There is also the problem that several budget games distribution companies may have the only right to sell those titles. The "3 for £10" type of games in GAME or equivalent, are examples of this, with companies like "Sold Out" and "Bestsellers" holding on to those games that are still selling copies.
These deals were probably made before a digital distribution model could be realised, and perhaps in the future the distinction between retail and online sales could be made.

In fact I'm perfectly happy with that..now, when notebooks are more and more popular but their gaming capabilites are just enough for games 2-3 years old...GOG is becoming a great source for such games in the best way (without DRM, patched, easy to download, ...)
Don't get me wrong, I really love "real" good old games and I hope to see them coming to GOG....as well as the newer ones.
What would be really nice...to be able to browse in the Games catalogue by year.

I agree, that would be a really nice feature for the catalogue.

That would be a great suggestion to forward to the GoG team. ;)

I rather like having these games available. The fact I don't have to have a disc in a drive or any other kind of DRM, makes these versions better than the versions you might find in the stores. And they come with the latest updates included. A win-win situation!

I too was wondering about what OP stated. Good to know that it's still being worked on :)

I use Vista and it runs most of my games perfectly, thankyouverymuch! Though no Sid Mier's Pirates :(

The only games that my copy of Vista x64 won't run are the ones that my lappy just doesn't have the guts to run, I've been quite impressed with the level of compatibility.

Why not? Ever since my sister bought a lappy with Vista for her daughter it has been nothing but trouble. I probably have spend more time trying to make it work properly past 6-7 months than on rest of PC hardware I've used past 13 years. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt.

I don't use Vista, but that's not because of any 'Vista sucks' attitude or any particular prejudice against it. Basically, I've seen no need to go out and spend the money to get Vista when XP does everything I want right now. DX10? I don't really care about that at the moment, as not enough games require it. So, for the nonce, XP is where I'll stay. I figure I'll likely end up upgrading to Windows 7 when it's finally released though.
So, it's not always a matter of ignorance of prejudice if someone hasn't upgraded to Vista. (Nor does that apply to people that HAVE upgraded). It's just a personal choice,

Well this BETA OS is running far better for me than Vista was. It even plays games better than Vista did. I won't say Vista sucks, but it sure as hell reminded me of WinME a little bit...

Yeah, first you'll have to find them. Secondly, most companies from the 80s/90s are dead *cough* Microprose *cough*, and you'll be able to find them on Ye Olde Abandonware sites anyway.

The problem with old old games is that half the time tracking who owns them is a nightmare. For instance companies at one point kept getting swallowed up by others. Domark,U S Gold,Ocean,Microprose to name a few eaten up by bigger sharks then themselfs eaten up by something bigger.
Also the original gold disks may be gone destroied lost in the mists of time and then theres the biggest promble the legal people who you have to deal with all in all it certainly wont be easy fot gog to track down a lot of really old games.
Games from the midddle 2000's is a lot easier to get as most of the companies that made them or published them are still around.
I am sure GoG are doing their best (thanks guys) and a lot of the old games i would never thought to see here they got example Robinsons Requiem where the original company who made it Silmarils went bust a long time ago.

Old or not, the lack of DRM on a purely digital product still makes GOG a unique part of the market. A form of business, which was/is thought to be unworkable. In fact, the better the more recent games sell in such a format, the more pressure there is on the new releases, the bigger need to stay competitive in terms of pricing and value offered.