Because most of peoples still thinking Linux is hard to use so if they have the choice they will buy new PC instead of switching OS.

Those anti cheat security will be bypass one day but the freedom we had with the OS will be gone forever.

I wonder if GOG simply understaffed to deal with whatever distro the user might have.

From my game list that have Linux version available, they provide Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04 and 18.04 (no actual games for this version in my list). Some games like Fran Bow didn't work on my Ubuntu 20.04.3, some like Railway Empire works pretty much like on Windows. As I'm still quiet inexperienced Linux user I can't really tell if those are native Linux programs or work through Wine. Galaxy client that available as snap, install Wine to work and I didn't really bother as I would prefer a native client over Wine. I mean, I did used Wine and managed to run Serious Sam TSE under it pretty much no problem, but still would rather have a native support for more or less modern games.

So... I wonder if GOG just really understaffed for such work? Maybe they can at least support Debian, RedHat and ArchLinux? As I understand what's works on Debian should work fine on Ubuntu and Linux Mint and other distros based on Debian/Ubuntu. Same goes for Fedora (RedHat) and Manjaro. Might not be the most perfect solution, but I thinks it's a good start to cover basically most used distros.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure it's not only GOG's fault, but game devs as well. Since steam uses proton, which is modified Wine, devs simply doesn't bother to compile native Linux games and probably await when GOG will do the same or worse... wait for streaming services to become mainstream.

Dont see why not. Graphics may not be a core requirement of the Linux kernel, but android games working well enough for mobile suggest there's no reason you can't. The big issue being branches of ther kernel by distinct distros that make changes making them incompatible, but soon enough it may fold together. That and drivers for video cards.

First there's server systems, but games i think will be a core part of adoption in the near future, be it through emulation or through direct support. But this time it's just a bit rocky.

If the executable/installer is a .exe or .msi file and it's running on Linux, it's most likely running through Wine or variations of it. Tthe only exception I know are Windows apps made in Java, that can be run using the command line Java tools from Linux instead of Wine.

If it's a .sh file, it's a native Linux installer. Linux executables also come often as binaries without extension or with generic extensions such as .bin, so what I do to find them more easily is to look at the file icons, since, at least in Ubuntu, they have a cog wheel as icon.

If it's a .pkg or .dmg file, it's a Mac installer and afaik, shouldn't work on Linux, at least not without a virtual machine.

If the file you're running has any other extension, it'll most likely be a game that needs to be run through emulators.

It's .sh executable for both installing/uninstalling and desktop shortcut launches another .sh from game directory. Nice to confirm that what I have is native Linux app.

The game page for "Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire" says this in it's LInux system requirements:
Requires Wine and dependencies. The Linux version comes with a 32-bit binary only. This is a Wine game and requires your local Wine package in order to play

Does anyone know what type of installer it is? It's the only time I can remember seeing Wine required for a Linux game on here.

filename is gog_jagged_alliance_2_wildfire_2.0.0.1.sh

The cheater will always find a way to cheat but those extra ''protection'' will not be removed like the DRM on games, even when it's cracked, they don't remove it

we will see , way too many assumptions which yet to prove themselves

I think they are both struggling with an understaffed Linux team (I would be surprised if there is more than 2~3 people in this team, maybe even a single one), and not willing to improve this situation.

My point was that it doesn't specialize on anything in particular. Windows is split into regular and Server equivalents which target different use cases, while Linux is a Swiss army knife (as intended).

Of course a gaming-focused distro is possible, but in order for it to be successful and accessible to everyone it will need a lot of polish and investment - not something a weekend-work-of-love can achieve, it needs to be commercially driven IMHO, and that can be a problem in the open-source world. Perhaps Valve will ultimately be the bearers of the torch but for now SteamOS has not yet made a name for itself.

Are we talking the kernel or the other components? Linux is purely the kernel, though people tend to lump the whole package as linux.

Linux itself i'd say focuses on simplicity as well as features. The lack of hardware/driver support being the biggest drawback. Otherwise it is more feature rich and stable than i'd think any other OS kernels.

Not sure if a distro needs to be gaming focused. I was meaning more the full hardware could be utilized, which if it is then it would draw more people (Like servers, a free OS is a big draw vs hundreds of dollars of startup costs per machine). Who knows, maybe Wine as it matures more and more will simply make everything work and Linux specific compiled games will go away, as a stable API layer is all it would need. Windows does have the advantage of 1 environment/API and a handful of libraries for 3D. Linux is more a pain in that regard. Though for linux gaming if everyone accepted a single environment (I don't know, SteamOS seems like a bad fit, unless it was a package could install/activate vs the entire OS) which is mostly window manager for Xwindows, drivers, libraries and Sound manager... Hopefully it would do the job.

Or maybe an environment like Java will be pushed where it's recompiled on the fly to your machine and be more like Android...

We'll have to see how things progress.

IMHO the main issue with a "gaming focused" distro is that there is already a gaming focused "distro", it's called "Windows", if you will anyway use multi-boot and restart to a gaming focused OS then why not spare yourself a lot of headaches and simply install Windows, you will have a latest graphics drivers, the latest games will work out of the box, and as it's a separate OS / partition it can "telemetry" anything it wants it would have access to anything outside of your games.

That's what I used when my main OS was Linux and I still use it today now that I am back to Windows as my main OS. Yes you need to reboot but in the M2 era we are talking about a couple of seconds.

Of course if it's a dedicated hardware that will be used exclusively for gaming, for example a retro box or a Mame cabinet, it's different but for general purpose gaming IMHO the interest is limited that explain why SteamOS struggle that much despite Valve endlessly pumping money into it.

I don't think they even have a Linux Team. They certainly state they don't give Linux support themselves, and that you need to get that from either the developer or the few Linux volunteers at GOG.

As far as Linux versions of games go, I've seen no real change in numbers here, and quite a few games I have purchased from GOG in recent times have a Linux version that I always download.

Even a number of recent demos here come with a Linux version. Why would they do that if they don't want to provide Linux versions still.

At the end of the day, it would be somewhat random, depending on the games you are interested in, whether there seems to be more or less of the Linux versions.

Couple that with the fact that GOG can sometimes be narrow focused on the games etc they get here.

That said, I don't chase after AAA games, so maybe there is less of those with Linux versions, which there could be a number of reasons for, especially as they are basically provided as a kind of bonus anyway ... and time and money seem to be everything to GOG right now ... they can't even provide decent server access to everyone ... in fact, that has gone downhill for myself and others ... so clearly they are engaging in cost cutting and penny pinching.

And you cannot ignore the fact that developer/publisher also plays a part, and always seem to be in a hurry to move onto their next money spinner. Adapting games for GOG costs time and money I guess, and Linux versions would be a secondary consideration.