Steam Kicks Off 2020 With Linux Gaming At The Highest Point In A While

[aufkrawall]

Lets hope this is not statistical error, but some angry Windows 7 users have gone linux

In that case the Linux share will certainly drop down again.

[cusa123]

What burns me is that I have money to buy a good title but I want it native and steam practically does not have it. It is a misfortune that cyberpunk does not behave for linux and only for stadia.

[Mez']

All hail to us doubters of last month's figures! Cheers!

This demonstrates once more how random Steam surveys and figures are.
Some people will always come back saying that it's not because we don't get the survey often on Linux compared to Windows that the figures aren't reliable, or they won't even question radical month to month changes although above some logical extent and variation they are very unlikely. Some lack the minimum critical mind to see through these (sometimes very) random figures and they keep trusting the process with a naive faith.

Well, here's to them.

[Guest]

I hear this often from people that have never used Linux. I switched my brother and a 60 year old gentleman down the road in 2012, they still use Linux and haven't touched the terminal once. The most common thing I hear from Linux beginners is "How do I install this driver?". When I plug it in and it just works, they seem surprised and relieved, obviously never having used a Mac either.

If you're fine with the most basic use that's far from getting some new piece of hardware to work, and you're fine with a bloated distro, then it might be acceptable.

[liamdawe]

I've updated the GOL monthly tracker, for anyone who wants to see the history of it.

[CochainComplex]

Valve largely gave up on Linux.

It's in maintenance mode, face it.
The devs doing work is pocket money for Valve and imho not a sign that Valve is still commited.

Proton helps as a exit strategy.
There are next to none AAA games coming to Linux recently, so Proton helps to keep the platform on life support.
Not because Valve loves the platform but because they have to.
Just, for a moment, think what would happen, if they either shut it down it or let it rot completely.

If HL:Alyx won't natively be released on Linux (best day-1 or shortly after) this should be a clear hint of all that.
How can you be a Linux a strong Linux advocate, trying to convince partners, publishers and devs that Linux now became high priority and a 1-tier platform,
when a game that you release belongs to the most important franchise of you everyone is waiting for - and you don't have native Linux build?
Valve obviously tries hard to avoid any questions about the state of HL:Alyx + Linux.
The only article dealing with it was here on Phoronix.
Any news on that?

In my opinion everything was caused by the bad steam OS and boxes situation. The idea was great. But I guess the most people thought this is going to be a Game tuned OS. But benchmarks have shown that in the most cases it is just on par with stock distros and mostly not beeing near stock ubuntu which I guess is choosen often if someone plays games on Linux.

Linux gaming before DXVK was more like "accept -30 or -40% performance penalty". If they would at least come up with a fast Linux Distro it would have been fine for me (eg clear linux). But at the moment it is more like Steam Big Picturemode directly after login on top of a not so nice distro for gaming... This does not convince the casual win user and is even hard to digest for Linux fans like me. Maybe rebasing on Clear Linux with more platform specific builds could turn the tide (at least a bit).

[Nth_man]

I've updated the GOL monthly tracker, for anyone who wants to see the history of it.

Thank you, Liam.

[skeevy420]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/265930

Apparently Epic Games pulled into Rocket League's driveway with a dump truck full of money.

[Michael_S]

The reality is that the Linux desktop still is just not up to spec with what the average consumer wants (debate or deny this all you want, but you can't argue against it given the market share without invoking a ridiculous conspiracy theory, which unfortunately this forum is infamous for doing)

There's no conspiracy theory. Laptops and desktops come preinstalled with Windows (or macOS) unless you know to order Linux from the vendors that support it. The majority of casual PC users don't even know what Linux is. Schools have Microsoft Windows. Most businesses have Microsoft Windows. Google and Apple are using their money and resources to muscle in on schools, but Red Hat and Canonical haven't tried. Even if they wanted to try, they have just a tiny percentage of the resources to throw at the problem that Google, Microsoft, and Apple have and an even tinier percentage of brand recognition.

And honestly, as much as I would love for the local high school to show the kids LibreOffice Calc instead of Microsoft Excel, I am 100% certain any graduate that gets a white collar job that involves spreadsheets will be using Excel.

Linux on the desktop is awesome, it's been my only operating system for years. But for real market penetration it's fighting an uphill battle against opponents with literally hundreds of billions more dollars to throw at gaining market share. Linux will never win. (I'm not counting ChromeOS, Android, or anything else that uses a free software kernel and proprietary layers on top of it.)

[josh_walrath]

If HL:Alyx won't natively be released on Linux (best day-1 or shortly after) this should be a clear hint of all that.

Wouldn't it more be a clear hint that Linux doesn't support VR?

(I don't think it does; am I wrong?)