I know this has been thrown around often, but I think it bears repeated attention...
GOG... please... support Linux!

Now, when I say that, I'm NOT saying "make every title you have available, natively, for Linux". That's naive and absurd.

I'm actually speaking more towards the new indie game offerings. There are several being sold through this wonderful site that I know have Linux ports. For instants, one of your most recent releases, FTL (which is an absolutely wonderful game), has a Linux port. I know this because, as a backer of FTLs kickstarter I was given the option to download the Linux version. Others include Braid and Bastion.

If the developers have a Linux port (or even Mac port, to be fair), surely it wouldn't be that much more difficult to offer it as it is their Windows counterparts. I'll even be happy if the Linux port was considered an "extra" as opposed to an alternative download option.

The simple fact is... I would be significantly more likely to buy an indie title from GOG if it offered their Linux ports.

If Linux was more unified, and easier to install graphics drivers etc, then i think GOG would be more inclined to offer linux support.

I'd say Mac support would be a higher priority.

This might help.

http://www.gog.com/en/wishlist/site/add_linux_versions_of_games

For the time being I can only recommend the Humble Store, who is DRM free and has Linux.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/humble_store

Why is the being thrown around as a disadvantage? There are Linux distros specialized at pretty much everything, and they excel at it. It's a good thing. Linux was never made with playing videogames in mind you know (when someone comes up with a Linux distro aimed at playing windows videogames, I'm fairly sure It'd be damn good at it. But... Well there's no point)

Well i just was speaking from my experience with Linux. There are lots of Linux OS to choose from. From what i've tried, the only game i got running was Tux Racer (which is free and already installed).

If i could get my games running on linux, i'd gladly use it.

(For some reason my original response was lost... I blame my tablet)

Remember, GOG isn't developing these games, they are the distributer. Linux compatibility rests, for the most part, in the hands of the developers. Seeing as there are indie developers that have released Linux ports of their games, the summation would be they've been able to take the variances and driver issues into account to the best of their abilities. For simplicity, GOG could even "officially" limit their Linux support to the most popular Linux distro (Ubuntu).

If GOG doesn't even want to go THAT far, as I said in my original post, they could simply offer the Linux port as an extra (like the sound tracks or the manuals) and let Linux users manage the installation and support on their own. Linux users are quite tech savvy on average.

I do agree that with all of the distros ("flavors of") Linux, being able to offer official support for them all would be ridiculous, but supporting some (or just the most popular) is doable.

There's a neat Wine frontend called PlayOnLinux around. It's really great, has got a solid library of games, and will do installation and configuration for you, so all you have to do is double-click a desktop icon. It also works on quite a few distros (I got System Shock 2 running under Linux using this!)

Sorry you've had such issues, but your statement does beg the question of how long ago you tried the OS. Most of the major names (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora) are all pretty easy to work with over all. I've been able to get a number of Windows and DOS games working in a number of distros. For instance, Dungeon Keeper 2, Evil Genius, Baldurs Gate (1&2), Icewind Dale (1&2), Planescape: Torment, Masters of Orion (1&2... and in online multiplayer with other Linux abd Windows users), Syndicate, Fallout (1, 2, Tactics)... all of these, and more, I've gotten to run.

As for Linux natives... never had a problem. In fact, for Bastion (which I got from Humble Bundle) and FTL, there was no "install" process. I just unpacked their zip files (actually, tarballs,but that's semantics) and ran their executables.

There will always be issues. Even with Windows games on Windows there's always one or two you encounter that doesn't run... or run as smoothly... but in general, it's all good

Now that's more like it! I had trouble installing graphics drivers, rather than the games themselves. Hopefully newer graphics cards support linux and are easy to install.

I don't want to have to set up all the linux stuff, only to find out i have that same problem.

Most modern Ubuntu distros just ask you whether you wish to install 3rd party graphic card drivers and do it for you. Aside from that, there are automated installers downloadable from Nvidia site (dunno how about ATI)

Understandable... but we're not talking about porting classic games over to Linux, or offering WINE support. We're not saying you should have a Linux Dosbox release of your DOS games. No... and it would be idiotic if we did. What we're speaking about are games you are offering whos developers have already spent their time developing a Linux port for. If a game does not have a Linux port, don't offer it, but a good number of them do, so how much harder is giving access to that port... the developers have done the core of the work. Since GOG is a DRM-free zone, all a user would have to do is buy the game... whether they download the Windows or Linux (or Mac) package is immaterial.

I'm a Linux user, and have been, exclusively for almost a decade. I've been a GOG memeber for 4 years and in my 4 years with GOG I have purchased almost the equivalent of 1 game a month from you guys and have always been happy (even if the game didn't work right in Linux... that's the gamble I take). If GOG gave me access to Linux ports when the developers made them available, I'd be buying them more often. If Linux users buy the game because there's a Linux port and it's easy to do so (because you guys are bloody awesome), more indies will port to Linux. A wonderful little cycle.

I'm not a business man, so I really can't argue against how difficult it must be to add another option for, what must seem like a small percent of users, but GOG has always seemed like the kind of business that likes to prove conventional wisdom wrong (like with DRM)... this can't be much different in spirit.

It would be great if that is the case. I am interested in getting a modern linux because of the 64bit support/general freshness of it all. I am still using windows xp, lol.

Easy solution: Offer them as a bonus - Untested linux version. Personally I don't use linux, but I believe the high principles for gog release are not necessary for linux releases. For mac that may differ.

Especially as plenty of the newer indies have linux (and mac) builds on other stores.