Steam Linux Usage Drops Below 1%

[RealNC]

3. Steam surveys are pretty random and not exactly representational.. Over the God knows how many months I have used steam I have gotten 1 survey on Linux but while using wine to play skyrim I got it 3 months in a row.

It's representative exactly because it's random. If it were not random, it would be biased.

If from 5 million users you pick 10000 at random, that's *perfectly* representative, as it's a big enough sample to average out any individual inconsistencies. You got 1 for Linux and 3 for Windows, someone else got 3 for Linux and only 1 for Windows.

Also, *if* you used the Windows version more often than the Linux one, then the 1/3 ratio is actually representative and reflects your higher use of the Windows version compared to the Linux one. In other words, if the most popular games are Windows-only (like Skyrim), then it's natural that the Windows version shows even bigger numbers, since you can't use the Linux version to play them.

[Tiger_Coder]

Mac OS X and Linux usage percentage drops, I am not sure if that means usage drops. That could mean this month more people have been played on Steam on Windows. And there is a obvious reason for this. And the reason is

GTA V

I mean seriously, many people just started steam for this who are not using steam regularly. The GTA fan base is huge. So I am guessing many people just open Windows to play it. That surely did not means Linux and Mac usage drops.

[Zoll]

The reasons are simple really:
1. Most Linux users probably aren't gamers (many are, but not a majority)
2. Those that are have probably either (A) Gotten over the novelty of Steam on Linux and went back to their Windows VMs/Dualboot where shit works, (B) beaten all of the games they've bought so far and haven't found any new ones to play, or (C) some combo of the two

There hasn't exactly been a mad-dash of new games on Linux through steam lately. Just a slow, steady stream (of most indie games), so it's obvious that eventually the usage was going to slow down as people got tired of playing the same games over and over.

Get some exciting new games on there and watch the usage shoot up to 1.3+% again.

Funny enough I fall in this category, I just finished Pillars of Eternity on Linux and wanted to play MMO with my friends (Rifts Online) but I wasn't able to get it working under wine, so I went back to Windows to play it. I think the only way this % is going to increase is when Steam Machines are released.

[Ardje]

Sorry guys, I was on vacation. And for work I need nothing more than an odroid xu3 which doesn't run steam (armhf). So I turned off my PC completely, which accounts for the 0,11%.
I will turn it back on, so the steam usage will rise again, but turning my PC on will triple my electricity usage.
And thinking about it: how would steam record the usage of wine?
As I still play GTA-IV on wine...

[GreatEmerald]

Meanwhile, according to StatCounter, Linux usage is currently on an all-time high with 1.91%. Maybe there are more people like me now who play only DRM-free games, given GOG on Linux and whatnot

[rhavenn]

Steam on Linux is fine..SteamOS not so much

SteamOS is pretty buggy, but Steam on Arch Linux works pretty slick.

A couple of major bugs I had with SteamOS:
a) it deleted all my downloaded games and "reset" itself. It was, as I found out, a known issue at the time.
b) HDMI audio kept switching devices and I'd lose sound between reboots.
c) A few games had some issues at launch, but tended to get fixed.

Steam on Arch has had zero issues, short of Cities:Skylines crapping out due to an issue with Steamworks. It worked fine on offline mode.

I don't play shooters, but with Civ 5, Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity and Age of Wonders III, along with Europa Universalis and some smaller indies and I'm pretty much fixed. Add in the Witcher 3 and I'll be set for some time.

Do I miss playing some of the more mainstream titles? Sometimes, but not enough to run Windows or deal with dual-booting. It just not worth it for me.

[bitman]

I have quite a pile of games in my steam account (discount surfin), but i play pretty much all of them on windows VM. Sad truth is quite a lot of games not yet available on linux. Ones that are available will run slower due to awesome video driver state. So those stats dont mean much in terms of active linux users. They more reflect state of linux as a gaming platform which still is in pretty sorry state. But its getting better and better and i think there is great bright future for us.

[Azrael5]

Linux systems have several SEVERE problems:

1. rigid dependencies;
2. proprietary drivers limited to new hardware;
3. weak mesa drivers;
4. complexity;
5. fragmented distributions;
6. sectarianism;
7. incommunicability (programmers have to interact with users);
8. unreliability;
9. slow progression.

Note: My own ACPI system on PT880+hd3850 agp has still problem resuming from suspend because of pixelated video.

[sarmad]

Mac OS X and Linux usage percentage drops, I am not sure if that means usage drops. That could mean this month more people have been played on Steam on Windows. And there is a obvious reason for this. And the reason is

GTA V

I mean seriously, many people just started steam for this who are not using steam regularly. The GTA fan base is huge. So I am guessing many people just open Windows to play it. That surely did not means Linux and Mac usage drops.

I think this guy nailed it. GTA could very well be the reason behind this unusual drop.

[Passso]

Mac OS X and Linux usage percentage drops, I am not sure if that means usage drops. That could mean this month more people have been played on Steam on Windows. And there is a obvious reason for this. And the reason is

GTA V

I mean seriously, many people just started steam for this who are not using steam regularly. The GTA fan base is huge. So I am guessing many people just open Windows to play it. That surely did not means Linux and Mac usage drops.

I think the same, 3 friends of mine already switched back to Windows just for this title.

Considering the time needed to complete it, I think they will not come back to Linux for a while...