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Unfortunately Linux is still far from ready. It's awesome that it can run Steam games quite seamlessly, and it can even run non-Steam games if you fiddle around

Unfortunately Linux is still far from ready. It's awesome that it can run Steam games quite seamlessly, and it can even run non-Steam games if you fiddle around a bit and find the magic incantations. But - I tried using it for things like GoG, and quickly found out that there is actually no way of running GOG on Linux, even with Proton/Wine, unless maybe if I go and install a bunch of other 3rd parties. Not to mention, installing the Nvidia drivers without first running an apt upgrade on my newly installed system quickly broke the whole thing to where it wouldn't even boot. So back to Windows it is, and hoping that they respect the GDPR enough to protect me from the worse of their snooping.

giancarlostoro 3y ago
Have you tried Lutris? It seems to have GOG support, and is designed to help you do all the incantations for you. I havent tried it yet, but have heard a lot of good things about it.
- simiones 3y ago
  There's a limit to how many third parties I was willing to install to get the programs I wanted working. I also didn't read anywhere that Lutris would have helped with GOG - every reddit thread I trawled ended up saying that we need to wait for a Linux version of GOG. I tried Steam, I tried playing with a few of its options, I tried a few ways of running GOG as a steam game - decided to switch back to Windows. I do enough debugging at work, I don't want to spend too much of my free time debugging there either.
  - giancarlostoro 3y ago
    All I know is Lutris is meant to handle every windows game client: GOG, Steam, Origin, and so on.
    - simiones 3y ago
      Researching a bit more, it seems that Lutris can download and perhaps run these games, but it doesn't offer other integrations. It's not clear to me whether it downloads updates automatically for them, but it certainly doesn't handle things like cloud saves (I game from multiple systems) or achievements.
matkoniecz 3y ago
"GoG" what is that? > Unfortunately Linux is still far from ready. Depends on person. I use it for over decade, exclusively for few years since my Windows install bricked itself and recovery partition few years ago (and I discovered that I have no idea how I should reinstall Windows)
- nailer 3y ago
  Good Old Games. It's a game store, like Steam. Used to be for old games hence the name.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    > quickly found out that there is actually no way of running GOG on Linux But GoG is a website, not an application. The games they've ported/adapted to Linux work great, at least for me. I've never had the slightest trouble.
    - simiones 3y ago
      Clarified in another reply, I was referring to GOG Galaxy, the launcher that you would use to keep those games up to date, sync saves across systems etc.
      - JohnFen 3y ago
        Ah, OK. I've actually never heard of GoG Galaxy before, and so haven't ever used it.
        simiones 3y ago
        It's obviously not required, but I do find it nice, especially for newer games that still receive regular patches. And of course, achievements are sometimes fun to have as well.
- simiones 3y ago
  I'm referring to GOG Galaxy, the Good Old Games game launcher. It's an app similar to Steam, which allows you to install and update your GOG games, get achievements, sync saves etc.
dleslie 3y ago
Heroic Launcher does a great job of getting GoG products working on Linux with minimal effort.
bastardoperator 3y ago
It's called heroicgameslauncher, runs on Linux and works with GoG. https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher
- simiones 3y ago
  I hadn't heard about this one when I was researching options. I'll give it a go next time I feel inclined to play with Linux, it sounds like it supports most of the features I'd like.
  - bastardoperator 3y ago
    To be fair/transparent, I hadn't heard about it either until my 16 year old pointed it out a couple of months ago, LOL.
- schlurken 3y ago
  Can also be used on the Steam Deck to run games from GoG (since the Steam Deck uses Linux).
StimDeck 3y ago
Saying Linux is far from ready [for desktop usage] is like saying bicycle is far from ready for off road. What do you mean by “bicycle”?? Who made it? What features were priorities? People run third party software all day every day. Third party software runs your browser, inside and out. Many commercial products leverage open source projects. Bottom line is you start Windows and you’re running third party programs. If you want Windows apps to run on Linux you need wine/proton/bottles etc. If you want it to be easy, you run Lutris or Steam or Heroic. Sure you can do it yourself too, but that’s harder. I switched off windows easily, and play 90% of the games I want and have very few problems with productivity software. I use PopOS but I could have gone with half a dozen other distros just as simply. I admit that I am not daunted by computer problems, but the worst case scenario is you choose a different distro with different priorities. Get yourself a couple memory sticks. If your heart is set on a cheese sandwich, there is likely no non-dairy alternative that is going be good enough for you. But if you can stand Gimp instead of Photoshop and Libre office instead of MS Office, you’ll do fine.

giancarlostoro 3y ago

Have you tried Lutris? It seems to have GOG support, and is designed to help you do all the incantations for you. I havent tried it yet, but have heard a lot of good things about it.

simiones 3y ago
There's a limit to how many third parties I was willing to install to get the programs I wanted working. I also didn't read anywhere that Lutris would have helped with GOG - every reddit thread I trawled ended up saying that we need to wait for a Linux version of GOG. I tried Steam, I tried playing with a few of its options, I tried a few ways of running GOG as a steam game - decided to switch back to Windows. I do enough debugging at work, I don't want to spend too much of my free time debugging there either.
- giancarlostoro 3y ago
  All I know is Lutris is meant to handle every windows game client: GOG, Steam, Origin, and so on.
  - simiones 3y ago
    Researching a bit more, it seems that Lutris can download and perhaps run these games, but it doesn't offer other integrations. It's not clear to me whether it downloads updates automatically for them, but it certainly doesn't handle things like cloud saves (I game from multiple systems) or achievements.

matkoniecz 3y ago

"GoG" what is that? > Unfortunately Linux is still far from ready. Depends on person. I use it for over decade, exclusively for few years since my Windows install bricked itself and recovery partition few years ago (and I discovered that I have no idea how I should reinstall Windows)

nailer 3y ago
Good Old Games. It's a game store, like Steam. Used to be for old games hence the name.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > quickly found out that there is actually no way of running GOG on Linux But GoG is a website, not an application. The games they've ported/adapted to Linux work great, at least for me. I've never had the slightest trouble.
  - simiones 3y ago
    Clarified in another reply, I was referring to GOG Galaxy, the launcher that you would use to keep those games up to date, sync saves across systems etc.
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      Ah, OK. I've actually never heard of GoG Galaxy before, and so haven't ever used it.
      - simiones 3y ago
        It's obviously not required, but I do find it nice, especially for newer games that still receive regular patches. And of course, achievements are sometimes fun to have as well.
simiones 3y ago
I'm referring to GOG Galaxy, the Good Old Games game launcher. It's an app similar to Steam, which allows you to install and update your GOG games, get achievements, sync saves etc.

dleslie 3y ago

Heroic Launcher does a great job of getting GoG products working on Linux with minimal effort.

bastardoperator 3y ago

It's called heroicgameslauncher, runs on Linux and works with GoG. https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher

simiones 3y ago
I hadn't heard about this one when I was researching options. I'll give it a go next time I feel inclined to play with Linux, it sounds like it supports most of the features I'd like.
- bastardoperator 3y ago
  To be fair/transparent, I hadn't heard about it either until my 16 year old pointed it out a couple of months ago, LOL.
schlurken 3y ago
Can also be used on the Steam Deck to run games from GoG (since the Steam Deck uses Linux).

StimDeck 3y ago

Saying Linux is far from ready [for desktop usage] is like saying bicycle is far from ready for off road. What do you mean by “bicycle”?? Who made it? What features were priorities? People run third party software all day every day. Third party software runs your browser, inside and out. Many commercial products leverage open source projects. Bottom line is you start Windows and you’re running third party programs. If you want Windows apps to run on Linux you need wine/proton/bottles etc. If you want it to be easy, you run Lutris or Steam or Heroic. Sure you can do it yourself too, but that’s harder. I switched off windows easily, and play 90% of the games I want and have very few problems with productivity software. I use PopOS but I could have gone with half a dozen other distros just as simply. I admit that I am not daunted by computer problems, but the worst case scenario is you choose a different distro with different priorities. Get yourself a couple memory sticks. If your heart is set on a cheese sandwich, there is likely no non-dairy alternative that is going be good enough for you. But if you can stand Gimp instead of Photoshop and Libre office instead of MS Office, you’ll do fine.