Steam Linux Usage Came Up Short In January

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Steam Linux Usage Came Up Short In January

With the start of a new month comes some new statistics out of Valve's Steam Hardware/Software Survey that concerns Linux gamers...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTU5MDM

[skriticos]

Somewhat understandable

I spend a lot of time in Steam and I'm an exclusive Linux gamer on Ubuntu, but even I get bored because there are so limited interesting new releases. I see a bunch of interesting developments though, like signs of the X-Com port to Linux, but right now I'm really waiting for some good old in-depth (possibly turn based) strategy / simulation that keeps me occupied for long periods of time, like Civilization or Skyrim.

2014 will be an interesting year and will show which forces are in motion to make the platform successful.

I further suspect that 2015/2016 will bring a big shift with the VR integration that Valve is doing, as it will likely be a feature that only the SteamOS / Linux platform will provide.

The Valve folks are clever people though and I'm optimistic and hopeful in the success of the platform.

[mitcoes]

Who cares?

SteamOS will beat Ubuntu in users when it will come preinstalled at consoles
At least 5 Million of their 30 million users wil buy their Steam Machines
As almost none switched to a dual boot as they have all the tittles

But it is a long term bet, and when Steam MAchines will be out there and even Steambooks it will have it desktop market as chormebooks have,because they exist

i would like to see chromebooks alike hardware with Ubuntu or Manjaro preinstalled 200 USD but with 4Gb of RAM and HDD and 64 bit OS and even only ONE brand betting for it. But no - big - brand did bet for any GNU/Linux until today and until SteamOS 64 books or "Steambooks" will come - or not - still is time to bet for one CHEAP and GOOD model, perhaps an ACER 4GB+HDD

[KingArthur10]

One problem I have with their hardware survey is that it only accounts for one machine in a person's setup. I personally have two Windows only computers, one dual boot, and one Linux only computer from which I access Steam.

I guess that assuming they randomly sample throughout the day/week, they should be able to average my Linux usage over the course of several hardware surveys, but so far, I've only been prompted for the survey while on my Windows installs.

[gutigen]

If you haven't noticed Michael, Steam gained 10 million users in last 3 months, so no wonder survey looks like this. Also 1.5% in January translates into over 1,100,000 Linux gamers.

[NothingMuchHereToSay]

SteamOS will beat Ubuntu in users when it will come preinstalled at consoles
At least 5 Million of their 30 million users wil buy their Steam Machines
As almost none switched to a dual boot as they have all the tittles

But it is a long term bet, and when Steam MAchines will be out there and even Steambooks it will have it desktop market as chormebooks have,because they exist

i would like to see chromebooks alike hardware with Ubuntu or Manjaro preinstalled 200 USD but with 4Gb of RAM and HDD and 64 bit OS and even only ONE brand betting for it. But no - big - brand did bet for any GNU/Linux until today and until SteamOS 64 books or "Steambooks" will come - or not - still is time to bet for one CHEAP and GOOD model, perhaps an ACER 4GB+HDD

Manjaro most likely won't be preinstalled, however I do agree that SteamOS will be pretty much the majority of Linux users, even though most console gamers won't know that they're running Linux, consider the Android effect, people use Android but know nothing about Linux. I believe the same thing will be for Ubuntu as well, Ubuntu shall have somewhat of a market share, but probably for mobile at first, convergence will most likely get Ubuntu on tons of desktops.

Hopefully once Canonical gets enough market share comparable to Windows or Mac, they can make an impact. I'm sure they'll pull a 180 and promote other Linux distros, but as of now Ubuntu has to promote themselves, therefore, SteamOS will be promoted as much as Valve can do.

[aschmidtm]

Other?

If you haven't noticed Michael, Steam gained 10 million users in last 3 months, so no wonder survey looks like this. Also 1.5% in January translates into over 1,100,000 Linux gamers.

I'm assuming you're counting "Other" as linux? Is that spec'd anywhere?

[IanS]

On a slightly related note to Steam statistics, Steam now sports over 300 games for Linux in their store now, and that isn't including dlc/soundtracks/etc (with those thrown in the count of available Linux related items rises to nearly 800).

SteamOS will beat Ubuntu in users when it will come preinstalled at consoles
At least 5 Million of their 30 million users wil buy their Steam Machines
As almost none switched to a dual boot as they have all the tittles

More like 75 million and growing: http://www.destructoid.com/there-are...s-269029.phtml

...I've only been prompted for the survey while on my Windows installs.

Ya, I haven't got a single survey participation offer at all this past year on the Linux client. Of those I received before, most were for the Windows client installed via Wine, and a few while installing the Linux Steam client back during the closed beta. I log into Steam on an almost daily basis to check updates to forum threads I follow, to see what new Linux games show up, and to occasionally play some games yet I never get offered to be counted and no one I know personally that use Steam on Linux on a regular basis get offers either, though there have been a few people on these forums who have claimed to get the offer. They seem few and far between and I don't recall anyone mentioning getting it multiple times for the Linux client, (at least not since the Linux client left beta).

[Daveoc64]

If you haven't noticed Michael, Steam gained 10 million users in last 3 months, so no wonder survey looks like this. Also 1.5% in January translates into over 1,100,000 Linux gamers.

The survey is not at all scientific, so you can't really extrapolate data like that.

[IanS]

I'm assuming you're counting "Other" as linux? Is that spec'd anywhere?

During one of the months last year, a few dozen distros suddenly stopped being counted individually and the Other category went up by about the same amount that those missing distros made up the previous month. There have been no official word on this, but most of us suspected they moved all the smaller distros below a certain threshold into Other to clean up the list, as that is the explanation that makes the most sense. We can't say that all of other is Linux, but nearly all of it likely is.