Steam's Linux Marketshare Ticks Up Ever So Slightly For May

[Citan]

Again a dozen of lame and stupid excuses as to why the Linux market share in gaming (and overall on the desktop) is non-existent and no one sees an elephant in the room: Linux as a desktop OS sucks ass. You just cannot expect people to move to an OS with so many wonderful features and quirks.

Say, you want to have something very simple akin to Windows file sharing in Linux. How would you do that? There are many other petty little things which might look insignificant but people depend their lives on them.

Linux does not suck ass. It's in fact leagues above Windows in many, MANY desktop-related areas, in addition to being still 2 eons early on server-side.
Most of the problems one can encounter with Linux come from bad drivers, something you can avoid by accepting to check before buying and buy 1-year old min hardware (I'd even say 2-year to be sure, some things like network chips are very late in Linux support).

Among the numerous things Linux did right from the start (or at worst before Windows)...
- userspace privacy (Linux? At least as ancient as I started using it, which is 1998. Windows? Still not right in Windows 10 any user can access other user's files)
- userspace configurability (Linux? Some DE were great from start, others have been up and down, but all always gave the basics: predetermined color schemes, keyboard shortcuts, window behaviour and appearance. Windows? Nothing besides "static/rotating wallpaper" until 7, then a few essentials came in -notably police size, but on limited choice-).
- efficient filesystem Linux? Same. Windows? Finally something decent since Windows 8.
- hard drive growth support: Linux? Never needed anything special to use even the biggest drive of any era. Windows? Let's remember the joke of XP that didn't support decent size until SP1.
- networking Windows? A first-rate PITA until somewhere between Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Linux? Extremely robust since ages, and auto-discovery and configuration has been around for at least ten years now, far more reliably than Windows.
- system security: Windows? Let's just laugh together and forget everything before Windows 8. Linux? Unless you make obvious mistakes, no problem. Even if you're a noob, as long as you don't use sudo for anything random you have a much better default protection.
- userspace efficiency: while now it's easy enough to get a proper multi-monitor setup, right until 2015 for most people it was still very expensive unless enterprise investment. This made virtual desktop very useful, something around in Linux since at least 2000. Windows? Came in last year. o/
- userspace reliability: unless you bar basic guidelines, you put home in a separate partition -> easy to save, more resilient against bugs/viruses/hard drive use, easy to migrate to another system (or even share between systems although that use-case is requiring some care). Moreover, all hidden data from programs is much better organized under Linux: while I'd love to have every application data wrapped up under one "root" folder, at least it's all in the same .applicationname. Compare to Windows, where many applications have to split data between Local, LocalRoaming and such...
- system installation: unless you bought very recent or exotic material, since 2000 at least, when you finish the installation processus with interface, you got a FULL, FUNCTIONAL system (network, audio, video, drives, peripherals). Windows? Right until 7, you had to keep external source for video, or network, or audio. In XP era, it was often all three, with peripherals being yet another matter.
- system update: Linux? Apart from some distros like Ubuntu which recently dropped all logic (all packages are "mandatory" to update, yeah right), since decades, YOU choose WHAT to install and update, WHEN to do so, and IT IS DONE SILENTLY. When there are dependencies, it's clearly indicated. Windows? Since 95 and still now, you get silent downloads that don't even tell what space they use, silent installations or annoying popups every 15mn (seems it's finally gone in 10), and more importantly installations that BLOCK SHUTDOWN, DELAY STARTUP, WITH NO WARNING BEFOREHAND (sooooo nice when you're using a laptop and need to conserve battery, show something to a client in a hurry or instead shutdown quick because you're on the move).
- software installation: Linux? Just open app manager, click, maybe give password, wait 20 seconds, it's done, application is ready to use and hooked in all right places. Windows? Up until 10 (and Store is still a mess in many aspects), it was "go try and find a website to dowload an installer, hope it's not rigged with viruses, stay on screen to click the multiple times required, sometimes force-restart your system, before having any chance to use that app".
- out-of-the-box functional perimeter: although this is actually something Microsoft could not tackle without risking another trial for over-dominancy, fact stays that with Linux under Gnome and much more under KDE, you have many great utilities to alleviate daily "chores", whether you're doing development or just "plain desktop work".

to 90% of you her:. Stop sniveling, you make us all look bad, and even worse, desperate. If its not clear now, it should be clear that Linux is not a gaming OS, and never will be. In fact it can't be. And if they made it into one, you'd fucking hate it because it'd just be the new windows.

The reason isn't technical. Linux on the GUI in 2019 is plenty powerful. It will do whatever windows 10 does, and sometimes more, but most people on this forums are missing out because they don't like using any of the Poettering tools, or the very inclusive full featured heavyweight desktops that intergrate things like filesharing through samba on FUSE.

Gamers and Games add nothing to Linux. Its very much a different mindset and if you talk to gamers and game developers you'd figure this out real quick. They care more about anti-cheat, than software Freedom. They don't have bug trackers, they have youtube channels where they make death threats. These people will not be contributing code back upstream and will not be filing bug reports.

You should stop trying to generalize and reduce populations from a very small, personal and biaised point of view.
Not all Gamers love Linux, yeah no doubt about that. All Gamers being morons and self-centered a*****? That's an awfully daring assertion. Every day around me and on the web proves you wrong.

[skeevy420]

No workaround needed for the 100+ native linux steam games I have in my library, and the mods work exactly the same way as on Windows...

Funny thing with native titles, it is ALMOST as if they make the issues of running non-native titles go away ;-)

And some mods, instead of being in "steam number directory that includes the game data on Windows", they go into "steam number directory with linux compat stuff/some folder with game data that was up one level on Windows" like with Dirt Rally.

[skeevy420]

Linux gaming is still pretty clunky, lots of workarounds needed, plenty of developers poorly supporting the platform (too many to list), MANY gaming centric features are half arsed implemented or don't work at all (freesync, modding tool support, many other trinkets).

Unfortunately Linux still has a absolutely HUGE hill to climb to get close to the flexibility and smoothness of gaming under Windows.
That's not to say select titles don't work flawlessly in 'most' respects, its just that's not what gamers want, they want it all, not just a privileged selection of vanilla titles.

That's true of Windows, at least the overall user experience. Can't even change font sizes anymore without 3rd party workaround programs or regedit, every telemetry setting changed in the installer wasn't respected (seriously, I installed 10 yesterday), the "show desktop" button can't be moved...the latest Windows 10 is worse than Gnome...

Personally, I'd rather dick around trying to get a game or two to work over dicking around trying to get the actual OS to work. I've done nothing but fight with 10 since installing it just so I can play some games and compare them with how they play on Linux.

Oh, and I got my very first GPU crash that required a reboot to fix with my 580 last night. February-June=no Linux GPU crash with extreme undervolts. 5 hours on Windows 10 with the stock GPU settings, finally got everything installed to play games, and the fucker crashes 45 seconds into Himmelstein doing the same graphical glitches my 260x did when it was pushed to the limits and overheating...Looks like I need to apply my Linux undervolts on Windows...hopefully it'll make Hitman 2 play better on Windows 10 because, on my system, it's better and smoother on Linux with DXVK over Windows 10 and DX12 or DX11 (but that could just as easily be related to thermal throttling like it was on Linux before undervolting my GPU so I'll know more once I'm able to apply the same values for a fairer comparison).

IMHO, Windows 10 is not what gamers want. Various programs on Windows are.

[Weasel]

can you please join and troll another community?

Yeah, now I know for sure you just call out anyone who disagrees with your holy mantra/religion as a troll because you can't stand their viewpoints or even facts in this case.

I agree with him, the linux desktop sucks and that is a fact. Of course, you ask why I do I use it then? Maybe because Windows 10 dropped the ball and doesn't even have a desktop anymore, but a mobile frankenstein of a... thing. And hey, admitting the problems and why it sucks is the first step, actually fixing it is the second.

[carewolf]

Linux gaming is still pretty clunky, lots of workarounds needed, plenty of developers poorly supporting the platform (too many to list), MANY gaming centric features are half arsed implemented or don't work at all (freesync, modding tool support, many other trinkets).

No workaround needed for the 100+ native linux steam games I have in my library, and the mods work exactly the same way as on Windows...

Funny thing with native titles, it is ALMOST as if they make the issues of running non-native titles go away ;-)

[birdie]

can you please join and troll another community?
nobody is forcing you to use the sucking ass OS and with every of your posts you are constantly annoying other forum users. This is a community for Linux enthusiasts and, believe of not, we all know that in some areas Linux might (still) "sucks" ass, we (as enthusiasts) don't care of simply get over it (many work for free to improve the status quo). I'm tired of feeding the (you) troll but if you're so frustrated just enjoy what you've got (Mac, Win, Whatever OS). Your constant whinging is not a contribution

Constant whining (not sure what you meant by "whinging")? It's just you.

Not only I have been using Linux for over 20 years, I've helped resolve over 200 bugs in it (reported them and wrote patches), including bugs in the Linux kernel.

So, please kindly fuck off. You're one pathetic troll just like most of you suckers in these forums: you keep saying Linux is great, Linux is good while doing nothing for it and actively sabotaging it by saying it could work as a replacement for Windows. When people then finally test it and run away from it due to hundreds of serious issues, you keep mum and blame everything else in the world other than Linux (developers/companies).

[rabcor]

You mention there haven't been any linux exclusives in the article, I think that is a good thing. Exclusives go against everything Linux stands for. Linux exclusives should never happen, at least not for major titles (it's different for hobby projects where the dev might just not be interested in making a windows version no matter how little effort it would take to do so)

Exclusives are an anti-consumer business practice and ideally should be entirely abolished, they're a lot worse of a gimmick than DRM ever was.

[theriddick]

Linux gaming is still pretty clunky, lots of workarounds needed, plenty of developers poorly supporting the platform (too many to list), MANY gaming centric features are half arsed implemented or don't work at all (freesync, modding tool support, many other trinkets).

Unfortunately Linux still has a absolutely HUGE hill to climb to get close to the flexibility and smoothness of gaming under Windows.
That's not to say select titles don't work flawlessly in 'most' respects, its just that's not what gamers want, they want it all, not just a privileged selection of vanilla titles.

[GI_Jack]

to 90% of you her:. Stop sniveling, you make us all look bad, and even worse, desperate. If its not clear now, it should be clear that Linux is not a gaming OS, and never will be. In fact it can't be. And if they made it into one, you'd fucking hate it because it'd just be the new windows.

The reason isn't technical. Linux on the GUI in 2019 is plenty powerful. It will do whatever windows 10 does, and sometimes more, but most people on this forums are missing out because they don't like using any of the Poettering tools, or the very inclusive full featured heavyweight desktops that intergrate things like filesharing through samba on FUSE.

Gamers and Games add nothing to Linux. Its very much a different mindset and if you talk to gamers and game developers you'd figure this out real quick. They care more about anti-cheat, than software Freedom. They don't have bug trackers, they have youtube channels where they make death threats. These people will not be contributing code back upstream and will not be filing bug reports.

Gamers don't like Linux because it doesn't "Just Work", doing any bit of real work is beneath them. They are the new Lowest Common Denominator, and the devs that cater to them extract every last cent they can get out of them, and see them as little more than marks. There is none of the community. There is none of the spirit. I for one am GLAD that the marketshare for linux games is under %1, and I hope it stays that way. Gamers will introduce nothing but headaches into this community and will give nothing back. They will not respect our values. On top of being stupid, and lazy, they also tend to be angry and wrathful, and love making threats and starting harassment campaigns. If we had problems now.

In addition, Gamers have a hard time parsing that computers exist outside of video games. Linux is already the go to OS on every other market segment besides desktops, but for some reason, they all think this is some peasant shit and we should be grateful for whatever craps they take on us. Fuck no.

As far as corporate support. We already have it server side. If we really wanted more support for Linux GUIs I suggest expanding into the corporate desktop which makes far more sense than games. Most of the target companies would already have Linux servers and would already be familiar. Given that GNOME and most of the desktop software is written by redhat, it would make sense to go for Red Hat desktops as well. Stop thinking about the GUI as "Linux Desktop" and start thinking of it more as a "Linux Workstation" which makes more sense considering its UNIX background.

"Year of the Linux Workstation" sounds better. We are smart people we cater to a higher clientele that appreciates a powerful OS, especially one that scales up pretty well, and targets audiences that would pay for professionals to maintain it with money they have doing highly skilled labor.

Linux workstations are for coders, hackers, programmers, engineers, artists and artisans, privacy advocates, enthusiasts, designers. This is a tool for do-ers and builders. Most of all its a tool for professionals who understand a fine tool needs a fine person who might take a minuet to learn how it works. Its not for gamers. Its not for consumers.

Perhaps after it catches on in the professional market someone might make a dumbed down version for the consumer(including gamer) masses.

[anarki2]

And so the influx of delusional comments continues 😄