Howdo, I’m CCP Cemetery (Davy), and I’m the producer for our launcher team. If you’re unhappy with the recent update, or our messaging surrounding it then please accept my apologies.
To shed a little light on how our lack of advanced communication came to pass. While we knew that our latest update was not going to be compatible with Linux, with our available data we didn’t expect to inconvenience that many people at the time due to the majority of the Linux community making use of older launcher builds or Proton. This coupled with the fact that our Linux community are quite resilient and are often capable of adapting and solving issues when they arise, along with the fact that Linux is an unsupported platform, lead us to believe that messaging wouldn’t be required for this update. While this statement doesn’t necessarily excuse our lack of communication on this front, it should give some insight into how we came to the conclusion that advanced notification would not be required in this instance.
I do want to remind those still reading that at this time our development teams don’t officially develop for, test on or otherwise support Linux given that it’s an unsupported platform. As such teams may often not know that Linux users would be adversely affected by their work, and may not have a communication plan in place. However CCP does undergo public beta testing, such as our past and future Native Mac Client play tests, and everyone has the ability to try our beta launchers via the launcher settings menu under tools. As such I would encourage Linux users try out our beta releases since this is the only way to ensure some degree of testing on Linux, and may help the community to prepare in advance for upcoming changes.
In regards to this particular launcher security update, we have included backwards compatibility in our web UI for older launcher applications, such as the ones most Linux users are active on. However at some point we will need to deprecate this functionality in order to move forwards with planned improvements, harden security and to reduce our technical debt.
For those expressing security concerns, or those who feel the need to get in contact directly, simply file a support ticket and title it for the attention of CCP Cemetery, and I’ll be sure to read and respond where appropriate.
In closing, should our launcher team be aware of changes that may have serious repercussions to the greater Linux community, we will endeavour to communicate them in advance, and once again my apologies to those caught out by the lack of communication for our last release.
Have a good weekend and fly safe o7
Cheers,
CCP Cemetery (Davy)