GOG are taking the advice of a decades old advertising campaign , and choosing to p-p-p-pick up a penguin. Rather than a disappointing British biscuit, though, this penguin is made of electricity and open-source code. The DRM-free digital distribution service will soon support Linux. "At least" 100 games will gain support for the OS, GOG say, and that catalogue will include a selection of classics making their Linux début.
A post on GOG's news blog explains the details of their planned support:
"We're initially going to be launching our Linux support on GOG.com with the full GOG.com treatment for Ubuntu and Mint. That means that right now, we're hammering away at testing games on a variety of configurations, training up our teams on Linux-speak, and generally getting geared up for a big kick-off in the fall with at least 100 Linux games ready for you to play. This is, of course, going to include games that we sell which already have Linux clients, but we'll also be bringing Linux gamers a variety of classics that are, for the first time, officially supported and maintained by a storefront like ours."
Steam's hardware stats suggest that Linux is still a long way off becoming a big platform for PC gaming, but it's still good to see GOG make a commitment to its support. Moreover, I've a sneaking suspicion that the distributor's DRM-free philosophy will be more attractive to the OS's dedicated user-base. Still, if nothing else, it's a positive step - and one that could lead to Linux users spending slightly less time in WINE.
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