Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Steam Linux Usage Drops During August

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #41
    Originally posted by allenmaher View Post
    Assuming it is a good random survey with a good methodology, small groups (those under 10% for most surveys) will tend to have a large variation in reported numbers and those figures will be less reliable than the larger groups. That coupled with the 0.6% or so under the other category (most of which is lilkely a linux of some type) makes the month to month changes hard to interpret.

    Likely causes in decline are bad graphics drivers for everyone not using the NVIDIA binary blobs, lack of games (AAA titles), and decent windows only titles dragging many users back to wine and dual boot (most real gamers will dual boot for the best experience of a game sory wine). Lastly most linux folks are older males, it is summer, we still work (http://www.pcworld.com/article/25301..._insight_.html). A large proportion of the windows gaming crowd are younger people who have the summer off and have way more time to play games. An influx of windows users due to seasonality can also shift those numbers.

    The least likely cause mentioned in the thread is the Unity/Gnome Shell issue. Ubuntu alone makes up aprox 75% (.75% of the less than 1%) of reported linux steam users. If that was an issue, Ubuntu's domination of the steam linux crowd would not be so complete.
    Hence why they should just count all active users in the last 30 days and what hardware/os they logged in on with hard numbers. As it stands a random sample can come back with 100% of the users being on Windows.

    I've been using Steam since the public launch and have only ever used it on Linux and have never once been asked to join the survey even though I never turn off Steam.

    Comment


    • #42
      Originally posted by Daktyl198 View Post
      Don't forget about the whole "The survey doesn't pop up on Linux" issue for people who have an install on both Windows and Linux.

      There are several people who report the survey popping up when they log into steam on Windows several times (not filling it out) but it never once popping up on Linux, even though their "account" was selected.

      *disclaimer* Just what I've heard. Don't kill the messenger...
      Well that happened to me too. Some time ago, I had been using Steam for Linux for MONTHS. The survey didn't pop up a single time. One day I decided to install Steam on Windows to play some PC games I bought a while ago. The first time I started Steam on Windows the survey popped up. Just an hour before that I was using Steam for Linux.

      Comment


      • #43
        My conscience is clear

        I use Steam on Linux nearly daily. Since Dota 2 was released, I didn't boot to Windows even 1 time

        But if it comes to purchasing new titles, there's not much to choose. I wanted to buy one title few days ago, but it was Windows/OSX only.

        Disclaimer: I'm now writing this from Windows, but I'm at work, not at home

        Comment


        • #44
          Originally posted by Kivada View Post
          Hence why they should just count all active users in the last 30 days and what hardware/os they logged in on with hard numbers. As it stands a random sample can come back with 100% of the users being on Windows.

          I've been using Steam since the public launch and have only ever used it on Linux and have never once been asked to join the survey even though I never turn off Steam.
          I have been on since early beta, average 30+hours a week play time and have 86 games (with linux steam versions) 89 dlc... times surveyed on linux zero. I tried Dear Ester on steam/wine 1 time before the HIB linux version was released (crap frame rate on my laptop, never tried steam on wine again)... and the survey popped. I don't have a copy of windows to boot (and would not if I did) so I don't know what the prevalence of survey requests are. Could it be coincidence yes, but I see why people doubt it. Confirmation bias is hard to get past. My experience is an anecdote and may be an artifact of chance. A collection of anecdotes like you see on this thread carries as much weight as a single anecdote, which is to say none statistically speaking.

          A 100% survey would bring up privacy issues (remember Ubuntu and amazon searches) and if it were optional would lead to a lot of anoyed gamers and a lot of non responses from privacy minded individuals (the tin foil hat club included). Does linux have more than it's share of tin foil hat wearing people? You read the forums here, I will let you decide on how to interpret the anecdotal collection of rants in here.

          I want the numbers to go up rather than down... and they are not. So i am likewise disapointed.
          "Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination." -- I found multiple attributions for the quote so I am not sure what the actual source is. But the point is clear, look to statistics to tell you what you don't know and don't want to know, because we already convince ourselves of what we think we know.

          Comment


          • #45
            Originally posted by verde View Post
            Ubuntu 13.10 is using 3.11 already..
            K, then i will change to 13.10!

            Comment


            • #46
              Season cycle

              Does a hardcore gamer use Linux today?
              I don't think so.

              As a casual gamer, I have better things to do in August than spending long ours gaming.
              I bet, more Linux/casual gamer will be back on Steam when the winter comes - I will!

              SS3 is still waiting, DOTA2 needs to be looked at, Metro coming?

              Comment


              • #47
                Money talks

                Market share schmarket share. Whats Valve and gaming corps biggest interest is money so if they made more than they invested they are happy.

                Comment


                • #48
                  I use a duelboot and also run Steam with Wine in Ubuntu 12.04.

                  I know 3 Steam installs probably is too much, but I want to only have to boot into Windows if needs be. I run 3 games in Windows and the rest run very well on Ubuntu...

                  However, does this mean that my contribution to the statistics are 2 to Windows and 1 to Linux?

                  Comment


                  • #49
                    Will Bitcoin become mainstream before linux does?

                    Or should I put it this way? Will Valve begin to accept Bitcoin for their games before linux tops the stats page as the preferred gaming OS?

                    1% linux reminds me kind of in what state Bitcoin is in right now. If I want a linux Valve game title I can get it from a place that offers about "1% of Steam games", that's Humble Bundle inc.(though 10% of those are linux since even there they've been corrupted by power and money delivering mostly Windows anyway, just kiddin')

                    Comment


                    • #50
                      Originally posted by Daktyl198 View Post
                      Don't forget about the whole "The survey doesn't pop up on Linux" issue for people who have an install on both Windows and Linux.

                      There are several people who report the survey popping up when they log into steam on Windows several times (not filling it out) but it never once popping up on Linux, even though their "account" was selected.

                      *disclaimer* Just what I've heard. Don't kill the messenger...
                      My Steam Linux survey finally popped up last night.... And it crashes Steam every time that it gets to gathering system hardware/software stats... So even though I get the survey, I can't submit it

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X