Steam Linux Usage Reportedly Ticks Up To 0.8% For August

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Steam Linux Usage Reportedly Ticks Up To 0.8% For August

Due to the US Labor Day holiday, Valve was slow in updating their monthly figures for their controversial Steam Survey of hardware/software data by polled users. At least for their initial batch of August numbers they are reporting a small increase in the Linux gaming population...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...or-August-2019

[Kayote]

The problem with WINE / Proton / etc, which too many people constantly refuse to acknowledge, is that it's simply not good enough to have even MOST of your games work in it. People being able to switch to it is an all or nothing deal, and when WINE's track record for AAA titles with sales in the tens of millions is as poor as it is, that's just not going to happen.

To take an easy example: anything on Bethesda's current engine. (Blame the game developers all you want if that makes you feel better about it, but it doesn't change the outcome). Fallout 4 sold *12 million* copies on day one alone... in 2015. And it's still rated *Garbage* on WINE, 4 years later. So it's great for you if all YOUR games work in WINE, or you only play Linux-native titles. But saying things like "90% of the top 100 games work in Proton now, so Linux gaming is finally here!" is just hopelessly false, regardless of how much we would LIKE it to be true.
You can't just look at the math naively (or wilfully deceptively), because what that 90% (not the real number BTW, just convenient to illustrate the point) really means is that even someone with only a handful of games very rapidly reaches a point where they only have a single-digit percentage chance of being able to use WINE without having to dual-boot for at least one game - and as long as that number is non-zero, switching just isn't going to happen.

It doesn't help that the WINE devs' response to someone producing a DX compatibility layer vastly superior to theirs, by himself and in literally a tenth of the time WINE has had, was basically "He's doing it wrong, we have our own plan and ours will be better". History rather strongly contradicts that stance, and even if it is then given their track record most of us will be dead by the time they ever get there. :P

I'd LOVE to be able to drop Windows (especially with 7 now just months from EOL, and Spyware10 about to become the only option) but for all that even this current "still less than 1%" is genuinely a significant uptick proportionally, doing so just isn't viable for me the same as it isn't for more than a tiny fraction of gamers, even if they're aware of Linux in the first place. That "Anything less than ALL my games is no different to NONE of them" problem is why it's not going to get better than 1% for a very long time, even with the resources that Valve and the community are putting into it and the fact that the situation has actually improved greatly in the last year.

for what is worth I own 200 hundred games all of them run on linux, half of them are proton games. but yeah I agree if someone has like 6 thousands games and 20% or 30% don't run is a boomer.

[mozo]

Battlefields don't run.

All Battlefields are working.

[skeevy420]

There is not point, other than breaking some records probably

This man fingers seems flying faster than hummingbird i couldn't see them and i guess that is the only point, as no one could listen nor recognise notes anymore

I made the mistake of following a "Flight of the Bumblebee" who can play the fastest YouTube playlist once. While impressive, it's like people who speed run Mario 3 -- I feel like they should have moved on to another hobby 12 years ago.

[skeevy420]

But, yep, there's always that edge case. Battlefields don't run.

While I haven't bought one since 4, it runs on Linux with multiplayer just fine. Actually, its more like it did play well a year and a half ago the last time I played it.

[josh_walrath]

The problem with WINE / Proton / etc, which too many people constantly refuse to acknowledge, is that it's simply not good enough to have even MOST of your games work in it. People being able to switch to it is an all or nothing deal, and when WINE's track record for AAA titles with sales in the tens of millions is as poor as it is, that's just not going to happen.

I've had great luck with Proton. With desktop compositing turned off on KDE, Elite Dangerous runs at >144 FPS, something I would've guessed was impossible with an emulator's overhead for a relatively new and demanding game. With CrossOver or Lutris, Blizzard games run. Mass Effect games on Origin run.

But, yep, there's always that edge case. Battlefields don't run. Generally, multiplayer games (with their byzantine anti-cheat software) are hard to run on Linux, natively or otherwise. And even dealing Proton/Wine/etc. is something the average user doesn't want to deal with. Even the non-average user's in a shitty spot here -- I want to run games I already like in Wine or Proton. If there's a NEW game I want to try? Why would I potentially waste money on it if I don't have a guarantee that it works in Wine or Proton? I guess I'll wait A FEW YEARS.

But Linux is already perfect, what more do we want??? https://youtu.be/5IInvAwZo6U?t=1333 DD

[skeevy420]

If you are not game developer these are just funny numbers, nothing else

No one will target 300Hz monitors, but it is cool to have it so you can say gaming consoles and Stadia do just 30 or 60 fps and here on PC there is difference, man here we could fly free not a rule but quite possibly so why not

At least fortunately for the fun of course, we could continue to use buzzword 'unfortunately' xyz

And it's like "what's the point?" once those monitors get so fast. Insanely fast refresh rate or greater than 1600x900 resolution? Pick one because hardware doesn't allow for both with modern games. We're lucky to get greater than 4k60 on the best of hardware and 200hz might be possible at 1080p on that same setup.

That aside, freesync 20-300Hz monitors would be nice to have. We'd never have to pick between tearing or framerate limiting again.

[Weasel]

It solves the terribad linux "shared object of hell" and other protocol incompatibilities (I'm looking at you invalid dbus message), but it breaks on its own.

When Wine breaks something, it's not intentional like with the "shared object of hell" you mentioned, so there is a difference. The Windows API ecosystem is huge and full of quirks and Wine just doesn't have enough manpower, on top of the fact the maintainers are quite stubborn.

[Nille]

Nah, these numbers does not represent any nor AMD market share

Of course not overall (like the GNU/Linux Market share ), but its still impressive. And at its best its just another source for determine better numbers.

[Nille]

I think the rise in AMD Market share is more impressive. Over 2% on Linux and around 1% on Windows.