A thread for those of us that don't have diggle...err twitter accounts accounts (gasp!!). For myself, I prefer to buy directly from the company. Although I do understand there's usually some kind of middle-man involved so the devs don't have to deal with all the credit card compliance stuff. Enigma
While I wouldn't say I prefer to buy from the company directly, it is usually how it goes. Because there's really nothing like steam/impulse/GoG/whateverthekidsareusingthesedays for linux. If Desura ever manages to actually release a Linux client I'll be buying as many games from them as I can. You could also try getting into the Ubuntu software center but this has obvious drawbacks. Such as only being on Ubuntu. I've also heard that their registration process is uhhh... nonexistent. You just email a guy. They should really work on that.
Tux games doesn't really do a whole lot of indie games, and the games they do have are all fairly old. And I'm pretty sure LGP only sells its own games doesn't it?
At the end of the day, I'm good as long as I have something like a XXX.run or XXX.tar.gz that I can backup, that's not distro dependent, and that doesn't require me to login to reinstall or play.
The majority of my linux games have been purchased through the Humble Bundles and then Penumbra and Eschalon II through middlemen (or at least I think Penumbra was through a middleman).
From what I know, the humble bundles linux versions are maintained and given by the main companies themselves, and they are only stored in the servers as a middleman between those who bought the bundles. I dunno about Eschalon II since I bought it on GamersGate but Penumbra I also think it is maintained by the main company... I might be wrong on that one though ^^; But like enigma said, a package, run or tar.gz will do for starters.... The guys at tinyBuildGames with their "No Time To Explain" game I think will follow the same procedure... at least at the start.
"Because there's really nothing like steam/impulse/GoG/whateverthekidsareusingthesedays for linux." There is actually, Ubuntu Software Center, you can buy a dozen of commercial titles there. For example Steel Storm Episode 2 (I know because I bought it)! This would be perfect for USC, it's nice to get updates to all your games with the normal update manager! And then some have put a Linux binary next to the Windows binary, and then you can run Steam in Wine and install it that way. Not very nice though...
Except that only works for people who use ubuntu. It's would be like a DD service that only ran on windows XP or only on vista or only on 7. Not exactly the best business model for selling games.
while I did buy many games from Tux Games, and also generally buy from the developers themselves, I think we should try this new service http://www.gameolith.com/ just a handful of titles at launch, but it will be interesting to see it grow.