You can all thank me for this news. Two days ago I got a survey in Galaxy and mentioned in the comments that I’d love a Linux build since that’s where I do the bulk of my gaming. Clearly they read...
You can all thank me for this news.
Two days ago I got a survey in Galaxy and mentioned in the comments that I’d love a Linux build since that’s where I do the bulk of my gaming.
Clearly they read my feedback and decided to officially go on the record with their plans.
Thank you for your bravery. I did not get asked and did not answer that I too game on Linux, likely cuz I am a coward or the email got lost in the web. /joke
Thank you for your bravery. I did not get asked and did not answer that I too game on Linux, likely cuz I am a coward or the email got lost in the web. /joke
Love this, I switched to Linux full time and as a result have completely stopped buying on GOG, I don't want to deal with an external installer or adding non steam games when they're windows games...
Love this, I switched to Linux full time and as a result have completely stopped buying on GOG, I don't want to deal with an external installer or adding non steam games when they're windows games only.
If by external installer you mean downloading the installer exes manually and dealing with those, that's a solved problem. I mostly use Heroic for my GOG games. It integrates with GOG through...
If by external installer you mean downloading the installer exes manually and dealing with those, that's a solved problem. I mostly use Heroic for my GOG games. It integrates with GOG through their APIs and does all the Wine/Proton/DXVK/what-have-you stuff rather seamlessly like Steam. You get a list of your games and install them with a couple of clicks. Lutris does as well.
If by external installer you mean a different tool and launcher to install games, well, that's what GOG Galaxy is as well.
Use Heroic Launcher, it's open source and fully supports GoG's cloud saving feature. I know you mention not wanting yet another installer but it's almost as good as Steam.
Use Heroic Launcher, it's open source and fully supports GoG's cloud saving feature.
I know you mention not wanting yet another installer but it's almost as good as Steam.
For me, GOG's response to that whole Nazi rune debacle was insufficient for me to be comfortable supporting them anymore, which is a real shame because it'd be great if DRM free was the standard....
For me, GOG's response to that whole Nazi rune debacle was insufficient for me to be comfortable supporting them anymore, which is a real shame because it'd be great if DRM free was the standard.
TL;DR: Gog sent out a marketing email that "accidentally" made three or four different mistakes to create strong Nazi imagery (except it wasn't sent to Germany because their German localization team flagged it in advance and apparently told nobody else). After offering a few different lackluster excuses, GOG committed to reviewing their review process to prevent it from happening again.
For what it’s worth, GOG’s owner did offer what I felt was a meaningful response and apology. It came after the initial news cycle about the email, however, and was a forum post rather than an...
For what it’s worth, GOG’s owner did offer what I felt was a meaningful response and apology. It came after the initial news cycle about the email, however, and was a forum post rather than an official release.
Those symbols should not have been used in a GOG email. Whatever the intention was, and whatever the internal explanation is, the final result was wrong. I completely understand why people were shocked, angry, or hurt by it, especially people who have very real, personal reasons to be afraid of fascism and Nazism.
And I also want to say something very honestly, as one of the people behind GOG.
The idea that GOG would support Nazism, fascism, antisemitism, transphobia, or any kind of hate is so far from who we are that I think this may actually be part of why the first response was so bad. Maybe people here thought it was so obvious that it did not need to be said out loud.
But it did need to be said.
So let me say it clearly: no, GOG does not support Nazism. No, we are not fine with fascism. We are not fine with antisemitism, racism, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fanaticism, or any other destructive “ism” that turns people against each other and treats some human beings as less worthy than others. And we are also not fans of hate on the internet, no matter which side it comes from.
This is not the kind of environment we want to foster. Not in our company, not in our community, and not around games.
We are a Polish company. Nazi and Soviet crimes are not distant, abstract history for us. They are part of the history of our country, and in many cases part of our own family histories. Almost everyone in Poland has some family story connected to that trauma, if not from the Nazis, then from the Soviets, and often from both. So seeing people conclude that GOG is somehow okay with Nazism is honestly painful, because it is not true. But, and this is important, that does not excuse the mistake.
We messed up. We should have caught it. We should have apologized more clearly and faster. And our first explanation should have been more human, more direct, and more responsible. I’m sorry for that too.
At the same time, I want to ask for a little care in how we judge situations like this. Calling out a serious mistake is fair. Being angry about it is fair. But jumping from “GOG made a hurtful and stupid mistake” to “the people at GOG support fascism” is something else. That can hurt real people too, especially when the full context is missing.
Accusing us of supporting Nazism, after we have apologized for a mistake, is a very heavy label to put on real people. And if we take a step back, this kind of dynamic can start to resemble the mechanisms we see in many destructive forms of fanaticism and other “isms”: creating divisions between people, turning a mistake into an identity, and building walls instead of trying, in good faith, to build bridges.
That does not mean people should not criticize us. They should. We deserve criticism when we mess up. But please, let’s leave some room for good faith. A serious mistake is still a mistake. It does not automatically mean bad intentions, or that the people behind it support the worst possible interpretation.
We will review how this happened, improve our checks, and try to do better, both in what we publish and in how we respond when we get something wrong.
Big hugs to everyone, and a shamanic Aho!
Let’s play games, enjoy life, and be a little slower in judging each other. Let’s build bridges, not walls.
I still have mixed opinions on this. Unequivocally denouncing naziism is good. (I wish that didn’t need to be said.) But the fact remains that they did send out nazi symbology. From my...
I still have mixed opinions on this. Unequivocally denouncing naziism is good. (I wish that didn’t need to be said.) But the fact remains that they did send out nazi symbology. From my perspective, that comes from one of three things: they do support naziism, they have a rogue employee who does support naziism, or they have a massive Mariana Trench sized hole in their internal review process (or some combination of the three). I want to see some indication from the outside that one of these is being addressed in some way, and neither of the two responses give me that. I understand not wanting to air internal company drama to the world, but maybe you need to go ahead and do it after you send nazi symbols in an email.
This probably won’t change my buying habits much. I stopped buying on GOG when they released a windows only launcher with seemingly no plan to support Linux (which coincided with Valve actively making Linux gaming better). Maybe once they show they are committed to this Linux launcher, I will consider supporting them again.
My speculation is that it was a rogue employee or two who thought they could get away with it. This denouncing of nazism is much better than the previous statements, but doesn't quite address what...
My speculation is that it was a rogue employee or two who thought they could get away with it. This denouncing of nazism is much better than the previous statements, but doesn't quite address what specifically happened, other than vague "a mistake was made." Let's see them identify who did it, name it for what it is, and take action.
The initial statement that appeared in the Reddit thread was complete bullshit for a couple of reasons:
Trying to blame Unicode rendering, when the specific encodings sent were different ones that look like the doppelrune instead of the sowilo rune values that wouldn't render that way. Plus pairing it with the Black Sun. It's not a technical issue, but an action made by a person.
Said action is very suspicious, since the email was deliberately not sent in Germany, where using Nazi iconography is a more cut and dry crime.
The pattern of trying to slip Nazi symbolism into something, denying it is that, and then diffusing responsibility by claiming it was unintentional is textbook neonazi behavior. If it's not runes, it's 1488s or similar. The initial social media responses were very typical of that.
That new response is right about Nazi and Soviet crimes being something very visible that haunts Poland to this day...the company being based in a city that was meticulously razed to rubble as an exercise in deliberate cultural destruction is proof of that. But Poland also has had issues with visible neonazi groups since the fall of the Soviet Union. (Including 90s terrorist groups and currently operating political parties.) People with those beliefs are not nonexistent.
I've gotta be honest here: This is a really bad response. Given what happened and their initial responses to it, and how those responses only worsened what happened and the context behind it, I...
I've gotta be honest here: This is a really bad response. Given what happened and their initial responses to it, and how those responses only worsened what happened and the context behind it, I just don't buy this. Especially considering this is how it starts out:
Those symbols should not have been used in a GOG email. Whatever the intention was, and whatever the internal explanation is, the final result was wrong.
Emphasis mine. The founder is trying to phrase this like what happened was a mystery they haven't solved. Which would be bad; a month has passed, so if they still haven't figured out how something this nasty happened, that's not a good look, and it would make me wonder if they're taking it seriously!
But I don't think that's the case. Rather, we got at least one answer from GOG the same day this incident occurred. Hours later, we got a second one. So unless the owner is blind to what's happening in his own company, this just reads like trying to imply confusion and mystery where there is none. That's weasel behavior.
We also get a weird couple paragraphs that feel the need to spend a bunch of time on "any other destructive 'ism." Normally, I'd like this, as at its face it rejects awful ideologies and bigotries as a whole. But in this context, where we're looking at a very specific action that looks to be in support of the worst ideology yet seen, it feels like meandering waffle that serves only to muddy the waters and distract the conversation from what happened. It's not about just any "authoritarianism." It's about the Nazis, and the runes of theirs that GOG put in an email, knowingly, and still sent. If you want to make a good apology, you stay focused on what you're apologizing for.
But jumping from “GOG made a hurtful and stupid mistake” to “the people at GOG support fascism” is something else. That can hurt real people too, especially when the full context is missing.
When you do something this bad, and then when pressed, your official account tells everyone that you knew what you were doing but continued regardless, it becomes reasonable to conclude that you liked what you did. Framing this as though people were somehow "jumping" to conclusions is adding another layer of disingenuous behavior to an already dismal display.
The only thing I can grant to GOG is that it is still theoretically possible for all of this to happen and have it be accidental. But the more they've said on the matter, the harder it has been to believe that was what happened. If this was meant to ease my concerns, it has done the opposite. This is not what an apology looks like.
It's weird isn't it? Having worked at plenty of different companies and often having the power to mail stuff to tens of thousands of people, a mistake is quickly made. I'd often have no second set...
But the more they've said on the matter, the harder it has been to believe that was what happened.
It's weird isn't it?
Having worked at plenty of different companies and often having the power to mail stuff to tens of thousands of people, a mistake is quickly made. I'd often have no second set of eyes, courtesy of having built that trust over time, so if I intended any malice it would've been no problem.
But their explanations seem to indicate multiple layers of incompetence, or worse, malice.
(in case it's helpful, you can link to a phrase in a page, which helps in cases like this. Not sure how to do it in your browser of choice, but on Firefox, you highlight it, right click, then hit...
(in case it's helpful, you can link to a phrase in a page, which helps in cases like this. Not sure how to do it in your browser of choice, but on Firefox, you highlight it, right click, then hit "Copy Link to Highlight")
(also thank you for sharing that. I was holding off buying things from GoG, but that apology absolutely works for me)
There's a small link icon next to the post number. Clicking that gives a direct link, but somehow that shows a page that doesn't even contain the post:...
I was legitimately baffled for a bit, because I could not for the life of me find the post numbers you were talking about. Turns out they show up when hovering your mouse over the posts, but I was...
I was legitimately baffled for a bit, because I could not for the life of me find the post numbers you were talking about.
Turns out they show up when hovering your mouse over the posts, but I was on mobile. Wasn't until I was back at my laptop that I finally found them.
Ah, I didn't even notice at first. As I checked the behavior now, I noticed that they also show up when you zoom into a post via the zoom gesture on mobile. As the page does not have responsive...
Ah, I didn't even notice at first. As I checked the behavior now, I noticed that they also show up when you zoom into a post via the zoom gesture on mobile. As the page does not have responsive design I had to zoom in when reading. They also show up when tapping a post.
Firing the person responsible. Preferably directly and forthrightly instead of the contradictory mealy-mouthed excuses we got. US politics stuff Perhaps it's an overly harsh response, but in the...
Firing the person responsible. Preferably directly and forthrightly instead of the contradictory mealy-mouthed excuses we got.
US politics stuff
Perhaps it's an overly harsh response, but in the US 10 years ago the general populace were shocked and appalled that Nazis were popping up again in Charlottesville. Now publicly firing off Nazi salutes doesn't disqualify someone from working in the government. Things can change fast, and I feel that some ideologies are so inherently toxic and radioactive that the only safe move is zero tolerance whatsoever.
For me, a response that did not indicate that they knew about the issue in advance and still sent it out. It also seems to frame this as having happened entirely through a series of errors, which...
For me, a response that did not indicate that they knew about the issue in advance and still sent it out. It also seems to frame this as having happened entirely through a series of errors, which is totally implausible. If the case had been that they had a nazi staffer who was fired immediately, maybe that would be a good response. Pretending that this series of nazi runes could have been assembled by accident destroys their credibility.
I particularly dislike how this response ignores the fact that the offending email was held back from Germany, indicating that something in their internal review process clearly did catch the...
I particularly dislike how this response ignores the fact that the offending email was held back from Germany, indicating that something in their internal review process clearly did catch the obvious Nazi symbols and not send them in a market where that's straightforwardly illegal, but still chose to send it to other markets. This "apology" doesn't remotely address any of my concerns with their internal review and spends considerable time trying to shift blame onto the people who accused them of agreeing with Nazi ideology based on the fact that they sent out Nazi symbols and how piss-poor their response to that was.
This is just the way most large and multinational companies operate. I do not claim to know how GoG works or big it is, but the one I work for would certainly allow this to happen. Not willingly,...
This is just the way most large and multinational companies operate. I do not claim to know how GoG works or big it is, but the one I work for would certainly allow this to happen. Not willingly, but the chain of command is very long.
Here's a rough breakdown of how it happens:
Global marketing team comes up with an email in language A and gets it approved. (likely oblivious to what the symbols mean)
Email is then sent to the individual teams in each country for translation.
When translating, someone in the german team notices it and reports it to their superior.
The person in charge of the german team reports it to the global team.
(ideally) the global team reviews the report by the german teams and notifies everyone else.
Now even between departments in the same building, communication takes a very long time, and depending on how meeting-heavy the company is, virtually everything needs a meeting.
At the company I work at, a design mistake, for example a typo, noticed by a local team will often take weeks to propagate and come back with the fixed version.
The reason they sent out the email in the other languages is simply this. A delay in internal communication that didn't make it before the email was sent out. The german team could correct their version because they noticed it. Maybe you think this is implausible, but that's only because you haven't worked in such environments. I have, and it really does take a bloody long time.
And as an aparte, I will be frank here. I had no idea whatsoever what the symbols could mean, and I'm sure 99.9% of "average" people didn't either. It's not like they sent a 'heil hitler' in their email. Why is it so difficult to believe that the initial email chose the emojis because to the unknowing person's eyes, they look like cool runes, and that's it? Why do so many people immediately assume that there must be some hidden agenda everywhere, and that they're frothing at the mouth to send out nazi symbolism, instead of looking at it objectively for what it is? We are all humans. Not everybody is as aware of every symbol that could mean something vile.
The apology made their stance very clear as well. The persecutory behaviour is not warranted. There are loads of nazis out and about in broad daylight, there is no reason to jump on shadows.
Anyone remotely familiar with runes or Nazis would recognize the runes in that email. It's fine that you don't recognize them, but they are not deep cuts when it comes to Nazi symbols. GOG's...
Anyone remotely familiar with runes or Nazis would recognize the runes in that email. It's fine that you don't recognize them, but they are not deep cuts when it comes to Nazi symbols. GOG's insistence that they're familiar with the Nazis due to their being a Polish company goes the other way here. Moreover, they used specific Unicode codepoints that deliberately represent the versions used Nazi symbols rather than codepoints for more common similar runes that may display differently. This means that copy-pasting said symbols into Google (which I would consider the bare minimum level of due diligence when reviewing an email with unfamiliar symbols in the subject line like that) would immediately reveal what they were.
I can believe that there was a delay in internal communications that prevented the German team's observations that these were Nazi hate symbols didn't make it to other teams in time, but they have not effectively discussed this as the source of the problem or discussed any solutions they're taking internally to prevent this problem from reoccurring. I don't require a particularly detailed explanation here, but they haven't really provided even the vague lip-service I would expect from a company of their size here. They haven't addressed the source of these runes either, aside from the straightforward lies they told about it being a Unicode issue in their first response, and I personally would like to know how these showed up in the first place and how they've prevented this from recurring. Did they fire a rogue employee? Was this scraped from somewhere and they need to improve their review process there? We don't know, and they seem to be deliberately avoiding providing an actual example.
I don't think it's impossible for a responsible company with good-hearted management to have this issue show up due to their size and struggles with internal reporting. But their public response here is woefully inadequate even under the most charitable assumptions for the company, and attempting to shift blame onto people for criticising them for this blunder as seen in this response is probably the worst way to respond to your company sending out Nazi hate symbols in an email except for coincidentally in the territory where doing so is illegal. It may merely be bad PR, but no amount of Tildes comments defending them with plausible reasons for the initial incident will change how bad the PR response has been and how it has damaged my image of the company and its leadership.
I've used Heroic and Lutris, both seem to do more or less accomplish the job the same way, Heroic has a nicer presentation. Lutris is so close to being my ideal launcher given its coverage, except...
I've used Heroic and Lutris, both seem to do more or less accomplish the job the same way, Heroic has a nicer presentation. Lutris is so close to being my ideal launcher given its coverage, except for the main thing a centralized launcher ought to have -- one screen to search across all providers. The central screen they've got is only for the games you already have installed, searching for owned games not installed happens on the screen for each app.
So my next solution to check is going to be the NonSteam Launchers decky plugin. It'll at least help centralize games I've installed into my steam library so I can run them from game mode without extra trouble, even if using the launchers themselves is a step back in convenience.
Heroic is first case, since I 'know' things will work out of the box most of the time, and if it fails on the first attempt, then I install through Lutris. Lutris would be my default, but I tend...
Heroic is first case, since I 'know' things will work out of the box most of the time, and if it fails on the first attempt, then I install through Lutris. Lutris would be my default, but I tend to have first-time install issues on it, but Lutris allows you to more deeply modify and debug issues.
I use Lutris, but I don't really game.much outsode of Steam as I game 95% of time on Steam Deck and play games that work well and without any tinkering necessary. The games I have on desktop in...
I use Lutris, but I don't really game.much outsode of Steam as I game 95% of time on Steam Deck and play games that work well and without any tinkering necessary.
The games I have on desktop in Lutris tend to be 20+ years old games like Rage of Mages, Conflict: Freespace and such. And I don't even play them, just have them installed and in some state of campaign play.
As someone who loves both Freespace games, this threw me for a minute until I realized that "Conflict" is just how the first game was branded in Europe. In the US it took advantage of the...
Conflict: Freespace
As someone who loves both Freespace games, this threw me for a minute until I realized that "Conflict" is just how the first game was branded in Europe. In the US it took advantage of the "Descent" brand (from some of the same devs at Volition/Parallax), which has nothing directly in common with the Freespace games except that they're both 6DoF space combat games. Fittingly, Descent was more claustrophobic, exploring tunnels in an asteroid or something, while Freespace has you in, well, "free space" out in the open.
Anybody still thinking about Freespace at this point is probably well aware, but just in case you or another reader isn't: the source code for Freespace 2 was released in 2002, and the latest update was in 2024(!). There's loads of mods, including total conversions and ports of the first games campaign, and it looks and runs better than ever. There's a native Linux port too, so as long as you have the files off your GoG or Steam copy you can run it without even needing Proton!
I'm into space sims and haven't played either of these games (yeah, I know!). I've got my eye on Freespace 2, but the price was bumped up significantly so I'm waiting for it to go on sale. I'm...
I'm into space sims and haven't played either of these games (yeah, I know!). I've got my eye on Freespace 2, but the price was bumped up significantly so I'm waiting for it to go on sale. I'm also playing on Linux.
Do you know if there's an advantage to buying on GOG over Steam, since the game is on the Preservation program?
Also, for modding, I installed the native Linux Knossos launcher and it was working great for the demo - is this the go-to mod-manager Freespace 2?
If you're running the fs2open version of the engine, GoG or Steam shouldn't make a difference as far as I'm aware; you just need the game data files from wherever. Knossos was the recommendation...
If you're running the fs2open version of the engine, GoG or Steam shouldn't make a difference as far as I'm aware; you just need the game data files from wherever.
Knossos was the recommendation for all-in-one installer/manager last I looked, but I don't have much experience with it, I always just used the open launcher directly and did things manually since that's what I grew up doing.
If you want to whet your appetite while you wait for a sale, there's some cool total conversion mods that don't require the original files at all. There's mods for Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, and Wing Commander, among others.
I was unaware of fs2open, thanks! I was kind of overwhelmed by the ecosystem because it has flourished so much and this is very useful to know. I'll be holding off until 2027 when I have time to...
I was unaware of fs2open, thanks! I was kind of overwhelmed by the ecosystem because it has flourished so much and this is very useful to know. I'll be holding off until 2027 when I have time to game and tinker around with mods, but am looking forward to it.
I know about it being called Descent and I was thinking for a bit if I should add it to my post, then I didn't. It makes sense as *Descent: Freespace" as, you already said, it is situated in free...
I know about it being called Descent and I was thinking for a bit if I should add it to my post, then I didn't. It makes sense as *Descent: Freespace" as, you already said, it is situated in free space instead inside tunnels - thus the name makes sense.
I actually play Frrespace 1 in the open FS2 engine. Well, I don't actually play the game anymore these days, but I have it set up that way.
I may be wrong but... I am pretty sure the box of the first game had Descent Freespace printed on it when I bought it eons ago. In the south of Europe. Could it be that Conflict was more a title...
I may be wrong but... I am pretty sure the box of the first game had Descent Freespace printed on it when I bought it eons ago. In the south of Europe. Could it be that Conflict was more a title given only in some countries?
I use Heroic, and have had nothing but success. Hell, I liked it so much on my Steam Deck and Bazzite laptop that I installed it on my windows gaming PC, where it works just as well. I uninstalled...
I use Heroic, and have had nothing but success. Hell, I liked it so much on my Steam Deck and Bazzite laptop that I installed it on my windows gaming PC, where it works just as well. I uninstalled both Galaxy and Epic Store from my PC afterward and haven't looked back.
When GOG Galaxy first became a thing, I assumed it was to get certain publishers on board with their platform, specifically publishers who require the DRM it could provide for their online or...
When GOG Galaxy first became a thing, I assumed it was to get certain publishers on board with their platform, specifically publishers who require the DRM it could provide for their online or games-as-a-service product. As such, I've never used GOG Galaxy because the main upside I see from GOG is having DRM-free games without the need to bypass anything. Steam doesn't require DRM, and by default offers DRM that isn't terribly restrictive and could be bypassed in the event it collapses as a platform somehow.
So for those of you excited about this news, what's the consumer reason to like GOG Galaxy over either not using a launcher (which is what I do when I used to buy games there) or using a third-party alternative launcher?
I'd love to make the jump to Linux one day when life is stable enough for me to deal with all the routine-breaking leaving Windows would cause, but I also use a lot of niche software and have long ingrained habits that will be difficult to break or relearn.
Installs through GOG Galaxy are still DRM free and can be run directly from the executable. Key practical features include cloud saves and automatic updates, the latter was nice when I played...
Installs through GOG Galaxy are still DRM free and can be run directly from the executable. Key practical features include cloud saves and automatic updates, the latter was nice when I played Witcher 3 at launch. The idea was for it to work as your unified launcher. It features a plugin system that allows for integration of other storefronts, though I'm not sure how well that has worked out in practice. A table I found suggests there are quite a few, but that they're somewhat limited.
I'd say the key difference from third party launchers is they don't have the cloud save functionality, which also seems to apply to GOG integrations. A Linux launcher with a plugin system would be huge. While Lutris supports a decent amount of launchers, it doesn't have a plugin system.
PS: I use a 3070 and Bazzite, it works well with the worst part is the steam big picture interface having some visual glitches and lag, everything else is good.
Yeah, the unified launcher thing was a cool idea but it didn't really work out. Third-party stores would break the integrations ALL the time, which would then make it look like Galaxy wasn't...
Yeah, the unified launcher thing was a cool idea but it didn't really work out. Third-party stores would break the integrations ALL the time, which would then make it look like Galaxy wasn't working. I think it's still technically possible to do with Galaxy, but it's definitely not the focus any more. Galaxy is really just GOG's launcher at this point.
For anyone that does want an all-in-one launcher, Playnite is excellent (with the caveat that third-party integrations will end up breaking as well, though they're generally updated pretty quickly). This one is also Windows-only currently, but, just like GOG, the dev has said that he's working on a Linux version as well.
I've been wanting Playnite on Linux for a long time. Their extensions and integrations are really great if you buy from a variety of sources. The dev posted an update more directly confirming a...
I've been wanting Playnite on Linux for a long time. Their extensions and integrations are really great if you buy from a variety of sources.
The dev posted an update more directly confirming a Linux version soon™ several months after that article. It's indirectly linked in the article, sourcing his previous post, but I suspect some would miss it. Hopefully the timeline of "in 2026" is still accurate, but Playnite 11 isn't out yet, so I wouldn't be surprised if it takes a bit longer than his initial estimate.
Bit of a tangent, but if solving that problem would be helpful, and you do genuinely want to switch, may I suggest listing 'em out for folks to dig into? Assuming it's largely freeware. Wine is...
[...] but I also use a lot of niche software and have long ingrained habits that will be difficult to break or relearn.
Bit of a tangent, but if solving that problem would be helpful, and you do genuinely want to switch, may I suggest listing 'em out for folks to dig into? Assuming it's largely freeware. Wine is pretty great these days, so if there are incompatibilities, perhaps people can find workarounds for you in advance of your making the leap.
Its not a move I plan on making in the short term - my thought was that eventually Steam Frame would release, I'd get one when it was in stock (relapsed VR user from the original Vive, but decent...
Its not a move I plan on making in the short term - my thought was that eventually Steam Frame would release, I'd get one when it was in stock (relapsed VR user from the original Vive, but decent chance I can't afford it at launch), and use that as a means of getting used to operating in Linux again and go from there. I have a little experience using VMs, but for the most part I haven't touched Linux based PC OS in the last 20 years.
I'll pass on listing out everything, but to give some examples, I use several programs to help me with accessibility. I use a combination of DisplayFusion and Keymapper to have custom keyboard hotkeys for functions like mouse inputs, f.lux and built in Windows color changing features to help with colorblindness and light sensitivity, various niche mouse firmware (Elecom handheld trackball mouse, an air mouse, and a Logi vertical mouse who's software glitches out frequently on Windows), and so on.
I also have an extensive Steam and non-Steam game library that I'd have to vet. I'm mostly not doing online/multiplayer stuff affected by kernel level anti-cheat that won't run on Linux, but I do have some that would be dealbreakers if they didn't work, like the RPG Maker series of products that already run into performance bottlenecks on Windows (due to half-baked mobile support restricting it to single-core processor use.) I've also heard that Linux and Nvidia generally don't get along, and due to the pandemic I've been stuck with a prebuilt using a 3070, which meets my current needs well enough that I don't want to replace it anytime soon.
Basically, thanks for the offer, but I'm too early in the process to benefit from listing out everything. I also need to do due diligence in deciding what flavor of Linux to research.
np np! I won't dig into the list, then, but I can at least report that my 'ol RTX 2060 has been going strong without (m)any issues. Just some weird ghosts that I expect would catch me on Windows...
np np! I won't dig into the list, then, but I can at least report that my 'ol RTX 2060 has been going strong without (m)any issues. Just some weird ghosts that I expect would catch me on Windows too (eg inconsistently enumerating monitors and whatnot). There are three different drivers, but as long as you choose the right one for your generation, afaik it works great.
A handheld trackball mouse sounds really cool, incidentally! I was looking into those many moons ago before settling on an eye tracker, but they absolutely hold a special place in my heart (and I'm glad that others find them useful!).
For anyone who would want to learn more: Elecom mouse via Amazon I believe this is the model that I've been using for several years now, frequently goes on sale though I think its worth full price...
I believe this is the model that I've been using for several years now, frequently goes on sale though I think its worth full price to the right user. Works well in either hand, and is lightweight without being too fragile or too imprecise. I'd say the main weakness is a lack of signal strength outside of short distances (~15 feet with line of sight, ~5 without) on the 2.4 ghz model. I'd also prefer if the mouse click buttons were a tad closer to the rest of the device, since it can be uncomfortable to hold in the same hand for longer sessions.
I've yet to find a better hand-controlled device for when my hands are unable to use a conventional or vertical mouse, though don't expect precision/speed on the level of those.
Convenience + cloud saves + playtime tracking + achievements (for games that support them). Those are my personal likes about Galaxy. A Linux build isn't a must-have for me or anything given that...
Convenience + cloud saves + playtime tracking + achievements (for games that support them). Those are my personal likes about Galaxy.
A Linux build isn't a must-have for me or anything given that Heroic exists (and is fantastic), but I'd prefer the first-party experience if I can have it. Plus, a native Linux client meshes well with GOG's DRM-free and preservation-forward values.
If they do, I will very likely buy more games there. I do my gamin through Steam, as Valve plays nice so far. But having truly DRM-free (and hassle-free) alternative is even better. I have quite...
If they do, I will very likely buy more games there. I do my gamin through Steam, as Valve plays nice so far. But having truly DRM-free (and hassle-free) alternative is even better.
I have quite some games on GOG and while I buy new ones here and there, I don't actually play GOG releases.
I was gonna say I’d still rather use Heroic, some GOG Galaxy on Mac is kinda shit. But Heroic has been giving me issues recently so I’d take a Linux client over Heroic now on Linux.
I was gonna say I’d still rather use Heroic, some GOG Galaxy on Mac is kinda shit.
But Heroic has been giving me issues recently so I’d take a Linux client over Heroic now on Linux.
You can all thank me for this news.
Two days ago I got a survey in Galaxy and mentioned in the comments that I’d love a Linux build since that’s where I do the bulk of my gaming.
Clearly they read my feedback and decided to officially go on the record with their plans.
You’re welcome, everyone!
I swear this has been on the ask list for like almost a decade now. I remember it being on the roadmap since I was in college lol
thanks pal
Thank you for your bravery. I did not get asked and did not answer that I too game on Linux, likely cuz I am a coward or the email got lost in the web. /joke
I didn't ask because I keep hearing this is the year of the Linux desktop, and I'm far too hipster to get on board with what's popular.
Just getting a new gaming pc set up in Linux, so thank you.
Love this, I switched to Linux full time and as a result have completely stopped buying on GOG, I don't want to deal with an external installer or adding non steam games when they're windows games only.
If by external installer you mean downloading the installer exes manually and dealing with those, that's a solved problem. I mostly use Heroic for my GOG games. It integrates with GOG through their APIs and does all the Wine/Proton/DXVK/what-have-you stuff rather seamlessly like Steam. You get a list of your games and install them with a couple of clicks. Lutris does as well.
If by external installer you mean a different tool and launcher to install games, well, that's what GOG Galaxy is as well.
Use Heroic Launcher, it's open source and fully supports GoG's cloud saving feature.
I know you mention not wanting yet another installer but it's almost as good as Steam.
And it can even easily add the games to Steam for you if you want.
Minigalaxy, Lutris.
For me, GOG's response to that whole Nazi rune debacle was insufficient for me to be comfortable supporting them anymore, which is a real shame because it'd be great if DRM free was the standard.
Previous discussion on Tildes: https://tildes.net/~games/1ukl/gog_apologies_for_emailing_nazi_runes_to_its_followers
TL;DR: Gog sent out a marketing email that "accidentally" made three or four different mistakes to create strong Nazi imagery (except it wasn't sent to Germany because their German localization team flagged it in advance and apparently told nobody else). After offering a few different lackluster excuses, GOG committed to reviewing their review process to prevent it from happening again.
For what it’s worth, GOG’s owner did offer what I felt was a meaningful response and apology. It came after the initial news cycle about the email, however, and was a forum post rather than an official release.
It’s available here.
I can’t link to the specific comment, but it’s most of the way down that page in blue text from user Mikee (Michał Kiciński).
Full response
I still have mixed opinions on this. Unequivocally denouncing naziism is good. (I wish that didn’t need to be said.) But the fact remains that they did send out nazi symbology. From my perspective, that comes from one of three things: they do support naziism, they have a rogue employee who does support naziism, or they have a massive Mariana Trench sized hole in their internal review process (or some combination of the three). I want to see some indication from the outside that one of these is being addressed in some way, and neither of the two responses give me that. I understand not wanting to air internal company drama to the world, but maybe you need to go ahead and do it after you send nazi symbols in an email.
This probably won’t change my buying habits much. I stopped buying on GOG when they released a windows only launcher with seemingly no plan to support Linux (which coincided with Valve actively making Linux gaming better). Maybe once they show they are committed to this Linux launcher, I will consider supporting them again.
My speculation is that it was a rogue employee or two who thought they could get away with it. This denouncing of nazism is much better than the previous statements, but doesn't quite address what specifically happened, other than vague "a mistake was made." Let's see them identify who did it, name it for what it is, and take action.
The initial statement that appeared in the Reddit thread was complete bullshit for a couple of reasons:
Trying to blame Unicode rendering, when the specific encodings sent were different ones that look like the doppelrune instead of the sowilo rune values that wouldn't render that way. Plus pairing it with the Black Sun. It's not a technical issue, but an action made by a person.
Said action is very suspicious, since the email was deliberately not sent in Germany, where using Nazi iconography is a more cut and dry crime.
The pattern of trying to slip Nazi symbolism into something, denying it is that, and then diffusing responsibility by claiming it was unintentional is textbook neonazi behavior. If it's not runes, it's 1488s or similar. The initial social media responses were very typical of that.
That new response is right about Nazi and Soviet crimes being something very visible that haunts Poland to this day...the company being based in a city that was meticulously razed to rubble as an exercise in deliberate cultural destruction is proof of that. But Poland also has had issues with visible neonazi groups since the fall of the Soviet Union. (Including 90s terrorist groups and currently operating political parties.) People with those beliefs are not nonexistent.
I've gotta be honest here: This is a really bad response. Given what happened and their initial responses to it, and how those responses only worsened what happened and the context behind it, I just don't buy this. Especially considering this is how it starts out:
Emphasis mine. The founder is trying to phrase this like what happened was a mystery they haven't solved. Which would be bad; a month has passed, so if they still haven't figured out how something this nasty happened, that's not a good look, and it would make me wonder if they're taking it seriously!
But I don't think that's the case. Rather, we got at least one answer from GOG the same day this incident occurred. Hours later, we got a second one. So unless the owner is blind to what's happening in his own company, this just reads like trying to imply confusion and mystery where there is none. That's weasel behavior.
We also get a weird couple paragraphs that feel the need to spend a bunch of time on "any other destructive 'ism." Normally, I'd like this, as at its face it rejects awful ideologies and bigotries as a whole. But in this context, where we're looking at a very specific action that looks to be in support of the worst ideology yet seen, it feels like meandering waffle that serves only to muddy the waters and distract the conversation from what happened. It's not about just any "authoritarianism." It's about the Nazis, and the runes of theirs that GOG put in an email, knowingly, and still sent. If you want to make a good apology, you stay focused on what you're apologizing for.
When you do something this bad, and then when pressed, your official account tells everyone that you knew what you were doing but continued regardless, it becomes reasonable to conclude that you liked what you did. Framing this as though people were somehow "jumping" to conclusions is adding another layer of disingenuous behavior to an already dismal display.
The only thing I can grant to GOG is that it is still theoretically possible for all of this to happen and have it be accidental. But the more they've said on the matter, the harder it has been to believe that was what happened. If this was meant to ease my concerns, it has done the opposite. This is not what an apology looks like.
It's weird isn't it?
Having worked at plenty of different companies and often having the power to mail stuff to tens of thousands of people, a mistake is quickly made. I'd often have no second set of eyes, courtesy of having built that trust over time, so if I intended any malice it would've been no problem.
But their explanations seem to indicate multiple layers of incompetence, or worse, malice.
(in case it's helpful, you can link to a phrase in a page, which helps in cases like this. Not sure how to do it in your browser of choice, but on Firefox, you highlight it, right click, then hit "Copy Link to Highlight")
(also thank you for sharing that. I was holding off buying things from GoG, but that apology absolutely works for me)
TIL! Thanks for the tip. That's very handy.
There's a small link icon next to the post number. Clicking that gives a direct link, but somehow that shows a page that doesn't even contain the post:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/nazi_symbols_in_an_email_and_bs_excuse/post277
I was legitimately baffled for a bit, because I could not for the life of me find the post numbers you were talking about.
Turns out they show up when hovering your mouse over the posts, but I was on mobile. Wasn't until I was back at my laptop that I finally found them.
Ah, I didn't even notice at first. As I checked the behavior now, I noticed that they also show up when you zoom into a post via the zoom gesture on mobile. As the page does not have responsive design I had to zoom in when reading. They also show up when tapping a post.
Interesting! They don’t show up for me at all on iOS using Safari, even with zooming or tapping.
Firefox mobile on Android here.
What response from GOG would’ve satisfied you?
Firing the person responsible. Preferably directly and forthrightly instead of the contradictory mealy-mouthed excuses we got.
US politics stuff
Perhaps it's an overly harsh response, but in the US 10 years ago the general populace were shocked and appalled that Nazis were popping up again in Charlottesville. Now publicly firing off Nazi salutes doesn't disqualify someone from working in the government. Things can change fast, and I feel that some ideologies are so inherently toxic and radioactive that the only safe move is zero tolerance whatsoever.For me, a response that did not indicate that they knew about the issue in advance and still sent it out. It also seems to frame this as having happened entirely through a series of errors, which is totally implausible. If the case had been that they had a nazi staffer who was fired immediately, maybe that would be a good response. Pretending that this series of nazi runes could have been assembled by accident destroys their credibility.
I particularly dislike how this response ignores the fact that the offending email was held back from Germany, indicating that something in their internal review process clearly did catch the obvious Nazi symbols and not send them in a market where that's straightforwardly illegal, but still chose to send it to other markets. This "apology" doesn't remotely address any of my concerns with their internal review and spends considerable time trying to shift blame onto the people who accused them of agreeing with Nazi ideology based on the fact that they sent out Nazi symbols and how piss-poor their response to that was.
This is just the way most large and multinational companies operate. I do not claim to know how GoG works or big it is, but the one I work for would certainly allow this to happen. Not willingly, but the chain of command is very long.
Here's a rough breakdown of how it happens:
Now even between departments in the same building, communication takes a very long time, and depending on how meeting-heavy the company is, virtually everything needs a meeting.
At the company I work at, a design mistake, for example a typo, noticed by a local team will often take weeks to propagate and come back with the fixed version.
The reason they sent out the email in the other languages is simply this. A delay in internal communication that didn't make it before the email was sent out. The german team could correct their version because they noticed it. Maybe you think this is implausible, but that's only because you haven't worked in such environments. I have, and it really does take a bloody long time.
And as an aparte, I will be frank here. I had no idea whatsoever what the symbols could mean, and I'm sure 99.9% of "average" people didn't either. It's not like they sent a 'heil hitler' in their email. Why is it so difficult to believe that the initial email chose the emojis because to the unknowing person's eyes, they look like cool runes, and that's it? Why do so many people immediately assume that there must be some hidden agenda everywhere, and that they're frothing at the mouth to send out nazi symbolism, instead of looking at it objectively for what it is? We are all humans. Not everybody is as aware of every symbol that could mean something vile.
The apology made their stance very clear as well. The persecutory behaviour is not warranted. There are loads of nazis out and about in broad daylight, there is no reason to jump on shadows.
Anyone remotely familiar with runes or Nazis would recognize the runes in that email. It's fine that you don't recognize them, but they are not deep cuts when it comes to Nazi symbols. GOG's insistence that they're familiar with the Nazis due to their being a Polish company goes the other way here. Moreover, they used specific Unicode codepoints that deliberately represent the versions used Nazi symbols rather than codepoints for more common similar runes that may display differently. This means that copy-pasting said symbols into Google (which I would consider the bare minimum level of due diligence when reviewing an email with unfamiliar symbols in the subject line like that) would immediately reveal what they were.
I can believe that there was a delay in internal communications that prevented the German team's observations that these were Nazi hate symbols didn't make it to other teams in time, but they have not effectively discussed this as the source of the problem or discussed any solutions they're taking internally to prevent this problem from reoccurring. I don't require a particularly detailed explanation here, but they haven't really provided even the vague lip-service I would expect from a company of their size here. They haven't addressed the source of these runes either, aside from the straightforward lies they told about it being a Unicode issue in their first response, and I personally would like to know how these showed up in the first place and how they've prevented this from recurring. Did they fire a rogue employee? Was this scraped from somewhere and they need to improve their review process there? We don't know, and they seem to be deliberately avoiding providing an actual example.
I don't think it's impossible for a responsible company with good-hearted management to have this issue show up due to their size and struggles with internal reporting. But their public response here is woefully inadequate even under the most charitable assumptions for the company, and attempting to shift blame onto people for criticising them for this blunder as seen in this response is probably the worst way to respond to your company sending out Nazi hate symbols in an email except for coincidentally in the territory where doing so is illegal. It may merely be bad PR, but no amount of Tildes comments defending them with plausible reasons for the initial incident will change how bad the PR response has been and how it has damaged my image of the company and its leadership.
In the meantime, what are people using to install non-Steam games on Linux? Hero? Lutris? Something else?
I've used Heroic and Lutris, both seem to do more or less accomplish the job the same way, Heroic has a nicer presentation. Lutris is so close to being my ideal launcher given its coverage, except for the main thing a centralized launcher ought to have -- one screen to search across all providers. The central screen they've got is only for the games you already have installed, searching for owned games not installed happens on the screen for each app.
So my next solution to check is going to be the NonSteam Launchers decky plugin. It'll at least help centralize games I've installed into my steam library so I can run them from game mode without extra trouble, even if using the launchers themselves is a step back in convenience.
https://github.com/moraroy/NonSteamLaunchers-On-Steam-Deck
Heroic is first case, since I 'know' things will work out of the box most of the time, and if it fails on the first attempt, then I install through Lutris. Lutris would be my default, but I tend to have first-time install issues on it, but Lutris allows you to more deeply modify and debug issues.
I've been using Lutris for the games I have on GOG and it works well enough.
I use Lutris, but I don't really game.much outsode of Steam as I game 95% of time on Steam Deck and play games that work well and without any tinkering necessary.
The games I have on desktop in Lutris tend to be 20+ years old games like Rage of Mages, Conflict: Freespace and such. And I don't even play them, just have them installed and in some state of campaign play.
As someone who loves both Freespace games, this threw me for a minute until I realized that "Conflict" is just how the first game was branded in Europe. In the US it took advantage of the "Descent" brand (from some of the same devs at Volition/Parallax), which has nothing directly in common with the Freespace games except that they're both 6DoF space combat games. Fittingly, Descent was more claustrophobic, exploring tunnels in an asteroid or something, while Freespace has you in, well, "free space" out in the open.
Anybody still thinking about Freespace at this point is probably well aware, but just in case you or another reader isn't: the source code for Freespace 2 was released in 2002, and the latest update was in 2024(!). There's loads of mods, including total conversions and ports of the first games campaign, and it looks and runs better than ever. There's a native Linux port too, so as long as you have the files off your GoG or Steam copy you can run it without even needing Proton!
I'm into space sims and haven't played either of these games (yeah, I know!). I've got my eye on Freespace 2, but the price was bumped up significantly so I'm waiting for it to go on sale. I'm also playing on Linux.
Do you know if there's an advantage to buying on GOG over Steam, since the game is on the Preservation program?
Also, for modding, I installed the native Linux Knossos launcher and it was working great for the demo - is this the go-to mod-manager Freespace 2?
If you're running the fs2open version of the engine, GoG or Steam shouldn't make a difference as far as I'm aware; you just need the game data files from wherever.
Knossos was the recommendation for all-in-one installer/manager last I looked, but I don't have much experience with it, I always just used the open launcher directly and did things manually since that's what I grew up doing.
If you want to whet your appetite while you wait for a sale, there's some cool total conversion mods that don't require the original files at all. There's mods for Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, and Wing Commander, among others.
I was unaware of fs2open, thanks! I was kind of overwhelmed by the ecosystem because it has flourished so much and this is very useful to know. I'll be holding off until 2027 when I have time to game and tinker around with mods, but am looking forward to it.
I know about it being called Descent and I was thinking for a bit if I should add it to my post, then I didn't. It makes sense as *Descent: Freespace" as, you already said, it is situated in free space instead inside tunnels - thus the name makes sense.
I actually play Frrespace 1 in the open FS2 engine. Well, I don't actually play the game anymore these days, but I have it set up that way.
I may be wrong but... I am pretty sure the box of the first game had Descent Freespace printed on it when I bought it eons ago. In the south of Europe. Could it be that Conflict was more a title given only in some countries?
I use Heroic, and have had nothing but success. Hell, I liked it so much on my Steam Deck and Bazzite laptop that I installed it on my windows gaming PC, where it works just as well. I uninstalled both Galaxy and Epic Store from my PC afterward and haven't looked back.
When GOG Galaxy first became a thing, I assumed it was to get certain publishers on board with their platform, specifically publishers who require the DRM it could provide for their online or games-as-a-service product. As such, I've never used GOG Galaxy because the main upside I see from GOG is having DRM-free games without the need to bypass anything. Steam doesn't require DRM, and by default offers DRM that isn't terribly restrictive and could be bypassed in the event it collapses as a platform somehow.
So for those of you excited about this news, what's the consumer reason to like GOG Galaxy over either not using a launcher (which is what I do when I used to buy games there) or using a third-party alternative launcher?
I'd love to make the jump to Linux one day when life is stable enough for me to deal with all the routine-breaking leaving Windows would cause, but I also use a lot of niche software and have long ingrained habits that will be difficult to break or relearn.
Installs through GOG Galaxy are still DRM free and can be run directly from the executable. Key practical features include cloud saves and automatic updates, the latter was nice when I played Witcher 3 at launch. The idea was for it to work as your unified launcher. It features a plugin system that allows for integration of other storefronts, though I'm not sure how well that has worked out in practice. A table I found suggests there are quite a few, but that they're somewhat limited.
https://github.com/Mixaill/awesome-gog-galaxy
I'd say the key difference from third party launchers is they don't have the cloud save functionality, which also seems to apply to GOG integrations. A Linux launcher with a plugin system would be huge. While Lutris supports a decent amount of launchers, it doesn't have a plugin system.
PS: I use a 3070 and Bazzite, it works well with the worst part is the steam big picture interface having some visual glitches and lag, everything else is good.
Yeah, the unified launcher thing was a cool idea but it didn't really work out. Third-party stores would break the integrations ALL the time, which would then make it look like Galaxy wasn't working. I think it's still technically possible to do with Galaxy, but it's definitely not the focus any more. Galaxy is really just GOG's launcher at this point.
For anyone that does want an all-in-one launcher, Playnite is excellent (with the caveat that third-party integrations will end up breaking as well, though they're generally updated pretty quickly). This one is also Windows-only currently, but, just like GOG, the dev has said that he's working on a Linux version as well.
I've been wanting Playnite on Linux for a long time. Their extensions and integrations are really great if you buy from a variety of sources.
The dev posted an update more directly confirming a Linux version soon™ several months after that article. It's indirectly linked in the article, sourcing his previous post, but I suspect some would miss it. Hopefully the timeline of "in 2026" is still accurate, but Playnite 11 isn't out yet, so I wouldn't be surprised if it takes a bit longer than his initial estimate.
Bit of a tangent, but if solving that problem would be helpful, and you do genuinely want to switch, may I suggest listing 'em out for folks to dig into? Assuming it's largely freeware. Wine is pretty great these days, so if there are incompatibilities, perhaps people can find workarounds for you in advance of your making the leap.
Its not a move I plan on making in the short term - my thought was that eventually Steam Frame would release, I'd get one when it was in stock (relapsed VR user from the original Vive, but decent chance I can't afford it at launch), and use that as a means of getting used to operating in Linux again and go from there. I have a little experience using VMs, but for the most part I haven't touched Linux based PC OS in the last 20 years.
I'll pass on listing out everything, but to give some examples, I use several programs to help me with accessibility. I use a combination of DisplayFusion and Keymapper to have custom keyboard hotkeys for functions like mouse inputs, f.lux and built in Windows color changing features to help with colorblindness and light sensitivity, various niche mouse firmware (Elecom handheld trackball mouse, an air mouse, and a Logi vertical mouse who's software glitches out frequently on Windows), and so on.
I also have an extensive Steam and non-Steam game library that I'd have to vet. I'm mostly not doing online/multiplayer stuff affected by kernel level anti-cheat that won't run on Linux, but I do have some that would be dealbreakers if they didn't work, like the RPG Maker series of products that already run into performance bottlenecks on Windows (due to half-baked mobile support restricting it to single-core processor use.) I've also heard that Linux and Nvidia generally don't get along, and due to the pandemic I've been stuck with a prebuilt using a 3070, which meets my current needs well enough that I don't want to replace it anytime soon.
Basically, thanks for the offer, but I'm too early in the process to benefit from listing out everything. I also need to do due diligence in deciding what flavor of Linux to research.
np np! I won't dig into the list, then, but I can at least report that my 'ol RTX 2060 has been going strong without (m)any issues. Just some weird ghosts that I expect would catch me on Windows too (eg inconsistently enumerating monitors and whatnot). There are three different drivers, but as long as you choose the right one for your generation, afaik it works great.
A handheld trackball mouse sounds really cool, incidentally! I was looking into those many moons ago before settling on an eye tracker, but they absolutely hold a special place in my heart (and I'm glad that others find them useful!).
For anyone who would want to learn more:
Elecom mouse via Amazon
I believe this is the model that I've been using for several years now, frequently goes on sale though I think its worth full price to the right user. Works well in either hand, and is lightweight without being too fragile or too imprecise. I'd say the main weakness is a lack of signal strength outside of short distances (~15 feet with line of sight, ~5 without) on the 2.4 ghz model. I'd also prefer if the mouse click buttons were a tad closer to the rest of the device, since it can be uncomfortable to hold in the same hand for longer sessions.
I've yet to find a better hand-controlled device for when my hands are unable to use a conventional or vertical mouse, though don't expect precision/speed on the level of those.
Convenience + cloud saves + playtime tracking + achievements (for games that support them). Those are my personal likes about Galaxy.
A Linux build isn't a must-have for me or anything given that Heroic exists (and is fantastic), but I'd prefer the first-party experience if I can have it. Plus, a native Linux client meshes well with GOG's DRM-free and preservation-forward values.
If they do, I will very likely buy more games there. I do my gamin through Steam, as Valve plays nice so far. But having truly DRM-free (and hassle-free) alternative is even better.
I have quite some games on GOG and while I buy new ones here and there, I don't actually play GOG releases.
I was gonna say I’d still rather use Heroic, some GOG Galaxy on Mac is kinda shit.
But Heroic has been giving me issues recently so I’d take a Linux client over Heroic now on Linux.