Steam On Linux In February Still Residing Below 1%

[Mez']

I think we just need to accept that this is how it will remain as long as it is more convenient to run a single-boot Windows or MacOS system than to run a system with Linux on it, whether in a single-boot or dual-boot configuration. Many organisations (including the one I work for) are tied hand-and-foot to Microsoft solutions. Office, Teams -- it simply runs much better on Windows and Mac. This pushes people to have one of those operating systems installed on any computers they use for work, and not many are prepared to put up with the limitations of running it in a virtual machine.

How is a Windows single-boot more convenient than a Linux single-boot or distros dual-boot (Windows excluded)?
All my personal machines have Linux (dual-boot Manjaro-Ubuntu) and I fail to see how it is less convenient than the Windows corporate laptop I'm working with. I just don't see it.
Also, except for a couple of Humble Bundles with their mix of games, I only browse and buy native Linux games. No Proton, no Windows. And it just works. Plain simple.

I can even use a common partition between distros to install games so that I'll get back my state of play without doing anything when booting with the other.

It's crazy convenient.

Teams work well on Linux.
I agree with you that people are more familiar with MSO and would want it if possible. But fortunately for me, as this is a personal preference and doesn't change your point, I have always preferred OOo/LO to MSO. So, when given a choice, if I have a complex text document to write or a wine cellar spreadsheet to maintain I will do it on a personal computer with LO even though I have access to MSO.

I've managed for 12-15 years (depending on the computer) without using Windows at home, and my IT-curiousness is pretty limited. Convenience also (but not only) comes from old habits.
Once you let go of the comparison with Windows, you can freely enjoy Linux. Which of course doesn't mean it's perfect. We all know it isn't.

[roliverio]

IOW gaming on Linux just like Linux on the desktop remains an oddity and I see zero reasons for that changing any time soon unless Linux distros decide to work out a common base system akin to LSB which has long been abandoned.

The LSB was mostly DOA, i myself attribute this to:

1) It mandated an specific package management tool, which not all distros were willing to adopt (and even if they were willing, they didn't have the resources to do the transition)
2) Significantly broke any rolling-release approach for any distro with this model.
3) Forced distros to keep very old libraries for aging software with all the security implications this may have had. (nonwhitstanding the maintenance of these libraries)
4) Would have caused slowdowns in other areas of improvement, maybe one of the better examples of this is Vulkan, that with almost a quarter of the age that OpenGL has it has gained a significant foothold and provides a much cleaner way to do advanced graphics in a more OS-agnostic approach.

Of course, this is my opinion, i'm sure that there are a lot of more reasons for this, or maybe not all of you agree with this and that's ok, i'm perfectly happy gaming on my linux systems and working with them exclusively for almost 15 years now.

[pmorph]

"the upper sub-1% space"

[birdie]

The LSB was mostly DOA, i myself attribute this to:

1) It mandated an specific package management tool, which not all distros were willing to adopt (and even if they were willing, they didn't have the resources to do the transition)
2) Significantly broke any rolling-release approach for any distro with this model.
3) Forced distros to keep very old libraries for aging software with all the security implications this may have had. (nonwhitstanding the maintenance of these libraries)
4) Would have caused slowdowns in other areas of improvement, maybe one of the better examples of this is Vulkan, that with almost a quarter of the age that OpenGL has it has gained a significant foothold and provides a much cleaner way to do advanced graphics in a more OS-agnostic approach.

Of course, this is my opinion, i'm sure that there are a lot of more reasons for this, or maybe not all of you agree with this and that's ok, i'm perfectly happy gaming on my linux systems and working with them exclusively for almost 15 years now.

RHEL goes against almost everything you've written (except the first point), it's basically the only enterprise-grade Linux distro, it works and it does everything which you say it either "bad", impossible, stops progress or slows down everything.

Also Windows and MacOS provide libraries with stable APIs and Microsoft/Apple fix security issues in them no problem. In short, I see no reasons why Linux can't achieve the same. All successful OSes to this day have all maintained stable APIs/ABIs. If Linux wants to become a contender for the desktop, it must provide stable APIs/ABIs as well. Period.

[qarium]

Also Windows and MacOS provide libraries with stable APIs and Microsoft/Apple fix security issues in them no problem. In short, I see no reasons why Linux can't achieve the same. All successful OSes to this day have all maintained stable APIs/ABIs. If Linux wants to become a contender for the desktop, it must provide stable APIs/ABIs as well. Period.

i thought thry agreed that this is not a good idea and instead do VM based technologies likie flatpak.

[totoz]

no wonder. there is no survey on linux. its a miracle that they report even that number

I got the survey today! I hadn't started steam for several weeks.

[Drol]

I have been using Steam on Linux for a long time and have never seen this research. Am I doing something wrong?

[Quackdoc]

Dont forget that anyone doing online games with anticheat are running in a windows VM anyway. or are actively forced to use windows in way or another. I dont think steam accounts for that very well

[BesiegedAce]

I feel like Valve is playing the long game and hedging against Apple and Microsoft by making sure there's an ecosystem they can quickly whip a console up with. I know they tried that once before, but it's still great insurance, and it greatly benefits us all.

Yeah, Steam on Linux + related projects is definitely being done at a loss, but is definitely a long-term insurance plan. Sure detractors will endlessly parrot the tired old "(less than) 1% marketshare", but the fact it's there at all, and the fact things are for the most part continually improving, is a pretty solid proof of concept that Valve can hang over Microsoft's head.

[Spacefish]

Yeah, Steam on Linux + related projects is definitely being done at a loss, but is definitely a long-term insurance plan. Sure detractors will endlessly parrot the tired old "(less than) 1% marketshare", but the fact it's there at all, and the fact things are for the most part continually improving, is a pretty solid proof of concept that Valve can hang over Microsoft's head.

I don´t think they loose money there. Compared to the sheer number of users of the platform with ~0,8% a few devs paychecks are payed easily.