then they should have taken the hint that it was not supported.... if you use a piece of software which is not supported, then you have no one to blame but yourself.
I don't think any Downloader user was under a false impression that it was supported. Just that it continued to work, regardless of being unsupported. GOG has yet to come up with a compelling reason to the user as to why the status quo couldn't have continued. And no, "it's old and unsupported" is not a compelling reason.
Posted March 17, 2020
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SirPrimalform: You're partially right here, the old Downloader did use more resources.

I'm not even joking, I found it to be prone to memory leaks and Adobe AIR is slow as treacle in general.
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Sachys: this is why i only ever used it a few times and switched to downthemall (which still works with palemoon for anybody missing it) - which turned out to be faster anyway for me.
I used the news that it was being discontinued (i.e. 5 years ago) as the impetus to finally learn how to use GOGrepo.
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Tallima: Their little line about "the devs aren't giving us their updates" seems to be progressively proven to be false.
There have been plenty of high profile instances where that was the truth. TinyBuild for example.
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amok: Then they should have taken the hint that it was not supported.... if you use a piece of software which is not supported, then you have no one to blame but yourself.
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rjbuffchix: I don't think any Downloader user was under a false impression that it was supported. Just that it continued to work, regardless of being unsupported. GOG has yet to come up with a compelling reason to the user as to why the status quo couldn't have continued. And no, "it's old and unsupported" is not a compelling reason.
In that case you were using it with the understanding that it would stop working at some point. If that's the case, why complain when it stops working?

I'm fairly certain that the only reason it kept on working was because they were manually coming up with links for it (hence the late, missing and broken links). I'm guessing the percentage of people still using the downloader dropped below a certain percentage and they've made the call that it's not worth keeping it running.
Post edited March 17, 2020 by SirPrimalform
Posted March 17, 2020
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amok: Then they should have taken the hint that it was not supported.... if you use a piece of software which is not supported, then you have no one to blame but yourself.
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rjbuffchix: I don't think any Downloader user was under a false impression that it was supported. Just that it continued to work, regardless of being unsupported. GOG has yet to come up with a compelling reason to the user as to why the status quo couldn't have continued. And no, "it's old and unsupported" is not a compelling reason.
All unsupported pieces of software will at some point stop working, as other software / frameworks / API's etc are constantly updated. At some point, if the unsupported software is not updated to interact with the new updated softwares (which means it would be supported...) it will break. This is logical and how things work in practice. And if you elect to use unsupported software you do so in the knowledge that this will happen. If you do not accept this, then you should not use unsupported software
Posted March 17, 2020
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SirPrimalform: I'm guessing the percentage of people still using the downloader dropped below a certain percentage and they've made the call that it's not worth keeping it running.
Same thought.
Posted March 17, 2020
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amok: All unsupported pieces of software will at some point stop working, as other software / frameworks / API's etc are constantly updated. At some point, if the unsupported software is not updated to interact with the new updated softwares (which means it would be supported...) it will break. This is logical and how things work in practice. And if you elect to use unsupported software you do so in the knowledge that this will happen. If you do not accept this, then you should not use unsupported software
Except that... The unsupported software still works fine better than Galaxy and without all that social-like junk which we don't need.

Maybe, most of you have forgotten the mission, at GOG's beginning: a place without DRM, different from Steam & Co. and with no need to have client to download and play your games.

This mission is changing but you are playing being blind.
Post edited March 17, 2020 by visconteprimus
Posted March 17, 2020
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amok: All unsupported pieces of software will at some point stop working, as other software / frameworks / API's etc are constantly updated. At some point, if the unsupported software is not updated to interact with the new updated softwares (which means it would be supported...) it will break. This is logical and how things work in practice. And if you elect to use unsupported software you do so in the knowledge that this will happen. If you do not accept this, then you should not use unsupported software
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visconteprimus: Except that... The unsupported software still works fine better than Galaxy and without all that social-like junk which we don't need.

Maybe, most of you have forgotten the mission, at GOG's beginning: a place without DRM, different from Steam & Co. and with no need to have client to download and play your games.

This mission is changing but you are playing being blind.
This actually has no bearing on what I was saying, it is a different discussion and the time it should have been had was 5 years ago, when gOg announced that the dowloader was discontinued. it did not happen then, so gOg has now phased it out.

(anyway, as a side, gOg's mission in the beginning was reviving old games....)
Post edited March 17, 2020 by amok
Posted March 17, 2020
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amok: All unsupported pieces of software will at some point stop working, as other software / frameworks / API's etc are constantly updated.
Except that it didn't "stop working". It still worked and an arbitrary decision to make it stop working was made. There's a difference, and that's the whole point. I didn't even use the damn thing and I can understand that.
Post edited March 17, 2020 by Breja
Posted March 17, 2020
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amok: All unsupported pieces of software will at some point stop working, as other software / frameworks / API's etc are constantly updated.
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Breja: Except that it didn't "stop working". It still worked and an arbitrary decision to make it stop working was made. There's a difference, and that's the whole point.
yes, because the new games API's have been updated (as I said). So to continue making it work from now, the downlaoder has to be updated to work with the new API's... that was kind off my main point in that post....
Posted March 17, 2020
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amok: This actually has no bearing in what I was saying
Oh, man, you are so wrong... This is strictly connected.

And for the record: not updating a tool is very different to decide to delete it.

The old GOG Downloader is still working fine, even if its own creators have abandoned it: an evidence about how good is!

But, a week ago, after years of silence and indifference, someone of GOG Team tell us: "Whoops, we'll disabled it. Because!"

Well, freak no! Just because they want forcing us to use that heavy pile of trash called "Galaxy". No, thanks!
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionWe DO NOT WANT say goodbye to GOG Downloader(809 posts)(809 posts)
(809 posts)