GOG Galaxy's Linux port and PC overhaul get a 2027 target

GOG showed off its native Linux client for GOG Galaxy during the inaugural GOG Showcase on November 5, opening closed beta registrations alongside a performance and library overhaul for the Windows and Mac versions. All three versions of the updated launcher are scheduled to arrive in 2027. While the showcase gave the first public look at the redesign, the Linux port itself isn't a secret: the company confirmed to outlets like GamingOnLinux earlier this year that native support was in active development.

GOG has offered standalone, DRM-free Linux installers for individual games since 2014, the same year the original GOG Galaxy launched in open beta on Windows and Mac. Actually getting the desktop client onto Linux, however, has sat at the top of the storefront's community wishlist for more than a decade.

Without an official launcher, Linux players and Steam Deck owners have spent years missing out on automatic updates, achievement tracking, and cloud save syncing unless they routed their libraries through third-party open-source tools like Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris, or Bottles. Those community projects do admirable work, and I'm curious whether an official client will actually improve on Heroic's nimble Steam Deck setup or just duplicate it.

Trimming the bloat from Galaxy 2.0

The Linux announcement arrived paired with an overdue cleanup for the existing desktop app. GOG says it has reworked the Windows and Mac software "to be simpler, run faster, and give you cleaner ways to view your library." Anyone who has watched their current installation choke on a multi-hundred-game catalog knows that speed has never been the client's strong suit.

When GOG launched the Galaxy 2.0 update in 2019, the pitch was ambitious: one consolidated interface to organize and launch games across competing storefronts like Steam and the Epic Games Store. In practice, those third-party community integrations frequently broke, and the client grew sluggish under the weight of its own plugins. Focusing on a snappier, stripped-down library view and upcoming native features like GOG Social sounds like a much healthier direction than trying to maintain fragile bridges to every other launcher on a hard drive.

Still completely optional

Even with a modernized interface and a new operating system on the roadmap, GOG's foundational rule hasn't changed. The company reiterated during the showcase that GOG Galaxy remains strictly optional across Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Founded in 2008 as Good Old Games by CD Projekt co-founders Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński, the storefront built its reputation on patching classic PC games for modern hardware and selling them without digital rights management. That policy holds firm for the 2027 overhaul. Every purchase will continue to include standalone offline backup installers, meaning you can still stick a game on an external drive and install it ten years from now without ever touching an account login.

A 2027 release window leaves plenty of room for delays, though after waiting since 2014 for native Linux cloud saves, another few months won't kill anybody.