Steam On Linux Use Increases - Moves Closer To 2%, AMD CPU Linux Use Hits 72%

[rmfx]

With the clear tradewar between usa vs china, the use of Linux will likely skyrocket in the years to come.
The years of Windows everywhere are over.
I think we will enter an era where Linux is not a nerdy low stat anymore.
Adding to that, Linux became much more attractive and solid regarding every day use when Windows and Mac didn’t do much progress for years.

[byteabit]

My understanding is that “triggered” surveys are not counted by Valve.

in over 10 years or more, i got the survey once

First wow. I think that I got more than 10 surveys in last 10 years and I'm not a person who changes hardware often. Just a number out of my head, so not accurate. I even had a year with 3 surveys on the same hardware. And with building a new PC last year, I got survey immediately with first run of Steam (or with second run, don't remember).

Secondly, why would Valve not count "triggered" surveys? And what do you mean by that at all? Surveys are usually random. Is there something that would trigger a survey? Which wold defeat the purpose of a random popup, as people could potentially exploit this and skew the numbers... or wait I just answered my own question why Valve should not count them. Lol! Ok, but do surveys actually get triggered? And if they don't count, why would Valve bother doing this?

[avis]

With the clear tradewar between usa vs china, the use of Linux will likely skyrocket in the years to come.
The years of Windows everywhere are over.
I think we will enter an era where Linux is not a nerdy low stat anymore.
Adding to that, Linux became much more attractive and solid regarding every day use when Windows and Mac didn’t do much progress for years.

I've been hearing this since Windows ME.

[TemplarGR]

I've been hearing this since Windows ME.

Linux wasn't ready back then. IT IS ready right now. That's the difference. Back in 1999, if Windows dissappeared from the market completely, PCs and PC gaming would have died. Because Linux wasn't ready to pick up the slack. These days it is. Any minor deficiencies could easily be fixed with a little more attention from more developers and companies. But 99% of a functioning desktop capable of pretty much anything a desktop/gaming PC should be able to do, are already there. It is just that most people are unwilling to switch without a major motivation. Most are not afraid of the spyware that is Windows 11 and are unwilling to learn a new OS. But eventually, the time will come. Windows cannot afford another ME moment, the moment they misstep again, they die.

[NeoMorpheus]

First wow. I think that I got more than 10 surveys in last 10 years and I'm not a person who changes hardware often. Just a number out of my head, so not accurate. I even had a year with 3 surveys on the same hardware. And with building a new PC last year, I got survey immediately with first run of Steam (or with second run, don't remember).

Here are some samples of people mentioning the same experience (after a quick search):

https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/w6uxgi/ive_never_received_the_steam_hardware_survey/

Secondly, why would Valve not count "triggered" surveys? And what do you mean by that at all?

Manually triggering the survey, here is another sample for winblows:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/394207/how-to-make-your-pc-take-the-steam-hardware-survey.html

And for Linux plus some interesting conversations about it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/7ail87/howto_get_access_to_the_steam_hardware_survey/

Surveys are usually random. Is there something that would trigger a survey? Which wold defeat the purpose of a random popup, as people could potentially exploit this and skew the numbers...

I will assume that they would be smart enough to be able to filter duplicates.

Every system can be properly identified plus attached to your profile.

They would know that you sent 10 surveys one after the other...

or wait I just answered my own question why Valve should not count them. Lol!

Didnt thought much about your snarky response.

k, but do surveys actually get triggered? And if they don't count, why would Valve bother doing this?

See above and already explained.

[byteabit]

But 99% of a functioning desktop capable of pretty much anything a desktop/gaming PC

That's probably a myth and over simplification. The reality is, that every person has different needs and use only a subset of what a computer can do, therefore this subset has a much higher importance than anything that is not needed. Most Windows users aren't professionals and most humans use smartphone for what a PC was there back in the days. Therefore if only one of the functionalities are missing or degraded using Linux, its a huge waste of time and energy. Let's stay on the ground and look at gaming. If only one of the favorite games does not work in Linux (let's say Fortnite), which is probably only 0.0001% (I know random number) of all PC games, then it does not matter that 99.9991% of games work. It simply does not matter for that person. And there are lot of these things. Every person will find something like that, unless it is just web browsing, in which case a PC is not even needed.

My point is, for most people it does not matter how much percentage an operating is doing stuff, if it does not the exact thing a person need (or want).

[vancha]

I'm not sure what to think of the steam user survey anymore. Whenever things finally get up to a higher number, like 3 percent (which takes years), the next report will have it drop down a full percent, only to take months and months just to get to the same marketshare it had already reached a previous time. I can't personally get excited about 2%, or 3.. cause we've already been there once.
This doesn't show growth, just continuous regression. There must be a more accurate way to gauge market share than the way steam does it no?

[byteabit]

There must be a more accurate way to gauge market share than the way steam does it no?

There should be, because every user of Steam is already connected to Steam and Valve should know who is playing on what operating system. I don't think the argument to protect user privacy by not collecting information makes sense on such a platform. But maybe it does. The survey is not forced and Valve can always state they don't collect all the hardware information. I don't know what information Steam collects about their users, but it cannot be everything, otherwise a Steam survey wouldn't make sense.

The survey does not contain any user identifiable data and cannot be connected to any user. I prefer this over automatically collecting everything from every user. There are more accurate ways, but are they the best way?

[avis]

Linux wasn't ready back then. IT IS ready right now. That's the difference. Back in 1999, if Windows dissappeared from the market completely, PCs and PC gaming would have died. Because Linux wasn't ready to pick up the slack. These days it is. Any minor deficiencies could easily be fixed with a little more attention from more developers and companies. But 99% of a functioning desktop capable of pretty much anything a desktop/gaming PC should be able to do, are already there. It is just that most people are unwilling to switch without a major motivation. Most are not afraid of the spyware that is Windows 11 and are unwilling to learn a new OS. But eventually, the time will come. Windows cannot afford another ME moment, the moment they misstep again, they die.

I wasn't ready back then, it's not ready now. Back then we had 3DO which released natives games which worked. Nowadays you have to deal with layers of compatibility which are not guaranteed to work.

If Windows 11 is "spyware", sure there must be thousands if not millions of cases of Windows being used for espionage and siphoning data off. Where can I read about them? Nothing? 2 billion users and no documented cases? You, see, you are parroting a ridiculous myth of your own making thinking other people are equally obsessed with it. They are not. Windows continues to be miles better than Linux.

Linux offers near zero benefits over Windows other than better "privacy" (lies, Linux users can be tracked a lot easier) and better "security" (lies, just check the front page of this website).

At the same time, what Linux doesn't offer:

• Long term backward and forward compatibility
• Stability
• Rich APIs
• Support for many modern HW and SW features such as HDR, VRR, DLSS, FSR, XeSS, etc.
• Very poor graphics features (check AMD/NVIDIA graphics control panels)
• Very poor/incomplete HW monitoring
• Kernel level anticheats (you can hate them all you want but games using them have an order of magnitude fewer cheaters)
• Powerful tools for overclocking and undervolting (Linux has some but they are extremely basic and limited)
• DCI-P3 monitors support - I now have two such devices and both work horribly under Linux, both Xorg and Wayland

Why would the average Joe abandon perfectly working Windows and start using Linux?

[rcurious]

I wasn't ready back then, it's not ready now. Back then we had 3DO which released natives games which worked. Nowadays you have to deal with layers of compatibility which are not guaranteed to work.

If Windows 11 is "spyware", sure there must be thousands if not millions of cases of Windows being used for espionage and siphoning data off. Where can I read about them? Nothing? 2 billion users and no documented cases? You, see, you are parroting a ridiculous myth of your own making thinking other people are equally obsessed with it. They are not. Windows continues to be miles better than Linux.

Linux offers near zero benefits over Windows other than better "privacy" (lies, Linux users can be tracked a lot easier) and better "security" (lies, just check the front page of this website).

At the same time, what Linux doesn't offer:

• Long term backward and forward compatibility
• Stability
• Rich APIs
• Support for many modern HW and SW features such as HDR, VRR, DLSS, FSR, XeSS, etc.
• Very poor graphics features (check AMD/NVIDIA graphics control panels)
• Very poor/incomplete HW monitoring
• Kernel level anticheats (you can hate them all you want but games using them have an order of magnitude fewer cheaters)
• Powerful tools for overclocking and undervolting (Linux has some but they are extremely basic and limited)
• DCI-P3 monitors support - I now have two such devices and both work horribly under Linux, both Xorg and Wayland

Why would the average Joe abandon perfectly working Windows and start using Linux?

I don't think average Joe care about these things. Average Joe browse web, gmail, play videos, music and office software. And game. If every computer was sold with KDE linux, wine, graphics drivers installed and intuitive set up for games - that's enough. Linux must be with beautiful GUI and easy, intuitive to maintain.