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Steam Linux Usage Still Roughly Around 1%

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  • Steam Linux Usage Still Roughly Around 1%

    Phoronix: Steam Linux Usage Still Roughly Around 1%

    At the start of every month one of our rituals is always checking in on Valve's Steam Software/Hardware Survey to see their Linux statistics for the month prior. Let's see how Steam Linux usage was in December with the arrival of SteamOS.....

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    I mostly play L4D2 right now and it still crashes on Linux so even though I use Linux as my desktop, I still have to play in Windows.

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    • #3
      Looking at StatCounter, it's pretty remarkable what the situation is at the Windows 8 side: it stagnated right around the level of OS X (8%). Meanwhile the Windows 7 install base isn't budging and Windows XP is on a very small decline.

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      • #4
        No reason for a lot of gamers to adopt it frankly, works with less HW, less games, and user interface isn't very good for what PC gamers usually use, SteamOS really only works for the TV, and HTPC has never had a huge market, Gaming HTPC's even less so.

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        • #5
          Jump onto a "normal" gaming forum and most of the people even thinking about a Steam Box are planning to put Windows on it after they buy it, seeing it mostly as a good way to acquire a low-cost pre-built gaming rig.

          Linux in and of itself has no value over Windows for the average user. If you want Linux to take over for gaming, it has to actually be hands-down better than the competition. Not one or two things better, but all around an _obvious_ improvement (coming from many different angles). Otherwise, it's just something different and people in general _really_ don't like change.

          Valve is pushing Linux because Gabe fears the Windows Store and losing the ~30% of PC game industry profits Valve currently controls. That's an understandable reason for Valve to want to have a solid foothold somewhere other than Windows, but it's not a motivation for the consumers to switch to a new platform. Even the XBone and PS4 have been somewhat lackluster compared to original sales expectations, partly because there's currently no good reason to upgrade. They're not backwards compatible, they have virtually no "must buy" exclusives, and other than some of the Kinect2 media center gimmicks don't do anything new the old hardware didn't do. Point being, you need to make changing up platforms worthwhile, and Steam OS / Linux don't do that for the average gamer or consumer. Windows does what they need, doesn't cost all that much, and all their old crap keeps on working. Linux can't just be free and have some niceties here and there. It has to be so incredibly better that not switching looks stupid even to John Q. H4l0Bo$$17.

          Failing that, the marketing needs to do it, but "Linux" (or even Steam OS) has no real marketing, especially not when competing against the _billions_ that Microsoft or Sony or Apple or Nintendo drop on advertising. Maybe Valve will start a serious marketing push after Steam OS is at 1.0 and commercial Steam Boxes are out, but they're going to have to be prepared to drop a very pretty penny, akin to what Microsoft had to do with the original XBox (which lost them a lot of money, even without the subsidized hardware costs).

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          • #6
            Still not many really popular games ported over to linux side.

            I use steam on my linux box ( Which is my main computer ) but untill more popular games are ported over its not much of a draw to use it , For instance I got Tomb Raider and Bioshock infinity when I baught my graphics card but still can't play them on linux side becouse they not ported over to the linux steam client yet. This is in my opinion what is holding linux side steam client adoption back. Maybe this year will move things along faster ... Hopefully.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by efi360 View Post
              I use steam on my linux box ( Which is my main computer ) but untill more popular games are ported over its not much of a draw to use it , For instance I got Tomb Raider and Bioshock infinity when I baught my graphics card but still can't play them on linux side becouse they not ported over to the linux steam client yet. This is in my opinion what is holding linux side steam client adoption back. Maybe this year will move things along faster ... Hopefully.
              well, unless gcc 4.8 doesn't stop producing broken code or the gpu driver keeps on crashing (r600g, on an 5850)

              I'm unable to play Metro: Last Light, Serious Sam 3, ME2, ME3 or other games

              so gaming still mostly on Windows for me

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              • #8
                Yeah adoption will require a serious widening of available AAA games as well as some kind of performance / whatever improvements over Windows 8.

                Though IMO it's kind of silly to build any kind of living room PC and put Windows on it unless you're just too unfamiliar with Linux to try it.


                I'm noticing a lot of games that are PC / Mac only but don't have a Linux version. I assume these don't have actual OpenGL rendering engines but instead use something like CrossOver or whatever? Otherwise I'd be more than happy to offer to port any OpenGL game over to Linux.

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                • #9
                  What happened to all those people who said they'd ditch Windows in a heartbeat if Steam ever came to Linux?

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                  • #10
                    @kernelOfTruth

                    I see no problem playing Serious Sam 3 with my HD 5670 with mesa 10 (i just created a repo that mirrors the packages from steamos) - just ignore the warning you see on start. Also Left 4 Dead 2 works. I did not play MLN yet.

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