Hey guys, one of the reasons I haven't moved to Linux as a gamer is that the majority of games and programs I use are designed for Windows. When I bought my games on GOG, I didn’t think GOG Galaxy would eventually feel like an essential program. It makes managing multiple GOG games much easier, and I don’t have to juggle multiple files for larger games.

My hardware is not compatible with Windows 11, so I have until October to decide whether to risk staying on a vulnerable Windows 10 or switch to an LTS distro and hope for the best.

What solutions do you guys have planned or in mind, and what steps have you already taken? I'm really concerned with how GOG Galaxy will function on Linux or if there is a worthwhile alternative.

You have 3 options:-

1. Switch to W11. There are ways of forcing it to install on "unsupported" systems (use Rufus to create a W11 boot USB stick and tick "Bypass TPM / Secure Boot")

2. Switch to W10 Enterprise LTSC (supported until 13th Jan 2032).

3. Switch to Linux.

AB2012 covered your OS options. As for launchers on Linux, in my experience GOG Galaxy 1 & 2 worked fine when installing them via Lutris. Others have reported performance problems in certain games. YMMV. (You could also install it directly with Wine)

Personally, for a while I used Lutris for my GOG games. Currently, I am using Heroic Games Launcher. Switched to that recently and it has worked very well.

Lutris is great if you want the Lutris community's custom install scripts, easily accessible from within the client. That's not just for GOG games, but pretty much anything. Lutris also provides more advanced configuration options I think, though for the average user you shouldn't ever have to touch those really. Lutris does not support: playtime sync on GOG, GOG cloud saves sync, GOG multiplayer, achievements, (unless you just install GOG Galaxy directly in Lutris and use that) and does not have a built-in Wine/Proton downloader (at least last I checked).

Heroic has a cleaner UI, has support for syncing playtime to GOG, achievements, GOG multiplayer (at least for some games, I haven't tried all, I'm not rich), and cloud saves (for Windows games I think), and has a built-in Wine/Proton downloader.

If there's some essential software you need, like the Adobe suite or something, you should probably stick to Windows, otherwise double-check your programs will work natively or via Wine. Again, YMMV.

Edit: Don't listen to people telling you to stay on Windows 10; they have no clue what they're talking about. 0-days are a thing, and AVs won't stop those.

4. Keep using it as will not magically go away.

With any luck, your current hardware will stop working before October, and you have to buy a new PC that is automatically compliant with Windows 11.

My trusty old ASUS G75VW gaming laptop did just that already like 2 years ago, suddenly it just couldn't display much at all or at least its GPU seemed fried. I think I could get a picture on Windows or Linux but it looked like it was not "accelerated" but using a software driver. It was broken both in Linux and Windows so surely it was not just some driver problem.

Oh well, I bought a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro gaming laptop to replace it.

Clients remind me of a drug user to dealer relationship.

First off. Windows 10 is not going anywhere. Second. Download and backup all your offline installers now, before gog start ramping up the Win11 compatible variants(maybe wont now, but we dont know when). Linux is a plausible option ONLY if you can fix anything in it you do not like or breaks. If you lack such skills, then linux as a casual user....you are not going to get 90% of you game bank functioning. Its not easy for experienced pc users to transition, then if you are asking your very question. It is because you dont have the skill.

So. Stick with Win10. Backup your offline installers. Buy a cheap new laptop to either use Win11 baked into it or wipe the drive and use linux, while gaming on the Win 10 pc. Offline of course.

If you need help with wiping a drive to install a flavor of linux, feel free to ask us. Nobara for some gaming if you have certain hardware. Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Mint for casual web surfing. Those are easy on beginners.

Also, make sure if you buy a external back up drive to use a platter based drive; spinning disc. If you back up yer crap on ssd, it wont store as long as the "old fashion" drives. Plus the disc hard drives are cheaper.

Most name brand HDD are old enough to have similar reliable function. Pick one as large as you can afford and dump all the offline installers into it.

I would also back up your save games and with each offliner you get. Uninstall the client version and actually test install the offline game. No sense hoping they work when you can testem.

As long as you don't play games with some anti cheat you can play most of your games on Linux, Steam has a native client, Heroic Games Launcher for Epic Games and GOG, and Lutris for The other launchers.

For the software you use in windows, you can have some in Linux or you can find a replacement, i personally never feel the need to return to Windows since i start using Linux 5 years ago.

erm just because microsoft drops support for windows 10 doesn't mean it's instantly unusable, there's still third party support, just don't install viruses like an idiot, look at the people that still use windows xp

I just wanted to highlight this part, as it is a helpful reminder for not only Linux users but also, people on older versions of Windows.

As other have mentioned, despite Ms whining about it, it is very easy to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, so if you are not yet ready to make the jump to another OS you can easily just update.

Its easy for me to shit in my shoes, but I wont like it.

I think folks who like something, ignore the reasons why something is disliked en masse. Glad it works out for whomever uses it.

There are some severe breach of privacy concerns, that are very intentionally harmful and abusive to the user base using Win11. Its the same logic why most gog users are using gog. So some company decision maker, cannot take away what we pay for on a whim.

...or worse.

This applies to many things we use today, such as internet providers, smartphones, and even the government. Using Linux doesn't guarantee your safety, especially if you're a gamer. Game launchers and engines are continually trying to collect our data. Not even a VPN can fully protect your privacy. The only way to be truly safe is to go completely off the grid.

just use tails os, though that by itself would put you on a watchlist

Think you folks miss the point. Malware like MS Recall is a disaster on an epic scale alone. But much more can still happen when such intentions of corporate decision makers are ignored.