@venom Maybe something like kickstarter for Linux client could be an option. I understand that having a small team with limited resources can be a problem, but maybe there are other venues to get more funds for specific task.

Thanks. Bloodlines has always been a trouble causer :)

Sure, there are ways to present the situation like a chicken-vs-egg scenario, but it isn't that simple. It isn't GOG's responsibility to advocate and push the Linux platform. They are a publicly traded game distributor (Under the shell of CDP SA.) and it is their responsibility to their shareholders to grow their business of selling games by generating revenue at an increasing rate year over year. That's the goal of every company ultimately.

Every company has a limited amount of capital to work with, a limited number of employees and other resources to work with at a given point in time. One could suggest "By supporting Linux more, they will draw more people to buy games on Linux and thus it will increase their sales and profitability." and that might be true, but it misses the larger point. With limited manpower and finite resources available, a company is not best served by randomly picking projects/features to work on or by letting highly vocal outsiders decide what they should work on form them. The best way to run a growth company is to explore what all of your options for growth are, to build a list of as many new products and services, and new features for existing products and services, and then to estimate how much manpower effort and expenditure of resources (money and otherwise) would be utilized to bring the new product/service/feature to fruition and make it available to customers. Additionally, they must consider market risk assessment for a given product/service/feature and put that on the table as well. They have to determine who specifically would that given product/service/feature be targeted at, and how big is the market for that.

Once that information is fully researched you end up with a list of dozens of potential projects your manpower and resources could potentially be allocated to with that goal of maximizing your revenue and growing your company. The people running a company and making the decisions are most likely going to choose to allocate the resources to the products/services/features that are perceived to have the biggest growth opportunities in terms of greatest new or increased source of revenue, with the most optimal assignment of manpower and resources, with the largest market and the least risks involved. That is the basic general formula that a successful business is most likely to follow. They may take a few gambles along the way on the odd long shot too, but if they run their business always on long shots, they'll probably not survive in a heavily competitive marketplace on long shots that don't pan out.

So GOG is most likely going to put their resources on what they perceive to be the biggest bang for the buck, and projects that are more fringe and cater to small market niches etc. are likely to not get much resources assigned to them at all if they have bigger and better things on the table that will drive faster revenue generation.

If they were a company 5-10 times the size it might be different, because they might be able to take on a few fringe projects and assign 2% of their resources to them. They're unlikely to do so if it means assigning 10-50% of their resources however as the smaller company that they currently are.

So it's not a matter of whether Linux support would generate more business and more usage of Linux for gaming, it's a question of "What available projects that we could assign our finite resources to will provide the maximum amount of revenue to us in the short/mid/long term for the largest number of customers and least amount of risk."

As much as I want to see full blown Linux support here, it's not GOG's job to become evangelical about Linux and throw all of their eggs into the Linux omelette. This isn't a case of "make it available for Linux and the Linux people will come", it is a case of Linux usage needs to be much higher and self-demonstrate to companies like GOG that the market is much larger to be worthwhile assigning the resources to tap into that market.

The bottom line IMHO is that as long as there are other areas that GOG can expand their business on the Windows, Mac platforms that they believe will bring in much more revenue for them than assigning the same resources to adding to their Linux support offerings, they are most likely going to keep assigning their resources to those other things they perceive to bring them the most revenue.

No matter how great we all think Linux is (and it is pretty awesome), and no matter how much better some people think it is than Windows or Mac etc., those subjective opinions mean absolutely nothing when it comes to making money. Linux needs to become better, then more better, then more better than that, and Linux enthusiasts such as ourselves need to convince other people to use/try Linux to increase the number of people out there using it.

One big problem with doing that however, is that lots of people who advocate Linux do so on terms that they perceive as beneficial to themselves, and do not always take into account what the other person values whom they are trying to convince. As I alluded to in a post above, when we negotiate with someone else trying to convince them of the merits of our own solution, we must do so in terms that take into account the other person's actual needs, which means we must know what the other person's needs are - and not criticize or judge them for what they need.

For example, talking to someone who does not use Linux to convince them to try it would be finding out what they do use Windows/Mac for right now, what they like about it and what their own expectations are. Then determine whether or not what they actually want/need/expect is actually viable on Linux or not. Sometimes it is, and quite frankly if we're honest - sometimes it is not. We do the other person a disservice if we try to blindly sell them all out on Linux being able to do everything they want without even knowing who they are or what they want/need/etc.

But that's what has to happen first, more people need to be using Linux and more people need to want to play games on Linux, and more people need to be buying existing games on Linux as things exist right now. That will show an increase in usage of the Linux platform and convince some companies out there to bring more to Linux. Every companies "threshold of care" will be different, and as Linux usage increases, more and more companies will support it, or increase their support for it.

If in 6 months time GOG suddenly had internal statistics suggesting that 5% of their entire global customer base was playing their games on Linux as-is, that would strongly boost the viability of assigning resources to improving support on Linux. Problem is a lot of people out there seem to think Linux is already that popular, and that's simply not the case in reality when it comes to video games. If the discussion is about back end web and email servers it's an entirely different situation, but desktop gaming... no chance. GOG does not publish Linux usage statistics currently, but I would be shocked and surprised if more than 0.5% of GOG customers are gaming on Linux at the moment. If that is the case, the "why" doesn't matter.

The TL;DR of this is: Want more Linux support? Get more people using Linux right now as things exist right now thus increasing the size of the potential Linux market and keep doing so until it is large enough that it crosses a threshold that results in GOG (or whatever other company out there) deciding that "the time has come now to consider this".

In the mean time I'll grumble about it along with the rest of you about lack of Galaxy Linux support for now, but at least I understand very clearly the rational reasons why it does not yet exist and probably wont for several years IMHO.

Which totally sucks for us, and thus we can (and will) grumble about it naturally. The point I'm trying to make however in all of this, is that we can (and will, and I will too) grumble about it until the cows come home and nobody cares. From a business perspective they have to see or believe the market and money are there first to assign the resources to make it happen, and only then if they don't think they have something better to spend the resources on that give bigger business results.

Sure it sucks for us that Linux support isn't the greatest. Maximizing support for Linux isn't GOG's core mission however. The marketplace has to convince GOG that increasing support for Linux is viable and highly profitable first, in concrete terms that matter to GOG. No matter how difficult this is for us in the collective Linux Master Race(TM) to do, I do not believe this situation is going to change.

It seems that most of us all agree on most things regarding Linux, but only disagree about what needs to be done in order to rectify the situation. Most people speaking on the topic seem to think that the proper way forward is for GOG to shitcan general Galaxy development that appeals to 99% of their core business and allocate a huge chunk of their resources to supporting Linux in hopes and prayers that this will boost their business on Linux to great profitability, while I myself believe that the proper way forward is for Linux enthusiasts to make the platform better, to use positive minded advocacy to get other people to use Linux and to want to game on Linux by both making the platform meet their needs on their terms, and showing them that it is the case in a similar manner. These people then become new Linuxheads who will want to and start buying existing Linux games and increasing the statistics that actually matter - the revenue coming in from Linux sales. Not just on GOG, but on any platform out there including Steam. As the number of people increase, the market pressure those people represent will convince companies like GOG that there is much more money to be made.

Even though those of us in the discussion may differ in our views on that point, keep in mind that the majority of the rest of our views on the Linux platform and open source software in general are probably very similar.


Ignoring a fact does not make the fact cease to exist however. I'm not suggesting that if GOG made Galaxy available for Linux it wouldn't be good for us Linux enthusiasts. We'd be quite happy about that. I'm suggesting that as a business it is the priority of GOG's management to drive sales and revenue forward and grow the company by allocating their manpower and resources to projects/products/services/features that they perceive to be of maximum value to the wider marketplace, and that the small niche market we represent as Linux enthusiasts is simply not maximum priority at them achieving their business goals at this point in time. I'm no less bummed out about that than you or anyone else is, and I hope I've made that clear in this and other threads. I just fully understand the business side of why it is the case, and can't really blame them for focusing their efforts where they think they'll get the most business growth currently. I'm not happy about it, but I understand it and hope if nothing else, that I'm able to get others to think more deeply about the issue and what needs to happen in the real world to get what we ultimately want.

Our fantasy solutions that put everything we ourselves want front and centre at the expense of everything else, and with GOG's business growth and goals as a distant concern isn't really rational thinking, and certainly not something we're likely going to convince GOG management to change their minds about. We change their minds by proving them wrong, by showing them the market for Linux is larger than they perceive it to be by doing what we can to make that market bigger than it is now. That's a language they can and will understand. We can still rib them about it in the mean time too, but we wont likely get anywhere. :)

I commented on this already elsewhere either in this thread or another thread, but basically it isn't really a matter of money IMHO. It's about resource availability and allocation. If GOG had double the number of developers working on Galaxy and 10 times the money, they're still going to look at all of the potential ways they can grow their business and allocate 2/3/5 times the developers onto the projects that they think will bring in the most revenue. The only way that one would do a crowd funding campaign for a product/service/feature, is if they already want to do that very thing with high priority but are lacking the funds to do so, and gaining public funds would be the missing link to make it happen.

Funds are not the missing link however, so throwing money at the problem isn't going to solve it. It's a matter of market size economics and limited resources. Whatever money/manpower/etc. they have now or a year from now or 5 years from now, is going to be allocated towards projects they perceive the best return on investment from. In order to see Linux be one of those projects, they have to perceive it to be of that nature to be worthwhile allocating the resources to in the first place.

If someone wants to do a crowdfunding campaign, make it a project to spend all of the money on advocating Linux use for gaming, put out full page ads about how awesome Linux is for gaming in newspapers, and increase the size of the market.

Regardless of the chicken versus egg scenario many have pointed out in all of this, the only way it is likely to move forward favourably IMHO is when the market size increases FIRST with what is already there. As that market increases, products and services that want to tap into that market naturally evolve and grow.

Thank you, sir ! That's the definite answer I longed to see. Now, please, could you arrange the removal of that embarassing "In progress" status in the whishlist?

I agree. The status of that wishlist item needs to be changed, otherwise it becomes just a big fat LIE. Since no member of the GOG Galaxy team is actually working on the Linux client, that wishlist item needs to have it's "in progress" status removed.

And of course you will never outright say you are not able to or not have the knowledge because that would just be bad rep for your team, and no one likes to admit they are incompetent at developing software when that is their job.

Additionally, that roadmap should have included the Linux client as being released at the same time as the Mac client, seeing as both Mac and Linux are seen as 2-nd tier OSes in general when it comes to gaming operating systems.

Venom, isn't this is something to think about? So far Gabe and Tim is right about MS direction, they even predicted Win10S model years ago. As for future, I don't think anyone expect MS to slowdown with this OS-as-a-Service idea. Could you please ask execs to reconsider Galaxy for Linux position in priority list with taking W10S very possible expansion into consideration?

Well, the Linux-Community has the Resources to make it happen. So why not making it OpenSource?

I hope you are aware that a non existent Galaxy Client for LInux is hurting your Business. Because of your bad Linux support I'm buying most of my games in other Stores like Steam & Humble Store.

No Tux, no Buy!

This hurts the linux business and gaming greatly. You are literaly forcing linux people on Steam. If you do not have the resources then either crowd-fund the client or provide open API and let the community do it.

Be honest, be transparent and helpful and the Linux ppl will make a client that works. You have the best resources on the planet that you can use on this : the Linux community. The community has been doing this stuff for decades. Help them, help you.

And as I said GOG has now burned any good will they had with the Linux community...

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/6uk60b/looks_like_gog_galaxy_wont_come_to_linux_any_time/?st=j6jdp561&sh=b5de4ed7

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/looks-like-gog-galaxy-wont-come-to-linux-any-time-soon-as-its-not-a-priority.10183

This is a mistake. You are not just ignoring, but _spitting on_ the segment of the gaming market that in the mid-to-long term really is the one that matters to your business--gamers on free operating systems like GNU/Linux. I consider the use of "available soon for Linux" as a marketing ploy, a lie that drags on for multiple years, to be insulting to the Linux community.

We, the gamers on free operating systems, are the ones who ultimately have the computing freedom to make choices in the software market. These choices (e.g. where and how to purchase software titles, what software titles are "allowed" to be purchased/run, etc.) are being slowly eliminated by Microsoft and Apple as these companies lock their computing platforms down and erode away their users' rights and freedoms.

You are operating in a market where increasing numbers of Windows users are moving to Windows 10 S, since this will be the default installed operating system for new, off-the-shelf, computers. This will prevent them from using GOG Galaxy or buying games from your store; instead, they will be forced to use the Microsoft Store.

Apple Mac OS X, while generally being unsuitable for gaming because of hardware, drivers, and poor API choices (e.g. Metal instead of Vulkan), _is_ currently more open then Windows 10 S. But, OS X (macOS) is becoming more and more like iOS every release. Read the writing on the wall... I will be astonished if within 5 years macOS isn't as restricted (I mean, as secure...) as iOS. Good luck running GOG Galaxy on that!

We Linux gamers are often treated as third-class citizens, and we can understand that. After all, we run a hippie desktop operating system with a non-existent marketing budget in the face of other closed desktop operating system ecosystems supported by corporate behemoths. However, you have chosen to not even treat us as third-class citizens, but as the chewing gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe--nothing but an annoyance.

We will remember this slight.

Galaxy Linux is not the priority for GoG Team ?
GoG is not a priority for me.
Goodbye GoG and welcome Steam.

I agree with others that the Galaxy on Linux wish should not be marked with in progress if no progress is happening. A good tag would be "Not worth our time".

Exactly. The more I've read around during today the more stunned I'm getting about the decision. It seems badly timed, too, with more and more people coming over to Linux: their first impression of Gog will be this issue, and I imagine they'll not become customers. I myself only came over 3 months ago, and have been very glad of the Linux games here at Gog, and am genuinely grateful, but today is the first time I've felt differently. It makes you wonder if Steam and big companies/devs are involved in some way, to block expansion of Gog, or if some deal has been struck.

Money that loyal Linux users have paid in now being used on Windows features instead just isn't right. And it can be frustrating enough to have the guts to leave Windows and to support what is genuine, but to find that there is this attitude thing as if Linux isn't equal is really not okay. There needs to be respect, and the reasons you give illustrate that.

It's a shame that Gog seem to be taking an opposite direction to progress ... if they planned to bring more windows users over from Steam first, to help with the fight against metadata/drm/privacy/big businesses monopolizing and controlling, etc, surely they'd have been transparent about that, so it can't be that. Seeing many Linux users say they'll just default to Steam is sad, although I'm seeing itch.io mentioned too. I won't be going elsewhere, as I won't deal with the drm/closed system/metadata thing, but I'm not sure I'll spend here often now.

Now really is the time for Linux hardware to expand much more, and fast. Nobody likes being locked down and bossed about, surely, especially for money and agendas, so Linux hardware and software are going to be what people go to first, and so much progress can further emerge from that.

Ironically I'm not even interested in any clients, so it's about the bigger issues, but Linux will grow anyway, creating what is needed, and that is very heartening. The code and will is there to build the ecosystem much further, including larger games with clients. That may take some time, but I'm sure can happen.