Also, as far as I know even if the game is so-called "DRM-free" on steam you cannot download the installer from steam, so if you ever want to re-install the game you'll have to use steam again while I have all my GOG installers tucked away nicely on an external hard drive to use whenever and wherever I want, even if there's no internet available.

Well its just the way you look at it. I personally use steam only for games I know will never come to gog. And personally gog downloader is drm for me so its just each persons perception.

Eh i think steam has some kind of local backup function too. IT's been a few years since i had Steam installed though.

But you can download all your games from GOG without using the downloader at all...

Yeah it has a backup fuction yes.

GOG offers downloadable files that you can store forever on your harddrive, requiring no client to ever install them.
GOG can shutdown tomorrow and I can still play and install my games on a virtual machine 50 years from now.

This won't be possible with Steam, as Steam will eventually cease to exist, or cease to be compatible.

Hence Steam is a form of DRM, and GOG is not.

I have a few games on Steam but never learned all the functions offered there. It's all just so annoying with the auto-updates and stuff. I'd also presume that even if I could back.up a steam game I would need to be online to install it and get it to run? That's not good enough for me.

The problem is that your game license will be invalid - the same as when steam goes bust no difference there. Yes you will have the game but you won't officialy own it anymore if gog is not there.
You just go in to the steam library right click on the game name and click backup game :)

Are you sure about that?

Also, that's risen to over 143,000K since I grabbed that screen.

Backup option requires Steam to be installed right?

I honestly can't remeber if you need to use steam to install it again i think there was a way to make setup files at some point but it's been too long.
As said steam has too many hoops to jump especially as german i refuse to use it anymore lol

It's not really my concern who goes bust or who doesn't, I've bought the games as if I've bought them from the stores, I own these games now, not just a license to them.

And even if I'm wrong, I'll still be able to play, illegal or not, and Steam players won't be so lucky.

Erm, no it won't, as long as you've kept your purchase receipt email. Nor will your licence under Steam be invalid when Steam goes bust. The difference is that you're going to have a fucker of a time getting at most of your Steam games when the chips are down, while your GOG games will be fine and dandy.

Yeah, good luck with trying to restore those backups without Steam server access.