In January, a job listing appeared on GOG’s careers page for a senior engineer to work on its Galaxy client for Linux — “the next major frontier”, the advert called it. In February, the storefront’s managing director confirmed on Reddit that work had begun. By July, the specialist had been hired. Now, at its very first GOG Showcase, the DRM-free store has made it official: Galaxy is coming to Linux in 2027.
The announcement lands as part of a wholesale revamp of the launcher across every platform, with reworked Windows and macOS clients promised alongside the long-awaited native Linux build. For a storefront that spent years as the odd one out — Steam, the Epic Games Launcher and just about everything else already run happily on penguin-powered desktops — it closes one of PC gaming’s most stubborn gaps.
What GOG promised at its first showcase
The 5 November showcase confirmed a new release of Galaxy for all platforms, with beta sign-ups already open through GOG’s anniversary page. The company’s statement struck a contrite but determined tone:
“We know this has been a long time coming, but we wanted to do it properly: GOG Galaxy is officially heading to Linux. At the same time, we’ve reworked the client on Windows and Mac to be simpler, run faster, and give you cleaner ways to view your library.”
Crucially for a store built on digital ownership, nothing about the revamp makes the launcher compulsory. “Our core promise stays untouched: GOG Galaxy is entirely optional,” the statement continued. Offline installers — the downloadable, DRM-free setup files that let players keep their games forever — remain available exactly as before. No client installation will ever stand between a customer and their library.
Key point: The revamped Galaxy launches in 2027 with no fixed date yet; beta registration is open now via GOG’s anniversary page.
Steam Deck owners stand to gain the most
The obvious beneficiaries are Linux-based gaming devices — chiefly Valve’s Steam Deck and the newly announced Steam Machine, both running SteamOS. A native Galaxy client means GOG libraries become first-class citizens on the handheld, rather than something bolted on through community workarounds.
There are caveats worth stating plainly. An official client does not mean every GOG game suddenly gains a native Linux version; how the new Galaxy handles Windows-only titles — and whether it integrates Proton or Wine-style compatibility layers — remains unannounced. Nor has GOG spelled out a Deck-specific interface or certification process. Still, official support beats the status quo of semi-supported hacks.
Heroic, Lutris and the tools that filled the gap
Linux players have not been waiting idly. Third-party launchers such as Heroic, Lutris, Faugus and Minigalaxy already aggregate GOG libraries — and often those of other storefronts too — with varying degrees of polish. They will remain useful, and GOG’s own track record gives reasons for patience: Galaxy 2.0 never technically left beta, and by most accounts it ran poorly next to Steam’s client even on Windows.
That history is why the “we wanted to do it properly” framing matters. The revamp promises a faster, simpler client with cleaner library views on every platform — a rebuild, not a port of software that was already struggling.
GOG Social: a hangout with no algorithm
Galaxy was not the only reveal. The showcase also introduced GOG Social, described by the company as “a quiet, tidy hangout for actual game talk” — screenshot galleries, videos and community polls with threaded replies and, in GOG’s words, “zero algorithmic noise”. A closed beta signup opened alongside the announcement, separate from the Galaxy registration.
It is a deliberately old-fashioned pitch: forums, essentially, built for a storefront whose entire identity rests on not behaving like the rest of the industry.
What happens between now and 2027
Practical questions remain open. GOG has published no system requirements, no list of supported distributions, no feature breakdown for the Linux build, and no word on how Galaxy will treat the Windows-only majority of its catalogue. Anyone planning to migrate should treat Heroic or Lutris as the working solution until answers arrive.
But the direction of travel is clear. A storefront of GOG’s stature investing in native Linux support — under new, independent ownership with big plans — is good news for desktop gaming generally. The march of Linux onto the desktop just picked up another recruit, and this one brings 20,000 DRM-free games with it.
