this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026

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Drop OSS - an open-source, self-hosted alternative to platforms like Steam and Epic. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by warmaster@lemmy.world to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world

69 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49721314

I just discovered this. Has anyone tried it?

Basically, you install it on your home server and use it to stash your DRM-free games, and then install the client on your PC, Steam Deck, whatever... log in to your server and just use it like your own, selfhosted Steam app. Any PC gamer already running Jellyfin, RomM, or other selfhosted entertainment-related server might be interested in trying it, if you do... please share your experience! I'll try it myself when I have time and post back here. If you know of any other alternatives, please share!

Self-hosted & open-source. Run Drop entirely on your own hardware. Your library, your data, your rules — all under the AGPLv3.

Rich metadata editing. Customise names, descriptions, and icons with full Markdown and image support.

Automatic imports. Pull cover art and game details straight from IGDB, GiantBomb, and PCGamingWiki.

A built-in store. Let users browse, filter, and collect games through a fully featured store.

Flexible authentication. Use simple accounts or hook into your existing SSO.

Native desktop client. Download, install, and play your whole library through a cross-platform desktop client.

Available for Windows, Mac & Linux (their web page lists a deb, their github repo publishes packages for all major distros and also an Appimage)

Website:
https://droposs.org/

Docs:
https://droposs.org/docs/admin/quickstart/

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[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Oh neat!

Ive always had a inling in my mind if valve wanted to be assholes it would suck in many ways. Projects like this may help in the long run.

Im just glad valve has proven to have integrity and actively helps open source.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Its a matter of when. Theres no way they'll keep enshittification at bay into 2030. Start planning now.

Steam subscription, limits of downloads/reinstalls on games, the end of family sharing, will be the norm.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Whyzzat? Do you have some foreknowledge that others dont? Why 2030 specifically?

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

nostradamus told us !!!

[–] ivanovsky@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

He's planning to kill Gaben himself! D:

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

Just a guess. I can't imagine steam will continue being profitable when data storage costs $300 per terabyte, youre not gonna get free unlimited game download data for much longer. Also taking into account the inevitable great depression thats on the way, a game company is going to struggle and do anything they can for profit.

Steam is fine. Theyre still a capitalistic corporation that must grow to infinity and feed off consumption. Best to be prepared for the shitshow.

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[–] definitemaybe@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Citation needed.

Steam is a privately owned corporation that has no need to justify their extraction of maximum profits to shareholders. There's no reason to expect them to risk destroying their incredibly profitable business to chase short-term profits.

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (4 children)

When Gabe dies.

[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

Yupp. It will be a power vacuum almost like how dictators take over countries every single facet of it will change. It is inevitable.

Sure is bitchin for now though while he is alive. Buy I like this project a LOT I'm going to use it

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[–] urushitan@kakera.kintsugi.moe 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Looks like their desktop app is archived on github

https://github.com/Drop-OSS/drop-app

Wonder what happened

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Apparently they are rewriting it in another repo in the same org.

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[–] hellmo_luciferrari@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well, this de-incentivizes me from even trying this out. Thank you for sharing!

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Please read OP's response

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[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Too many of my games collection are from Steam, so I don't think I can get much use out of this, if I'm understanding correctly. If I wanted to prep for the day Valve enshittifies, would I have to pirate the copies of games I own?

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

You might have some DRM free games in your Steam library, maybe you could backup those folders.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh, I'm such a dummy. I didn't know Steam games could be DRM-free. Thank you!

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It would be awesome if someone wrote a Drop plugin to import DRM free games from a steam account.

[–] TotallyWorthLife@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And from GOG, if it still doesn't exist.

May try Drop out either way

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

For GOG it would be easy, there are several libraries that could be used.

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[–] Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This is cool as shit.

What’s it for though? Lan parties where guests are instructed NOT to bring games?

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Think Plex / Jellyfin, but for games. Stash them on an old PC with lots of long term storage space. Install them whenever you want on your gaming rig, uninstall when you're done. Your game is still safe on your server, ready to re-install in the future.

[–] critical@reddthat.com 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Like a cache server?

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

with a "store" UI. Think Plex, for games.

[–] ag10n@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Like a games installation files server

[–] SatyrSack@quokk.au 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Are people reinstalling the same game often enough to want something like this? Maybe I am just not the target audience, but this looks like a solution in search of a problem. I imagine I wouldn't find much benefit to this over just searching in my NAS file system for the relevant install files when I need them.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, some people do that too also for movies and music. Selfhosting an entertainment server is not for everyone.

[–] SatyrSack@quokk.au 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (9 children)

I run a Jellyfin server and get a lot of use out of it because I recognize the benefits that offers compared to just browsing the filesystem and playing files manually. Media streaming, tracking watched/unwatched state, etc. But I just cannot tell what benefits this offers for video games. If it was a game streaming server (like Steam Link, Moonlight, etc.), I would get it. But I just don't think I am the target audience for this tool. More power to you, for anyone who finds this useful.

EDIT: I can see this being useful for a game you have to update. I only play completed games, so that is not something that I am used to doing often. But for someone who plays games like Fortnite, Stardew Valley, etc., and has to install updates often, I could find a program like this to handle tracking updates useful.

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[–] sickday@fedia.io 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

So how do updates work? If I download an Offline Installer, then the original developers/publishers post an Update to the game will this grab that update for me automatically or do I have to redownload a new version of the Offline Installer and stash it on the box running this?

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I guess it depends. Where does the update come from? GOG? Then there's a CLI tool that automates that.

[–] sickday@fedia.io 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah GOG is where I get my current offline installers from. Could you point me in the direction of the CLI tool that automates updates?

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I can't remember, I think it's this one: https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/heroic-gogdl there's also this: https://pypi.org/project/gog-cli/

[–] sonalder@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

I used lgogdownloader

[–] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 week ago

You are literally the distributor of the games on Drop. You add the game installer to the Drop backend and from the client you and friends can run the installer. If there’s ever an update, you will have to replace the original game installer files with the new ones and then you and your friends can update the game on the Drop client.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The server side doesn't seem to have a container-free install. I hope it works well for you but for me and mine it ceases to exist.

[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 2 points 1 week ago

It has a guide to build it and you can also build it to work without a container

https://droposs.org/docs/reference/build-server/

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[–] QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This looks awesome, not gonna lie. I thought to check the Unraid app store and found the Drop OSS docker there! It dropped yesterday! (Pun intended)

Sweet!

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's amazing, I didn't know about it until today, that's why I made the post. I didn't know it was already popular enough to pop up in the Unraid app store. Great news! The more popular it gets, better the chances it gets supported long term.

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[–] mushroomman_toad@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Seems like a really cool project! I might start running this at home to make it easier to keep track of my humble bundle collection, open source games, and emulators. Looks like a good way to get friends set up those games for multiplayer as well.

Looks like there's plans to implement cloud saves as well, that would be really cool for syncing emulator saves across my systems. I think retrodeck was doing something similar but there's so much local configuration.

[–] hellmo_luciferrari@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago

This greatly interest me. I may check this out.

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This looks awesome, although i might be occupied converting my existing storage into something that can work with this. installing 20k repacks to pack them into archives again might take a while ... fuck.

My watercooler for my CPU comes in about 2 weeks - after moving my PC into it's nice new case i'm gonna start migrating lol

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Are you sure you need to unpack them? That part of the isn't very clear to me.

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm not sure either. I saw someone including their Gog installers on github, which would mean i don't have to do all of this. Let's see, i'm gonna get myself the docker container in the next days and will add a comment regarding progress.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thank you, if you find anything noteworthy please create an issue so they update their docs.

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

For sure. This could be the first project that can take the place of Playnite and even surpass it for me, so i am pretty hyped about it.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

If someone wrote a Playnite plugin to integrate with Drop, you could use Playnite as the client.

[–] Polaris@jlai.lu 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Does it have cloud saves ?

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Another commenter pointed out it's planned (in their roadmap) not yet implemented.

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