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GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

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Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#331

Post by johnny22 »

ActorNightly wrote: post #323
canpan wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam developing proton was what made it possible for me to change fully. No dual boot or anything needed. It's great. Funnily I also run GoG games through steam proton.. But looking forward to the GoG client working!

Im not super familiar with the space. Is the only reason for needing Proton is to do direct x api translations?

Games use plenty of other win32 APIs. Creating windows, running processes, opening files are all APIs.

Something like wine is needed to do that translation too.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#332

Post by giancarlostoro »

akdev1l wrote: post #304
giancarlostoro wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also feel like this is an insane opportunity for companies who previously did not offer Linux native clients to start doing so and see some of a hike in sales specifically coming from the Linux crowd. I would absolutely pay good money for high quality Linux compatible software, after all, its not free as in free beer. I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for sellin…

> I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly, fully opt-in by default of course. Why would a bunch of volunteers put a ton of effort to create infrastructure so people (corporations, really) can make money? Flathub is making inroads into having paid apps but they’re explicitly not a distribution really

It would fund their projects. Imagine if more Linux distros has enough funding to fully hire part-time volunteers full time? Those companies will sell them without those stores. This at least gives them a piece of the pie.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#333

Post by tombert »

pluralmonad wrote: post #221
tombert wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got into PC gaming in ~2009 primarily because it is so much cheaper than console. Steam sales and Humble Bundle allowed me to buy so many more games for less money. The initial cost upfront was higher than a console but if you want a lot of games it ends up being worth it.

And those games do not die with each or every other generation of hardware. Almost my entire Steam library still runs on my latest machine.

Yeah, I was happily surprised to be reminded of that when I set up my NixOS Jovian box that I “consolified” by having it boot into Gamescope and the SteamOS interface.

It’s plugged into my TV, with a wireless controller, and I have direct access to around 800 games immediately.

There are consoles that don’t even have 800 games in their entire library and I have 800 I can play whenever I want, some of which I purchased almost two decades ago.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#334

Post by cr125rider »

zamadatix wrote: post #317
destroycom wrote: post #294

Sadly, their "native" client is a web browser. Besides the usual complaints about electron and CEF applications, another pain point is they work horrendously in emulation. GoG Galaxy is only available as an x86 application on Windows. I'm running Windows ARM64 in a VM on an M-series macbook to play some games occasionally, and Galaxy is the slowest piece of software I have. Ironically, it runs worse than the games it…

I always thought it was a bit funny GoG GALAXY 2.0 went the web tech route for parts of the client and still managed to get itself stuck in a place where it ships an x86 only binary on macOS anyways.

How’s Rosetta 2 handle it?

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#335

Post by jchw »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #332
akdev1l wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly, fully opt-in by default of course. Why would a bunch of volunteers put a ton of effort to create infrastructure so people (corporations, really) can make money? Flathub is making inroads into having paid apps but they’re explicitly not a distribution really

It would fund their projects. Imagine if more Linux distros has enough funding to fully hire part-time volunteers full time? Those companies will sell them without those stores. This at least gives them a piece of the pie.

The entire point of the free software movement is to promote free software principles and software rights. What I think many Linux distributions would prefer is a model where companies who do benefit from selling software and hardware are funding them indirectly, so they can focus on continuing to promote free software in a more neutral way, without the pressures and potentially misaligned incentives that come from running a store front can bring.

There are distributions like elementary OS which are happy to sell you things with this model, though, but I just don't think it's surprising many distributions would actively prefer to not be in this position even if it leaves money on the table. This sort of principled approach is exactly why a lot of us really like Linux.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#336

Post by Root_Denied »

hbn wrote: post #271
tracker1 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there something wrong with the many distros that make Steam a really easy install, or in the box? I mean Bazzite literally has a FS Steam option in the box for installers that's pretty close to the Steam OS experience with broader hardware support.

I'm trying to word this without sounding dismissive of Bazzite for simply not being from a big company with money to throw around. I'm sure the people making it are doing great work. But I just don't get the feeling it's anywhere near the position it needs to be a "real platform" that could disrupt Windows. It has to be looked at from the perspective of publishers, and whether it's worth their money to target a new p…

The problem I have with this approach is that ultimately you're trading one owning company for another, rather than building to a standard that anyone could build around.

Because someday Valve may no longer be privately owned, and we're potentially back where we started. If we support having strong OSS ecosystems around computers we don't have to fight this battle over and over again.

Valve slow-rolling SteamOS and being coy about it ever being released as a "standalone, supported" OS is only because they're a private company and can build for open source ecosystems.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#337

Post by tstrimple »

destroycom wrote: post #294

Sadly, their "native" client is a web browser. Besides the usual complaints about electron and CEF applications, another pain point is they work horrendously in emulation. GoG Galaxy is only available as an x86 application on Windows. I'm running Windows ARM64 in a VM on an M-series macbook to play some games occasionally, and Galaxy is the slowest piece of software I have. Ironically, it runs worse than the games it…

> Sadly, their "native" client is a web browser.

So is the Steam client.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#338

Post by reissbaker »

jchw wrote: post #335
giancarlostoro wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would fund their projects. Imagine if more Linux distros has enough funding to fully hire part-time volunteers full time? Those companies will sell them without those stores. This at least gives them a piece of the pie.

The entire point of the free software movement is to promote free software principles and software rights. What I think many Linux distributions would prefer is a model where companies who do benefit from selling software and hardware are funding them indirectly, so they can focus on continuing to promote free software in a more neutral way, without the pressures and potentially misaligned incentives that come from r…

It's really unfortunate the term "free software" took off rather than e.g. "libre software", since it muddies discussions like this. The point of "free software" is not "you don't have to pay," it's that you have freedom in terms of what you do with the code running on your own machine. Selling free software is not incompatible with free software: it's free as in freedom, not as in free beer.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#339

Post by tadfisher »

0x1ch wrote: post #326
hbn wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to word this without sounding dismissive of Bazzite for simply not being from a big company with money to throw around. I'm sure the people making it are doing great work. But I just don't get the feeling it's anywhere near the position it needs to be a "real platform" that could disrupt Windows. It has to be looked at from the perspective of publishers, and whether it's worth their money to target a new p…

The core of bazzite has nothing to do with being from a big company or not. The complaint doesn't make much sense given the foundation Bazzite is actually built on is sponsored and developed by Fedora/RHEL. Maybe I'm downplaying what the Bazzite team is actually doing, but from afar it is Fedora Silverblue with gaming related tweaks out of the box, probably targeting handhelds and common gaming hardware in testing. T…

Paradox-of-choice issues are overblown. Every Linux distro is a repackaging of the same core components and same software. The PC is standardized for the most part, there is not much commodity hardware that lacks support, and the popular hardware that needs particular support (Nvidia drivers) is catered to by any popular distro out there.

Users are mostly afraid of wasting time trying Linux (any Linux) and having to go back to Windows for reason X, Y, or Z that they didn't even know about. For my partner who doesn't game, reason Z is one particular feature of Microsoft Word (the shrinkwrap application, not 365 Copilot App or whatever) that isn't emulated by LibreOffice or Google Docs. For competitive PC gamers, it's kernel anti-cheat. The Linux desktop story in general has been to slowly whittle down these reasons until there really is no good excuse for users not to switch and for vendors not to support the OS, even through compatibility layers.

Re: GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

#340

Post by II2II »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #250
emsign wrote: post #14

I'm very hopeful that Linux gaming will save the open PC desktop despite big tech is coming to destroy it. Or at least keep PCs alive for another decade. Gamers are still a huge factor as hardware customers. GOG creating a Linux launcher and Steam Box with SteamOS coming out soon should benefit PC users in general not just gamers since Microslop sees Windows like a social experiment where they can test AI on unsuspec…

I also feel like this is an insane opportunity for companies who previously did not offer Linux native clients to start doing so and see some of a hike in sales specifically coming from the Linux crowd. I would absolutely pay good money for high quality Linux compatible software, after all, its not free as in free beer. I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for sellin…

> I am still surprised most Linux Distros haven't changed their package managers to allow for selling of proprietary solutions directly, fully opt-in by default of course.

One of the advantages of open source software is the ability to distribute said software with relatively few restrictions. It simplifies life for the maintainers of Linux distributions, those who manage Linux systems, the end user, and software developers. Making a package manager a retail product store would complicate things for everyone.

That said, the only thing preventing the distribution of proprietary software by most Linux distributions is policy. If a distribution wanted to do so, and the vendor's license allowed for permissive software distribution, they could do so. The vendor could implement their own mechanism for selling and distributing license keys. The advantage to them would be using a common software distribution method without having a middleman taking a cut. (Think shareware, or even physical software that included a license key.)

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