Steam Linux Usage Dropped Lower In October But With More Questionable Data

[Weasel]

How about put chinese into their own separate category so they don't infect statistics for the rest of the world that don't give a shit of their locked down regime?

[Sonadow]

How about put chinese into their own separate category so they don't infect statistics for the rest of the world that don't give a shit of their locked down regime?

How about you STFU about a country you have never ever visited and know absolutely jack shit about?

[sophisticles]

As the article alludes to, one of the biggest problems with statistical analysis is data validation, how trust worthy are the numbers and do they say what they seem to be saying.

Just so i understand, does this survey simply check to see what OS the Steam client is running on?

I am not that familiar with Steam, only having used it to try the RE4 demo, just to learn that neither of my systems is anywhere near fast enough to play it, even at low resolutions.

[sophisticles]

How about you STFU about a country you have never ever visited and know absolutely jack shit about?

In all fairness we know that they are a totalitarian regime, in theory communists with elements of capitalism mixed in.

We also know they have the great firewall of China and we do know of the internal political situation from dissidents that have fled China.

And we also know how China sees itself from statements by Xi Jinping, and China's actions on the South China Sea, and its actions and statements concerning Hong Kong and Taiwan.

So we do know quite a bit.

[highball]

Yep. typical Linux fan logic:

Steam survey results are always questionable unless there is a notable increase in Linux users. Then it's all rainbows and unicorns.

That just nonsense. Nobody thinks that. GamingOnLinux has a steam tracker https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/ and you can see they have been tracking the monthly Steam on Linux numbers; used to see the increase trend YOY. When there is a giant influx of new data then it throws off the trend line. Granted, the new Chinese users should have been getting tracked the whole time. If you look a the English only trend line you can see a more stable consistent growth change over time. I don't know what's happening at Valve or in China. It doesn't seem like it should be such an issue to have consistent data for the Chinese language folks. It's not as if they all just got computers yesterday.

To save everybody a click. The English only Linux percentage moved up to 4.1% for the Month of Oct.

[Veto]

The Flatpak version can be a lot harder to get things like mods and 3rd party accessories running since you have to install everything inside Flatpak. That's especially true with Windows games where you have to install stuff inside the Proton prefix, too. I got too annoyed with setting up 3rd party stuff to stick with the Flatpak version. I've read that some games have issues with the Flatpak version, but I didn't stick around long enough to find out. One upside to the Flatpak version is you can copy/paste its userdata to backup and restore your Steam account. If you do a lot of OS installs that can be handy.

I've read that the Snap version is in a similar state to the Flatpak version, only less games run on it.

Given the option, I'd go with the .deb version.

Thanks! That was exactly the kind of experience I was asking for .

I will keep on using the .deb version for a while then. But since it is so dependent on i386 libraries, I guess the Flatpak (or snap) version will be a requirement at some point...

/cheers

[Mez']

Not necessary, for a survey to be representative it needs to query a certain random number of the total, if I remember correctly.

Yes, it depends on the polling population size and distribution, and usually based on that we can calculate a standard deviation that will end up giving you the margin of error depending on the size of the polling population reported to total population. I'd need to look back into my econometrics classes, but I remember it was kind of hard to believe how little you need to poll to actually get a very accurate representation, if the assumptions are correct (on population distribution).
Making the sample bigger only reduces the standard deviation (with decreasing impact, hence it takes a lot of effort for little added value), hence the margin of error and increase the confidence level.

I'm not saying Steam is doing their surveys accurately, but I'm saying the fact that some never gets the survey is in no way an indicator of a flawed survey process.

[Veto]

That's funny you go completely off topic and say people should not talk about the news.

Yeah the steam numbers are the "linux" variant of astrology or laying out cards to see the future or even the present I goes sales rates of steam deck would be a more robust number to track than this fake numbers, of 1 PC in some chinese internet cafe that has 1000 steam accounts on it for some reason.

No need to read something into my question. Being a Ubuntu user and seeing the Ubuntu and the Flatpak (Freedesktop) versions are neck to neck in the statistics, it was an honest (and relevant) question! And I did not want to start yet another Flatpak/snap/.deb war.

Yet, you chose to go off topic yourself and reply to my question without any useful answer or information But have a nice day anyway...

[darkbasic]

You mean it can be gamed or it was just luck?

It can be very easily gamed and even if you don't it won't be a distributed statistical sample.
I mean I've submitted at least a dozen of Ryzen 7000 APUs in less than an hour...

[Weasel]

How about you STFU about a country you have never ever visited and know absolutely jack shit about?

Resident chinese spotted. I won't, because here we have free speech. Did that hit a nerve?