While I do appreciate GOG's DRM-Free approach, it sort of feels pointless when your games run on Windows. It's sort of like you're a prisoner who was just released from your cell, only to find out that you're still in a high security prison.

Yes, I understand exactly how you feel. Work is crushingly demanding atm, but I'll definitely be sharpening some of those Wine skills first chance I get.

I have my main desktop as a Windows machine, because I wanted to run newer games without the emulation. That said, my laptop is a developer machine that I use Linux on because I like the speed and performance of Linux for working on things. GOG is where I buy older games to run on Linux because I like just skipping the whole Steam client thing.

That said, I like GOG a lot because their versions of older games generally work better and those are the things that I like to play on my laptop (mostly because I haven't played most of them and it's been great playing through older games that everyone my age takes for granted that you've played). But yeah, it's super fun and I quite enjoy it.

I love GOG for its older games more than anything else, and always have.

Not quite true, they also list 1,435 Results for DRM-Free, some of which I have gotten from them, but not for well over a year now, as they failed the duty of care test with me.

Many of the games also provided a Steam Key in addition to the direct download or sometimes as a choice.

I can provide the link to those results privately if you wish, but personally I have no desire to promote them.

I am sorry, but that is just not very logical.

There are holes all over the place with that concept.

It's a bit like saying you a prisoner of planet Earth ... or whatever country you live in.

You can call Windows DRM if you like, but it is down to version and in any case it is nothing like Steam DRM or the other nastier variants.

Sure when you first use Windows, you might have to legitimize your copy, but after that you can likely use your PC for years without ever having to do that again. You can certainly install and uninstall GOG games on it as often as you like without ever having to connect to the web even. Try doing that with Steam etc.

Just keep using GOG and whatever other store you feel the need to use. If Linux usage increases significantly enough, GOG will support it. No need to throw the baby out with the bath water.

This. This is some great advice, OP. Don't leave GOG, just spread your purchases over several storefronts and pay whoever you think is providing the best service for you in particular situation in particular time. From customer point of view you shouldn't give all your business to one storefront as it can only push things further into their being a monopoly.

With Windows 11, this has been eliminated. There are many new "features" such as requiring "security" hardware that can brick your system if you try to access it without going through your approved Windows install. It's actually quite an annoyance the level of DRM Windows is trying to incorporate into their system, until it is a subscription-only service like Office.

Oh, are they ? I have the Steam client installed on Linux only because I was able to install and run it completely unprivileged (contrary to Windows where it requires constant admin access and fiddles with NTFS ACLs). The day they add an admin requirement, Steam on Linux will be over for me.

There were some articles about getting deep-level anti-cheats to work on Linux alongside the release of the Scam Deck handheld. I don't know the current state, but there was a lot of writing/video I saw about it last year and earlier this year.

That’s worrying… However, I knew such a thing could happen, and that’s one of the reasons why I only rarely buy games on Steam (apart from DRM that is).

That being said, the nice thing on Linux is that it may be possible to run the client and make it think it’s running as root. unshare() comes to my mind.

Still early days for me with Windows 11, but one of the first things I did was turn BitLocker off, and I guess I will need to tweak other things. I haven't played any games on Windows 11 yet, but I guess it will be much the same as before, install and play, and I will be able to do that for years, like I always have.

Yes, Microsoft are a pain, and doubling down on DRM, and I hate DRM, but an OS is only a means to an end, and once set right, you really shouldn't need to bother much with it again, except for driver updates and compatibility issues with new games, but that is par for the course, regardless of OS.

So I just don't see enough of a link between OS DRM and Game DRM. Be different if you needed to always be online to use Windows. So like many, my OS is only important when it comes to game support, any DRM it has is quite a non issue for games, DRM-Free games is the important bit.

In an ideal world, Linux would be even better than Windows and all games would be supported out-of-the-box. But that isn't going to happen any time soon, and maybe never. Until Linux has a bigger slice of the gamer count, GOG will just realistically stick to where the profits are. To support sooner than that likely means a financial loss, as infrastructure and skilled personnel will be required. I'm sure GOG have crunched the numbers and not found it viable yet. At least GOG do provide Linux versions of games where they can (are allowed etc).

P.S. My old Win XP laptop is still going fine, never had to reinstall Windows on it, and I haven't connected to the web with it for years. Similar with my Win 7 Netbook, though I don't play games on that, and it does regularly connect to the web. My Win 8.1 laptop, which dual boots with Win 10, likewise has never needed a re-install.

P.S.S. Hopefully in several years time I can migrate to Linux, and just use that in my final years. And with any luck the situation will have improved a lot with Linux by then. Right now I am just not ready to retire from Windows use.

That's only because Microsoft has Windows 10 (and I assume also Windows 11) use your internet connection, without telling you at all whatsoever and without ever getting any permission to do so, to "phone home" and record and store all of your hardware IDs on Microsoft's servers, and then it subsequently "phones home" again when you reinstall Windows 10 on the same system in the future, in order to verify that your hardware IDs of the most recent installation match up with the hardware IDs that Microsoft recorded on their servers.

In other words, the very same point that you are trying to affirm is not DRM, in fact it is DRM, and a very intrusive & insidious form of it.

Windows 10 is definitely DRM, no question about it at all.

That recalls me a few years ago when all of a sudden, W10 started complaining my license wasn’t valid. It turned out MS had made a mistake on their servers… but that clearly proved W10 phones home often, to ensure the license is valid.

More than one end if you ask me, more than one end !

Good to know that they have, though they certainly hide them well.

Last couple of times I went through their sales, it was a Steam keys fest to the point where they might as well have relabelled themselves as a Steam reseller.

Thank goodness that Steam doesn't sell books as well, otherwise I have a feeling their book sales (they last redeeming feature at this point for me at least) would be steam keys too.

One thing I do with Linux that I never do with Windows is that once in a while, I just clean house. I backup what is important, I format the drive and I reinstall the OS from scratch with very little fuss.

A lot of people don't know just how liberating that can be. It just takes a modicum of effort to organize what is important on their file system.

Nowhere did I say it wasn't DRM. It is just not a constant check and stumbling block. In reality it is no worse than a driver's license to drive your car, likely better because you don't need to pay a fee every year or few years.

While it does indeed phone home, it cannot do that if you aren't connected. As with all my PCs, they are not connected by default. I only connect when I need something via the web, and I don't do online multiplayer.

Don't you have to reinstall Python and a bunch of other programs, drivers, libraries, etc?

Personally I don't like the waste of time or added effort to get everything back to how I had it, regardless of OS.

I guess if you are running a lean install, then it isn't much effort, but I don't run a lean install. I could easily spend a week, probably longer, getting things back to how I had them.