Valve Publishes Initial Steam Linux Figures For 2019

[the_scx]

Ah OK, so that was still there for couple first days there in january, so statistics for XP here are probably real ones just from these couple days

I would rather say that the February update broke compatibility. You know, Steam client updates don't come out every day.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/48091/

https://msfn.org/board/topic/177702-...omment-1159410

[dungeon]

@the_scx

Cool, i must say i like that current Windows XP users spirit, reminds me of times linux users lauhching steam without native steam support.

You can still use the Steam client on Win XP. The last version that is known to work OOTB is the one that was released on January 4, 2019.

Ah OK, so that was still there for couple first days there in january, so statistics for XP here are probably real ones just from these couple days

[some_canuck]

never once seen the survey on linux, and it's been a couple years by now...

[the_scx]

Interesting is also how steam still count here Windows XP, but don't support it... is probably yet another story from The Twilight Zone

If you run the Steam client on Windows XP (or WINE set to emulate Windows XP) it has a red banner at the top saying that XP is no longer supported. However, it doesn't prevent you from using the software just because it's not officially supported. You can game on Windows XP to your heart's desire if you really want to, and apparently some still do (though, that could potentially include some Wine users emulating Windows XP if they have Wine configured to hide the fact that it's Wine).

The main reason why Valve dropped support for Windows XP and Vista was Electron, or, more precisely, Chromium. As you may know, for years they have been using the version based on Chromium 49 from 2016. There is no reason to do it any longer (patching an outdated software on your own is really expensive and doesn't affect security very well). Unfortunately, Chromium 49 was the latest version with support for Windows XP and Vista. To be more specific, the vanilla version of Chromium 50 will not even launch on Windows XP (there is a fork called Slimjet 10 that will do that, but this is another story - anyway, it is based on Chromium 50, which is already years old).

We should not blame Valve for that. They really tried to provide support for Windows XP (and Vista) as long as possible. Please keep in mind that many of Chromium features (like sandboxing) just didn't work on Windows XP. Their only "fault" is that they sell games that are not officially supported on any platform (like Windows 98/2000/XP-only games). However, in many cases it is possible to run these titles under Windows 7, Windows 10 or Linux (Proton may be very helpful here). You just usually need a few patches (official or not) or some kind of "winetricks". Of course, this is not always the case. Some games won't work this way. And here is the good news for Windows XP users.
You can still use the Steam client on Win XP. The last version that is known to work OOTB is the one that was released on January 4, 2019. You can easily disable any updates by forcing -noverifyfiles option. The -no-cef-sandbox, -no-sandbox and -cef-winxp may be useful here as well. The last update is known to no longer work under Windows XP, but you can always manually downgrade SteamUI.dll. What is more important here, for XP-only games you actually don't need Steam client at all. Many of you have probably heard that games on Steam use some kind of DRM provided by Valve. That's true, but CEG (Custom Executable Generation) was introduced in 2009 - over two years after the release of Windows Vista and in the same year as Windows 7 appeared). This means that there is no single XP-only game that would use it. This is probably true for Vista-only games as well. I don't even know if such things exist today. Even if there were Vista-only games in the past, they probably already gained support for Windows 7. The only problem here is about downloading games without the official Steam client. However, this can be done using SteamCMD. Anyway, you don't need Steam client to run Windows XP-only games, and there is no reason to use an unsupported and obsoleted system for newer titles.

https://msfn.org/board/topic/177702-steam-for-xp-in-2019/?page=3&tab=comments#comment-1159426

[dungeon]

Now, this here is called Kubuntu and it'll have 10 years of long term support.

Wrong, only Ubuntu LTS will have 10 years of support, not flavors Read that as only main repo have that much support, not else like universe where flavors and much else is So, not everything is supported that much really, just fragments of it.

That is like Windows 10 LTSB scheme, that don't roll like usual one but don't give you so much too. Support is 10 years on every 2 years points on average, with also some "planned good byes" on every 2-4 years scenario So, "we will bump you to ask every 2 years by default to upgrade optionally (same like on Debian or Ubuntu basically), but if you change default then we consider that you know what you are doing"

I am very familiar with this 2-year upgrade scheme, since Debian that i use doing it like that since nearly 2 decades

[skeevy420]

I think that currently Microsoft suffers the most, as they need to cut Windows 7 in less than an year, but these numbers does not look promising as is still 1/3 used worlwide

Their planned obsolence division must do something about it, like it or not They cut off already Windows XP support back in 2014. at about 1/5 worldwide usage, so if they could dimminish that 1/3 to 1/5 in less then an year that would be huge success so that people suffer less.



I think that my spirit is near golden right, while mine soul is brave Companies do that all the time, using multitude of different methods and i am waitng to see which method will be applied from now on the most as dead end of Windows 7 is near

Some people I know who own a local business just this year upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. The only reason they did is that they bought a used PC that came with 7 after their XP machine caught too many STDs and died. I can't tell y'all how many times I fixed that POS. I had to do the embedded XP trick and all sorts of oddball shit to keep that thing working over the past few years. It was a nightmare.

Until then, they had a PC guy from a local repair shop, who eventually refused to do business with them, because XP was out of date and they'd blame him and not the OS for their problems (it was them and the OS causing their problems) and that he didn't know of any way to fix it for them. I was 5ft away and just said "you know you can just tweak the registry and it'll get updates from MS for 5 more years. It's not the best solution, but it works and it'll solve your problem." A few weeks after that, that guy just quit returning their calls...can't say that I blame him because they're straight up Luddites...only reason I help them is because I've known them since I was 3 or 4.

They're a mom and pop type operation and they don't rely on any single piece of Windows software. BSD would work for them since all they do is eBay, Amazon, email, and Facebook. I've offered to convert them to Linux or upgrade to Windows 10 for free. I've explained to them about MS dropping support...in one ear and out the other every single time with them saying dumbass stuff like "Well, it works for me so I don't want to change."

"My truck works, doesn't change the fact that I have an exhaust leak and I need to weld it shut. What I'm trying to say is that we're almost to the point where I can no longer fix your computer's 'exhaust leak' with quick weld. Now, this here is called Kubuntu and it'll have 10 years of long term support. Once I'm done setting it up, you really won't notice a difference on your day to day activities since you do everything on Firefox and Chrome and I'll have it set up to look and feel as close to what you currently have as I possibly can. I'll even teach you how to use if for free and give you free tech support. I can have everything done and have you up and running in less than four hours. If you like, I can bring over a live disk and you can try it out on your computer and it won't change or effect anything so there's no risk to try."

"No thanks. Windows 7 (with 312 pending updates and the monitor at the wrong resolution*) is just fine for me."

That's what MS is going to have to deal with to get people off of XP and 7. People who simply don't care how outdated and how vulnerable they are because they just do not understand how rapidly software evolves. People who don't care because it just works so why change. People who won't change anything because they are just too damn stubborn.

*They use 4:3 screens and they set 16:9 resolutions....for three different computer setups now....because they think that's how it's supposed to look....fucking annoying when I have to work on them.

Oh well, I got a free 1440x900 monitor from them because "it didn't display stuff right"....it does....I'm using it right now....

[Scellow]

What a surprise, Proton has no effect !!!

I told you all, Proton is a mistake, it should have stayed a comunity project

Valve should have focused on stuff like: 30% tax if you only target 1 platform, and -5% per adittional platform

Money is the only way to force developpers who don't care about linux, to finally care about it

[HenryM]

Would be interesting to see more detailed stats, like which games are played for how long on each platform...

[dungeon]

Does it please you if someone suffers, dungeon?

I think that currently Microsoft suffers the most, as they need to cut Windows 7 in less than an year, but these numbers does not look promising as is still 1/3 used worlwide

Their planned obsolence division must do something about it, like it or not They cut off already Windows XP support back in 2014. at about 1/5 worldwide usage, so if they could dimminish that 1/3 to 1/5 in less then an year that would be huge success so that people suffer less.

You got issues, dude. Poor spirit, above all. Grow up.

I think that my spirit is near golden right, while mine soul is brave Companies do that all the time, using multitude of different methods and i am waitng to see which method will be applied from now on the most as dead end of Windows 7 is really really really near, but numbers does not look promising - so it might be some surprise as happy as happy new year next year, what do you think about it

[Mez']

I don't think it ever came down to 0.3 %.

We all know these figures aren't very accurate (it's been discussed enough) and I don't think there's so much variance from one month to the next or to the same month the year after. If it is now at 0.82%, it probably means that it is still at 1.2, 1.5%, as it always was, and the trend will eventually come back to normal at some point.