this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2025
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Why do you desire a Linux client?
I myself don't want to have to open an extra software from the distributor, just to play my game.
It might then end up adding extra constraints like not being able to open multiple games at the same time on your multi-monitor setup.
For the same reason I wouldn't want a Linux client on Windows. It's not made for it.
Valve/Steam can do it. Is there some excuse or reason why it's unacceptable?
And Steam is downloaded the same on nearly every distro. The package is just an install script that translates any differing filesystem layout between distros. It all comes from Valve.
I'm trying to say, "Why have a client in the first place?"
I keep GoG games and I am happy getting to keep the offline installers and not having to open an extra GUI thing before running my game.
I would love being able to run my Steam games without having to open Steam.
Now maybe you see some value in Steam giving the Achievements system and notifications to online-friends about your activity, but is it really required?
If your point is about using the GoG Linux client to run Windows games on Linux:
I don't buy GoG games that don't have a native Linux download and I use the Linux installer, so again, I see no merit in having yet another app.
I use heroic because I buy games that don't have a native Linux version, and because some of the games I own are going to get updated. Also, cloud saves. Having a platform I can easily see and immediately install my purchases from is nice
Ah right, I had forgotten the cloud saves. Those are actually a real value addition to consider using an extra client.
For updates though, I am happy to just re-download the offline installer whenever it gets released.
Of course, I am not buying from GoG, the kinds of games that won't work unless constantly updated.
Do you really keep track of it? I have like 20-30 games installed, and they update in the background. I don't have to think about it and just play whatever strikes my fancy.
No, I just don't update them. The offline installers don't come up as often either.
Also, I only have ~5-10 GoG games.
Ah, OK. I have like 200, so having a launcher to keep track of and install them is quite useful.
Honestly, my Linuxified brain would just setup a background service to do that instead.
And I would set it up to not keep on running once I have started the game.
I think Lutris does that too, not sure about it though. Maybe I'll check it next time.
That sounds like a lot of work that a launcher just handles for you. I use Heroic, and it does exactly that for GOG, EGS, and Prime.
I haven't used Heroic, so can't say much about whether I'd prefer it.
But from what I remember of my experience with Epic Games Store back when I was on a Windows 7 PC, it took quite a bit out of my 4GB RAM and made it very difficult to play my game for a long time.
Honestly, I am fine with a launcher as long as it gets out of the memory when the game starts.
But also, I don't want the restrictions that come with it, so not really a launcher, but a download/update manager at most, would be fine in this case.
The reason I don't like the word "launcher" in this case, is because it is implying that it will be required to start the game, which might be fine for games that need to be up to date, just to function but for all the others, it's just an unnecessary extra 30+ seconds after I click the game icon.
I mean, look how fast and light, the update checking scripts are on Linux ^[except Ubuntu. Well, I only properly remember the EndeavourOS one and that the Ubuntu one was a massive slowdown. There may be others that are not as good.]
You don't need to start up a whole web-browser (full, with a JS engine) and connect to 10 other things before checking for updates. Just get something lightweight like RSS on the server, that tells the current version by query and let the client check that against the version no. file on the system, with 0 GUI until it actually requires a download and even then, it can simply use the system's "Notifications" system to tell you that there is an update available.
The blocking checker is only required for games that won't work unless updated.
Do you still have 4GB RAM? If so, you'll have problems running most games.
I just checked on my laptop, and Heroic uses ~150MB RAM at fresh launch, and ~300MB after a few minutes (and a sleep/wakeup cycle). Steam has multiple processes so it's harder to check, but it seems to be about 200-250MB for the main process and about 500MB or so for the web helper, for about 750MB total.
That said, the OS should offload unused memory when memory is constrained, so I'd expect most launchers to get offloaded when running a game. Even so, if 300MB is a dealbreaker, you should probably get more RAM, because an OS update could push the system over the edge.
And what restrictions are you taking about? If you want to launch a game without the launcher, you can go to where it installs them and launch from there, and use the launcher purely as a downloader.
Really? Because I haven't seen that at all.
Are you talking about something like the Rockstar or Paradox launcher which gets run during game startup? Because there's nothing extra to load for Heroic (again, it just manages installing games), and for Steam it just needs the minimal background task (takes maybe a second or two?).
I don't think Heroic provides icons to launch, so you'll launch them from Heroic or make your own (and for Windows games, you'll need to figure out the Proton/WINE path), but maybe it has support for that, IDK because I run through the Heroic.
If you really want a minimalist experience, there are options for that. However, many don't manage the WINE/Proton layer, so you need to do that yourself, and that's the main value for something like Heroic. I find I don't need to care if a game has a Linux port or not, 9/10 times it'll just work. That's true also for Steam.
Managing WINE sucked so much before Steam introduced Proton that I almost quit playing games altogether. So any downloader that doesn't simplify that is a non-starter for me.
Well, yeah. The computer having 4GB RAM also didn't have a Vulkan capable GPU, so I was unable to go Linux+Proton.
It was a bummer that I could only use it with Windows 7.
I'm talking about Windows 7 here. OS updates didn't make stuff worse back then.
And 4GB was the maximum limit for that motherboard, barring double sided memory, which I failed to find over the years.
Except that it was not happening in case of EGS. It was most probably doing something in the background, preventing suspension.
The paradox launcher is actually pretty fine. It checks for updates pretty quickly and lets me play the game regardless of version. Rockstar, no idea. And I was referring to my experience with Steam. At least when it is on HDD, it takes 30+ seconds to get ready, after I click the direct link to the game (which then starts Steam and the proceeds to not start the game, so I'm better of just clicking the Steam button first). And even with an SSD, it's more than just a couple of extra seconds.
I haven't tried Heroic yet, but considering my experience with Lutris, its is probably also going to be much better than any of the vendor's solutions, meaning, if you get a GoG launcher, expect it to be worse than Heroic.
Yes, Proton is the main reason for Steam being worth it for me. Not that it couldn't have been done is a much lighter package (but I am not taking up that project, so just make do with what's there).
I think they might be talking about having to use wine or something? They'd be wrong, but that might have been what they meant.