Apologies if this has been answered somewhere else, but I was wondering about the future of GOG -- when say, Windows 7 comes out, will the games somehow be updated to work on that OS, and future OS'?

I can't find the post right now, but one of the GOG guys did say that they will ensure that the games remain compatible with future Windows releases, or at least with Windows 7.

This appears to be the only thread on it -- noone from GOG replied though.

That's not the one I was talking about, the post I remember was much older than that (from October or November), but like I said, I can't find it right now.

Not that this really answers your question, but Microsoft said that Windows 7 will pretty much work with everything that works on Vista. I believe them because Windows 7 will probably just be a refined version of Vista.

Yeah, thats the impression Ive gotten from reading about it. Basically Vista with some of the sucky things taken out or refined, and a few new things added. Heh.

I care more about Windows 7 support, as I hope to skip from XP straight to 7. ;-)

Won't GOG.com have a pre-release copy of Windows 7 to work with?

Why would they? As long as they're not a MSDN subscriber or any other affiliate distributor they wouldn't and couldn't get a legal copy of a pre-launch Windows 7 build.

As a developer of Windows-based games, I would expect them (CDProjekt/GOG) to have access to pre-release versions of upcoming Windows versions for the purposes of future game development. That being said, having access to a pre-release version does not guarantee that it can be used to ensure compatibility. Using a beta version might not be useful at all, depending on how much changes between the beta and the final release. Maybe once Windows 7 gets to the release candidate stage it could be used to ensure compatibility, but anything earlier than that would probably be a waste of time.

Apart from initial teething troubles as there were with Vista it will be backwards compatable with XP and Vista. I would avoid any version of 7 till at least the first service pack is out anyway but there is no sense in not being able to run stuff designed for XP or Vista.

From what I know devs have to buy they're OS' and don't get any freebies unless they're part of the networks Microsoft distributes software through.

In my experience, nearly all Windows software developers, regardless of the kind of software they develop, are at least part of the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and probably TechNet, too. It would be stupid for a company that develops applications for the Windows platform to not join them and gain access to all its resources, including early OS releases. Heck, I'm part of them and I was only the manager of a department that developed and tested Windows software, I can't program to save my ass.

as long as they continue to support XP, I don't care what else they do.