Steam On Linux Marketshare Hits New Multi-Year High, AMD Powering ~40% Of Linux Gaming Systems

[blackiwid]

Woah, Linux is up to 1.13% from 1.02% in September while Windows is down to 96.32%?

At a .11% increase per month, it would only take Linux 422 years before it over takes Windows as the preferred OS for gaming via Steam.

Rager at my place when that happens.

It's per month not per year, so that would be >1% per year 422 years * 1 = 422% so no even with your stupid assumption that a 10% linux would keep growing only 0.1% which is absurd thesis even then it only would take around 40 years.

If it would reach 10% then all adobes and so on could not ignore it, would support it 100% of games would work more or less perfect, and many shops would sell computers with linux preinstalled, why should then users take the inferiour Windows OS over linux?

[spykes]

And what's exactly good about this "achievement"? Will it propel Linux on the desktop? It will not - absolute most Steam Deck users wouldn't care less that it runs Linux under the hood, just like close to 99.99% of Android users don't know that they run the Linux kernel.

I totally disagree.
Your comparison with Android is invalid since Android has nothing to do with the Linux Desktop while SteamOS is just a re-branded desktop Linux distribution.
All Valve did brought a lot to the Linux Desktop already and it's going to get even better if the Steam Deck is a success.

[MVinhas]

Nowadays, games just work on Linux. Therefore, it's easier to retain more users.

I was one of those users who went back and forth to Windows because of the games, but now I don't have any reason to do so.

[Sonadow]

Maybe because china don't enforce copyright, so companies can copy windows for free while in the west they can't? Because in china this gaming numbers come less from personal computers but from this gaming rooms or what do you call them? Internet cafes?

Try staying in China for a month before spouting garbage.

[xunil]

I just searched for the "shutdown bug" you mention; I can find a random restart issue, but nothing explicitly shutdown related...? Yesterday, my G513QY decided to start taking 90+ seconds to shut down - is that what you mean? It had been perfectly fine the day before (and the week prior).


edit: And now I'm even more confused. Just shut down (public holiday tomorrow so not staying until late-late as I would often do) and it shut down in maybe 5 seconds.

No, I actually haven't seen anything like that happening on my G513QY.

The "Shutdown" issue I was referring to was the one mentioned in the Phoronix review some time ago of the G513QY where I believe, in Ubuntu at the time of the article, clicking on any of the keyboard keys essentially sent shutdown signals, turning the laptop off.
-Now that really sounds horrible!

Most of the times I do believe these issues are more related to the ASUS choice of peripherals , the computer is of course only marketed and supported as a "gaming laptop" exclusively for the Windows platform.

I use mine for both work and private stuff, running Solus Budgie, so I have turned off all of the flashy lights and RGB and that disturbing ASUS ROG boot-up sound to make it less "unprofessional" and it works perfectly for my use case.

Although I have experienced some strange behavior with the Suspend/Hibernation where the computer did not want to wake up afterwards even when pushing the Power-ON button.
(It's not like Linux is unique in having iffy ACPI/Suspend/Hibernation drivers as Windows does this too to some extent and that is actually a supported platform, which is generally not the case for these laptops and Linux as a platform.)

-Then again it might have just been a user error as the computer was "docked" at that particular moment with the lid closed (separate monitor connected) and I later discovered that you actually have to lift/tilt the lid up to a sort of "viewable" angle (else it just won't start or care about any key-inputs it seems) as opposed to what I tried by lifting the lid just enough to push the Power-ON button.
Granted, the latter did not work, but as soon as I did the former and tilted the lid to a viewable angle it booted just fine again.
-So probably som kind of lid HW-switch to avoid unintentional key triggering?

Yeah, regarding the speed of shutdown on newer HW, the general speed of SSD's today sort of removes the need for Hibernation in many ways, at least for my use cases. So I rahter opt for turning it off as the boot up time is very fast.

[Mez']

I've done my best to help new comers moving over to Linux; many are gamers who just want the OS to get out of the way so they can game.
Unfortunately many (inc Linus) stumble quite badly as they hit problems that shouldn't happen; many developers under Linux claim nobody will have this or that problem, but many do.
I think Linux desktop usage is still not quite there, fragmented and half implemented features hurt its growth.
I can't give specific issues since they are so numerous and obviously many can be worked around, but that is beside the point.
General desktop users DO NOT LIKE WORK AROUND'S, they expect things to just work or be quickly fixed regardless of how unrealistic that is for open-source projects.

While I agree with your general point, I think there's a bit more to it.
I believe the initial part is the main obstacle. It's not easy to go through the initial 3-5 years. As a beginner, you don't know how to set things up, and you're still trying to replicate the Windows workflow. After some years and maybe some mistakes, you become comfortable enough to prevent problems, or to spot them earlier and take action before it occurs, and you also think the Linux way in your habits or even in the hardware (you integrate components support in your search when buying a new device).
And after a few years, you've changed your workflow and habits in such a way that you don't run into many problems and it "just works".
That learning curve is enough to lose many along the way before it's pathed.
Do we want it or not, though. There's obviously the question of just working for average Joes and making it easier for them but if we need to design everything to make their life easier it will end up looking like the windows workflow, so there's a bit of a mind reformatting necessary if we want to keep it on a different level. Hence the learning curve and the fallen ones in the process. The eternal circle.
That's exactly why I don't like snaps/flatpacks, it's Linux (as a whole) replicating the Windows workflow (to accommodate beginners among other reasons) instead of relying on its own strengths.

[Mez']

Woah, Linux is up to 1.13% from 1.02% in September while Windows is down to 96.32%?

At a .11% increase per month, it would only take Linux 422 years before it over takes Windows as the preferred OS for gaming via Steam.

Rager at my place when that happens.

You'll get all cryogenic on us when that happens.

More seriously, whether it's a steady non-proportional 0.11 increase (1.13-1.02), or an 11% increase (1.13/1.02), you got your projected calculation wrong.

[oiaohm]

Specific? Look no further.

Really you need to stop quoting that list. As it getting more and more incorrect. Like in face one no task manager has the person not opened up kde system monitor/ksysguard or gnome system monitor guess what they are a task managers. Yes the KDE one is currently more advanced with cgroup integration. Linux these days has more than 1.

Lets just take one piece from that site you love quoting birdie.
Linux lacks an alternative to Windows Task Manager which shows not only CPU/RAM load, but also Network/IO/GPU load and temperature for the latter. There's no way to ascertain the CPU/RAM/IO load of processes' groups, e.g. web browsers like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

Lets say we compare to Ksysguard current windows task manager. Yes Ksysguard has Network, IO, CPU and RAM in groups. Yes Ksysguard has the programs only option that will show all the Mozilla Firefox processes as 1 item and all the Google Chrome processes as 1 item with the CPU/RAM/IO/Network that the program is using. GPU load and temperature is outside ksysguard. The difference is no where near as big as this make out any more. Any ideas how long that second sentence in the block of text has been wrong yes 5 years now. Yes that page claims they updated in 2021 but sorry there is a lot things on that page that should have been either rewrite or delete 5 years ago.

https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kio/-/merge_requests/143

I really wish bug 143 was done because the dolphin accessing different users files and folders on system such as root folders would in fact work.

Linux is not without is bugs. We do have a problem with sites providing invalid information. Like Linus with his recent Linux trail was not told about bug 143. Yes its a known problem with dolphin with a long term fix. Yes it turned out to be lot more complex to fix to allow a file manager to run without privilege than first expected. Long term this will be a major improvement to security. Short term is been a disruption.

[Mez']

And those "AMD Advantage" laptops (I'm looking at you, Asus G513QY) which have the most ridiculous issues in Linux. Press Any Key For Shutdown?!

Exactly what I was just talking about. Asus doesn't support Linux in any official capacity. Of course you'll run into problems in that case. Especially in the beginning before specific drivers are available or mainlined. I had an Asus for 9 years, and it took about 2-3 years before having it fully stable.

[Mez']

Yes I agree but that is an Ubuntu problem with I why I HATE that distro so much. Providing recent stable kernel updates should be opt-out, not opt-in.
Fedora does a way better job a general desktop distro for non-technical then ubuntu ever was.

It's not because you hate it that it's "shitty". It just doesn't work for you.