Exactly what I meant, wrapping the distro completely away by having a (proprietary?) steamAPI on top (but was obviously not clear enough about it). They ignore the existing software deployment mechnism at all and try to avoid at all cost common knowledege how in the linux distro world software has to be deployed and build. Ubuntu + Steam is not another linux distro, it is something different, by architecture and (technical) compatiblity.

Like Android, while based on linux, is by architecture not a linux distro and is incompatible with the traditional linux ecosystem.
see my comment above. They might most probably built a platform on top, which is incompatible by concept and technique with the predominant linux distro culture.

shaddim: Steam API is Steam runtime in this case. Which uses quite standard stuff like SDL and the like. It's 100% open: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-runtime
And most probably even matches what distros already use.

So it's not tied to Steam unless developers of course use lock-in features of the Steam services like was already discussed above. It's not the case with CD Projekt Red. They always take care to avoid Steam lock-in.

Bard's Tale native Linux version was just released (available on HB DRM free). I got GOG Windows version before, but it's unplayable in Wine with Nvidia cards (it has serious bugs). I wish GOG would offer native Linux version now too, but well, at least someone sells it DRM free, so I bought it on HB.

Well, don't leave us in suspense - how does it play?

It's OK, but there are some bugs in the native version (but not as severe as with Wine).

1. Cut scenes don't play because HB release ships MP4 videos instead of Theora (OGV) ones, while the game looks for the later. To fix it, convert all videos in 'movies' subdirectory:

for file in *.mp4; do ffmpeg -i $file -codec:v libtheora -qscale:v 9 -codec:a libvorbis -qscale:a 5 ${file%%.*}.ogv; done

2. Occasionally in some areas the game starts eating too much CPU and becomes too slow and unresponsive. I didn't figure out how to avoid that yet (except leaving that area).

Does the HIB standalone DRM-free version also include the originals?

They are shown in the game menu, but I didn't manage to launch them (I get just black screen and it falls out with a bunch of errors). Let me check how the GOG version packages them. May be HB release just didn't package those games.

UPDATE: I checked. GOG release somehow embeds old games inside, but I don't see them, I guess they are somewhere inside resource files.

UPDATE2: The error is like this:

overflow_sz:ffe84a1d, pos:312e
overflow_sz:ffe84928, pos:3130
...parse_option: line 11, 0x87d3700,0x87d3700 = g_joystick_type = 0 (g_joystick_type = 0) len:19
...parse_option: line 12, 0x87d3700,0x87d3700 = g_cfg_rom_path = res/sys/bttricode (g_cfg_rom_path = res/sys/bttricode) len:34
Read: 131072 bytes of ROM
Open card ROM file bards_tale/diskII.prom failed: -1 err:2
Terminated

UPDATE3: I see there are iibt1.bin iibt2.bin and iibt3.bin which are zip archives. I guess those are original games. These files differ between GOG and HB releases. I tried to put GOG ones instead those shipped with HB, but it fails all the same. Files are password protected, so you can't easily extract them to use with other emulator (whatever that has to be). I guess it's a form of DRM there, hehe :)

Have you seen this? As for the DRM read the following post in that thread.

Ah, great! Thanks for the pointer (which led to the explanation that it's Apple IIgs releases). The files indeed got unpacked into: ~/.local/share/BardTale/data
kegs emulator though seems to be absent in the Debain repos. Is the only way to build it? I can give it a try.

http://kegs.sourceforge.net

GoG could give us the Linux version of the bought game like an extra. Linux users does not get support from GoG for using the win version of a bought game, so why not helping them at least in so much, by giving them the Linux version of the bought game.

Obviously I'm only talking about games with existing Linux version, I don't expect from GoG to port any to Linux!

Linux users are used to getting sh*t thrown in their faces if they want to play games anyway, so Linux people usually help themselves instead of b*tching without end about something not working. So if there is a Linux version made from a game, GoG could simply let us download it as an extra, instead of making a big fuss of it, like with Mac versions.

I love GoG, but it is a bit insulting that one has to play around and suffer with a legally bought game in wine, if there is a Linux version is available.

Many games of GOG have Linux version (from the developers) and with good support, but GOG don't want include this files as Extras. My games for Linux in Humble Bundle, Steam and Desura works very well. Come on GOG......

I was recently looking through Project Eternity and noticed that it has a release date for Win/Mac/Lin available on Steam and GOG.com in 2014. I also remember during the Kickstarter Mr Urquhart promising that a drm-free version of PE would be available in 2014 but was coy as to who would distribute it. Given that he refused to commit to a known player (like Humble Bundle) and is already committed to GOG.com, could we interpret this as a promise by GOG to be Linux ready by 2014? Or am I reaching? It would be close to 2 years after Mac support afterall.

You are reaching. Virtually no set of events would ever get GOG to support Linux. They will always find a way to move the goal posts.

GOG will not release a game and offer no support for it. GOG has been straightforward that they have no immediate plans to start supporting Linux. I suppose it's possible and GOG likely wouldn't say anything until it was done, but I wouldn't be holding my breath.

GOG had two official R&D projects for 2013. One of them could be Linux support, who knows. They only commented why they didn't enable it yet, but they never said they are doing nothing about it. So 2014 can be pretty possible, since such kind of research should not take insanely long time (one year is more than enough for such R&D). If Linux support won't happen even in 2014, GOG will really have hard time finding an excuse why their research had to take so long. Are they trying to invent a biocomputer or something?