GOG's new owner can't stand Windows either: 'It's such poor-quality software… I can't believe it!'

N364709 03: Actor Patrick Stewart talks with Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft, addresses the crowd during the launching of Windows 2000 in San Francisco on February 17, 2000. — (Image credit: Jeff Christensen via Getty Images)

"Windows sucks" feels like one of the most uncontroversial statements you can make online these days. Between AI guff, constant upselling (would you like to purchase an Office 365 subscription? No? Okay I'll ask again tomorrow), and myriad other reasons to be sick to the back teeth of Microsoft, it kind of feels like we're all trapped beating on the glass of an OS determined to make itself worse with every update (well, I'm not: I installed Linux).

At least it's not just you and me. Over the course of a wide-ranging chat about GOG's now-independent future, I asked new owner Michał Kiciński and managing director Maciej Gołębiewski if the storefront had much interest in the ongoing backlash against Windows and gamers' embrace—however small—of Linux. I got, well, two answers.

The first, from Gołębiewski, was straightforward: "Yes, we are." In fact, GOG has made Linux "one of the things that we've put in our strategy for this year to look closer at." Alas, that's pretty much all the detail he's willing to give. "I don't want to commit to any specifics, but certainly you will see this trend, and we also see that Linux is close to the hearts of our users, so we probably could do better on that front, and that's something that we'll be looking at."

Kiciński's answer was a little more… cathartic? "I'm really surprised at Windows," he said. "It's such poor-quality software and product, and I'm so surprised that it's [spent] so many years on the market. I can't believe it!"

For his part, Kiciński has switched to macOS, but "I sometimes have to fix my mum's computer or my father's computer with Windows, [and] like, it's unbelievable… So I'm not surprised that people gravitate outside of the Windows ecosystem. It's not the best ecosystem." Boy, ain't that the truth.

Windows AI — Please god no. (Image credit: Microsoft)

So if you ask me, I'd be surprised if GOG didn't hop aboard the Linux train that Valve kicked into high gear with the Steam Deck. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think we're gonna see a GOG Deck any time soon, but better Linux support for games on the platform? Or at least for those in GOG's Game Preservation program? It doesn't sound unlikely to me.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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