Steam On Linux Use Reported At About 1.2%

[schmidtbag]

2. AMD is very important because only with AMD hardware , more exactly , with their APUs, will be possible make cheap consoles (sub-500 USD. possibly even sub-500 USD) with a minimum of performance to play well , i won't all, but at least a good amount of not-so demanding AAA titles (or at least not worse than in other consoles).
Even if there would not be offcial consoles in that range, it will be possible to anyone DIY a cheap SteamBox with AMD Hardware.

I agree that AMD would make a nice mid-range Steam Box, but I'm sure nvidia and Valve (and probably intel for that matter) have made a deal to lower the prices. The console will not sell if it costs more than $500 and it won't sell if it uses hardware that can't play AAA titles at medium detail.

3. No Matter Valve's Boss doesn't like the idea of exclusives, when these consoles be launched officially , it NEEDS AT LEAST ONE EXCLUSIVE title. If you don't believe this, just see what TITANFALL is doing helping the XB1 sales still float.

Titanfall isn't exclusive to XB1. It's on PC too. I'm sure the game is helping with XB1 but it's not the only game doing so. However, I do agree that having an exclusive title would help. SteamOS has the disadvantages of both PC and consoles - it doesn't get the micro-optimizations that consoles get and it doesn't (by default) have the ability to be used for more than just games and media. So, it does need to be more than just a conveniently assembled TV-compatible PC.

[Dukenukemx]

As a gamer, I try to incorporate Linux as a gaming OS. Taking baby steps.

Firstly, the UI's. I hate Unity. It's ugly and not something I can use comfortably. XFCE works really nicely, but looks like Windows 95 by default. MATE is pretty nice overall, but has some strange bugs and looks 5 years dated. KDE is nice looking, but has some strange issues as well. Cinnamon by MINT is very nice looking, but works horribly with graphic cards. So far my best experience is using MATE or XFCE, but with Mint. They can turn an ugly UI into something I can look at.

Secondly, Windows compatibility. I am not going to hold my breath over new games being ported over to Linux. WINE needs to work better and easier. It should be as easy as installing Wine and running the Windows applications. Otherwise I might as well go back to using Windows.

Finally drivers. I love the open source drivers for AMD, but they can be a problem. They don't always work, and they lack control. There's no UI to allow me to adjust things like AA or other features. The oibaf drivers can sometimes break things. I also have a laptop with Nvidia 9600M GT, that it took me a while to figure that the 304.121 drivers are the only drivers that work with 3.14 kernel.

If Steam wants to break past 1% with Linux, these 3 things must be addressed.

[AJSB]

Trust me, it does not need eclusive titles.
BUT: I bet my ass, you will be able to play Half-Life 3 and Portal 3 on SteamOS/Linux FOR FREE. (At least for the first half year)

Well , that itself is a kinda of a exclusive

[emerge-e-world]

@Dukenukem: I agree with you on the UI front. It's a total mess at the moment since Unity and GNOME3 came along. I'm currently stuck using GNOME3 after a long period of XFCE, but I'm far from happy with it's usability restrictions. Hope cinnamon evolves a little more, seems to be best combination of modern look and not scaring of users with counter-intuitive UIs that introduce new concepts without fallback.

But before I start another DE flamewar, one other thing:

Secondly, Windows compatibility. I am not going to hold my breath over new games being ported over to Linux. WINE needs to work better and easier. It should be as easy as installing Wine and running the Windows applications. Otherwise I might as well go back to using Windows.

Did you try PlayOnLinux to intall wine apps? For the most of them it's just click,click,click, install .. works! It's BTW an easy way to install a WINE'ed windows Steam client to run windows only games.

[schmidtbag]

Firstly, the UI's. I hate Unity. It's ugly and not something I can use comfortably. XFCE works really nicely, but looks like Windows 95 by default. MATE is pretty nice overall, but has some strange bugs and looks 5 years dated. KDE is nice looking, but has some strange issues as well. Cinnamon by MINT is very nice looking, but works horribly with graphic cards. So far my best experience is using MATE or XFCE, but with Mint. They can turn an ugly UI into something I can look at.

I think unity looks ok, but I hate the usability of it. XFCE is only good on non-UHD screens, and presumably MATE is the same way. KDE in my experience is pretty stable at this point. It's just notably the slowest and most bloated, but the bloat is drastically shrinking. I had to have saved roughly 100MB of disk space in the past year or two in just KDE updates alone.

Secondly, Windows compatibility. I am not going to hold my breath over new games being ported over to Linux. WINE needs to work better and easier. It should be as easy as installing Wine and running the Windows applications. Otherwise I might as well go back to using Windows.

Well, yeah, but that's obvious. That's like saying "I need my doctor to cure my cancer" but if it were that simple people wouldn't be stating that for however many decades its been worked on. I agree that we can't realistically rely on games being natively ported to linux, on the other hand, wine is equally as unreliable in the short term. Wine might be able to run the game at some point, but long after you lost interest in it. Besides, in the end, a game running in wine is still considered being run through windows, so statistically wine isn't helping the future of linux gaming.

[sarmad]

I wonder why we don't see more AAA titles on Steam Linux by now.
Seems like the publishers wait for the very day the Steam Machines are officially released.

Wouldn't it be a great chance to release some of the titles (probably ported already)

Why do you expect AAA titles at this time when Linux support in major game engines have just been added? It won't be before Christmas season until we start seeing some AAA titles, and it won't be until Christmas next year before it becomes a norm to see new AAA titles on Linux.

[Jumbo21]

The real number is probably quite a bit higher, a lot of linux users are probably using the windows version of Steam through wine, and there are probably many linux users who either haven't gotten the hardware survey, or refused to take it at all.

[AJSB]

Why do you expect AAA titles at this time when Linux support in major game engines have just been added? It won't be before Christmas season until we start seeing some AAA titles, and it won't be until Christmas next year before it becomes a norm to see new AAA titles on Linux.

That's also what i think about it.

Also...with a bit of luck , AMD will solve their Catalyst problems at most till Xmas 2015 and by then is when SteamBox will be launched offcially with a decent ammount games at launch date ready to play.

With Unity, UE4, and CE engines all now supporting Linux, game devs have now almost two years to start develop games that will be ready when SteamBox is out...

Meanwhile, the hype around XB1 and PS4 should be cooled of, so, it should the right moment to do the SteamBox launch.

[Dukenukemx]

I agree that we can't realistically rely on games being natively ported to linux, on the other hand, wine is equally as unreliable in the short term. Wine might be able to run the game at some point, but long after you lost interest in it.

I wanna treat Wine like DOSBox, to play games from before. Not as a way to game in the future.

Besides, in the end, a game running in wine is still considered being run through windows, so statistically wine isn't helping the future of linux gaming.

If people are going to jump on Linux, they'll want their old applications working. Even Microsoft has Problems with getting people away from Windows Xp, because of that very reason. Why pay people to patch and fix Windows XP when you could just update the OS? Cause there's a good chance your application made in 1995 won't work in Windows 7 or 8.

If Microsoft is having a hard time getting people to switch, then what chance does Linux have without decent compatibility?

[mike4]

I've all running fine in Wine. From Photoshop to Rage. Even doing a backup is as simple as copying ~.wine. Death simple. Project Cars will be my next purchase.