GOG.com Now Supports Linux

[wanderer27]

Just saw this :

http://www.gog.com/news/gogcom_now_supports_linux

A while ago, we've announced our plans to add Linux support as one of the features of our digital platform, with 100 games on the launch day sometime this fall. We've put much time and effort into this project and now we've found ourselves with over 50 titles, classic and new, prepared for distribution, site infrastructure ready, support team trained and standing by, and absolutely no reason to wait until October or November. We're still aiming to have at least 100 Linux games in the coming months, but we've decided not to delay the launch just for the sake of having a nice-looking number to show off to the press. It's not about them, after all, it's about you. So, one of the most popular site feature requests on our community wishlist is granted today: Linux support has officially arrived on GOG.com!

Here's a list of the games supported so far :

Anomaly Warzone Earth
Ascendant
Bionic Dues
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold - first time on Linux!
Blake Stone: Planet Strike - first time on Linux!
Bloodnet - first time on Linux!
Braveland
CLARC - first time on Linux!
Darklands - first time on Linux!
Darwinia
Defcon
Don't Starve + DLC
Dragonsphere - first time on Linux!
Duke Nukem 3D : Atomic Edition
FlatOut - first time on Linux!
Flatout 2 - first time on Linux!
Fragile Allegiance - first time on Linux!
Gemini Rue
Gods Will Be Watching
Hammerwatch
Hocus Pocus - first time on Linux!
Kentucky Route Zero
The Last Federation
Legend of Grimrock
Litil Divil - first time on Linux!
Long Live the Queen
MouseCraft
Multiwinia
Normality - first time on Linux!
Pinball Gold Pack - first time on Linux!
Pinball World - first time on Linux!
Pirates! Gold Plus - first time on Linux!
Realms of the Haunting - first time on Linux!
Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender - first time on Linux!
Rise of the Triad: Dark War - first time on Linux!
Shattered Haven
The Shivah HD
Sid Meier's Colonization - first time on Linux!
Sid Meier's Covert Action - first time on Linux!
Sir, You Are Being Hunted
Slipstream 5000 - first time on Linux!
Space Pirates and Zombies
Spacechem
Stargunner - first time on Linux!
SteamWorld Dig
Super Hexagon
Surgeon Simulator 2013
Sword of the Samurai - first time on Linux!
Teslagrad
Unrest:Special Edition (Linux build on the way!)
Uplink
VVVVVV

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[Bateluer]

Their Facebook page said they have distro generic tarballs, but I'm only seeing Ubuntu 14.04 and Mint 17 for supported OSs.

 

[wanderer27]

Their Facebook page said they have distro generic tarballs, but I'm only seeing Ubuntu 14.04 and Mint 17 for supported OSs.

I read where they said they're targeting these two distro's as they're the most popular ones, and since there are so many variations it'd be pretty difficult to support everything.

Supposedly, the .debs are the simple installer, and the tarsballs are available for the the one that doesn't do the .debs.

I've seen posts were folks are getting the games running (tarballs) on others distros with just a setting tweak - even saw some pics of a few games running on the SteamOS linux version.


It's been quite some years since I've done Unix, but with this support now I may tinker with one of my older machines one day.



EDIT :

I read that they're optimizing the Witcher 2 currently for Linux which is why it's not on the list right now.

Also, if you own the Windows/Apple version of a game, you get Linux version available for free as well.




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[shortylickens]

 

[Elixer]

Looks like most of these just use wine... so, nothing really new here.

 

[Jodell88]

Looks like most of these just use wine... so, nothing really new here.

GOG has been using things like DOSbox and SCUMMVM for a while. What's disappointing is that they even wrapped The Witcher 2.

 

[Elixer]

GOG has been using things like DOSbox and SCUMMVM for a while. What's disappointing is that they even wrapped The Witcher 2.

I guess they can make a quick buck this way...
The problem I see is, nobody really knows how big the linux market is or can be, so they are doing the bare minimum to offer the current games to linux users and testing the water that way.
To be fair, lots of these games also use what you mentioned, Dosbox, and other emulators to get them to run on a more current windows OS, so, I am unsure if they have the full source to actually convert them to a native port or not.

However, shoveling emulated stuff to the linux crowd doesn't do much good, since they don't run as fast, and are buggy, much like how Witcher 2 was handled.

Most all new engines will support other platforms besides windows better, but, that takes time.

This means, I don't really see a huge market swing until the time that those games start to trickle out, which would be '16-'17 time frame.

I wonder if they will offer a native linux port for Witcher 3 ?

 

[wanderer27]

On the release forum thread it was stated that they plan to do a lot more but there are a few obstacles they're having to work through :

- Even if they have the game they're waiting for Licensing approval from the Rights holder before releasing a Linux version.
- There are games that have Linux versions, but as above, they're waiting for License approval before releasing.
- For some games that have native Linux support, they're also waiting on a DRM free version.

These are the three biggest standouts I gathered from what I read, most of it a Legal protection issue.

Witcher 2, I was thinking they may be doing a Linux port and that's the holdup (since Witcher Dev and GOG are same folks), but I may be totally mistaken on this - I do know it was stated there were some optimizations going on for this game :

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/gogcom_now_supports_linux/post80

Virtual Programming is working on a fix for the Linux version so when that gets good and ready, we'll offer The Witcher 2 on Linux on GOG

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